There
isn’t any need
to seek outside yourself.
Look inside, allow ideas and
methods and ways of perceiving to
dissolve, and you will see that
your original face and that
of all the buddhas are
one and the
same.
Wei wu Wei Ching, Chapter 49 / Revolution
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the highest good is like water
Be soft in your practice.
Think of the method as a fine
silvery stream, not a raging waterfall.
Follow the stream, have faith
in its course.
It will go its own way,
meandering here, trickling there.
It will find the grooves, the cracks, the crevices.
Just follow it. Never let it out of your sight.
It will take you.
Having left the Fifth Ancestral Teacher’s place, Hui Neng traveled south for two months, and had reached the Ta Yu Range. He was pursued by the monk Hui Ming, who was originally a general, accompanied by several hundred men, who wanted to seize the robe and bowl (emblematic of succession to the ancestral teachers).
Ming was the first to overtake him. The Sixth Ancestral Teacher threw down the robe and bowl on a rock and said, “This robe signifies faith: how can it be taken by force?” Ming tried to pick up the robe and bowl, but was unable to move them. At that point he said, “I have come for the Dharma, not for the robe.”
The Ancestral Teacher said, “Since you’ve come for the Dharma, you should put to rest all your motivations, and don’t give rise to a single thought, and I will explain for you.” After a silence, he said, “Without thinking of good, and without thinking of evil, at just such a time, which is your original face?”
At these words, Hui Ming was greatly enlightened. He also asked, “Besides the intimate words and meaning that struck home a moment ago, is there any further intimate message?”
The ancestral teacher said, “If it were said to you, it wouldn’t be intimate. If you turn around and reflect, what’s intimate is in you.”
Man seeks happiness in pleasure, in joy, but these are only shadows of happiness. The real happiness is in the heart of man. But man does not look for it. In order to find happiness, he seeks pleasure. Anything that is passing and anything that results in unhappiness is not happiness.
In reality very few in this world know what happiness means. Pleasure is the shadow of happiness, for pleasure depends upon things outside ourselves; happiness comes from within ourselves. Happiness belongs to the heart quality; pleasure to the outer world. The distance between pleasure and happiness is as vast as that between earth and heaven. As long as the heart is not tuned to its proper pitch one will not be happy. That inner smile which shows itself in a man’s expression, in his atmosphere, that belongs to happiness. If position were taken away and wealth were lost in the outer life, that inner happiness would not be taken away. And the smiling of the heart depends upon the tuning of the heart, the heart must be tuned to that pitch where it is living.
There are a thousand excuses for unhappiness that the reasoning mind will make. But is even one of these excuses ever entirely correct? Do you think that if these people gained their desires they would be happy? If they possessed all, would that suffice? No, they would still find some excuse for unhappiness; all these excuses are only like covers over a man’s eyes, for deep within is the yearning for the true happiness which none of these things can give. He who is really happy is happy everywhere, in a palace or in a cottage, in riches or in poverty, for he has discovered the fountain of happiness which is situated in his own heart. As long as a person has not found that fountain, nothing will give him real happiness.
If there is any source from where one can get the direction on how to act in life, it is to be found in one’s heart. The exercises of the Sufi help to get to the source where one can get the direction, the right direction, where there is a spark of the Spirit of Guidance. Those who care to be guided by the spirit, they are always guided, but those who know not whether such a spirit exists or does not exist, they wander through life as a wild horse in the woods, not knowing where it goes, why it runs, why it stands. It is a great pity to be thirsty and remain thirsty when the spring of fresh water is within one’s reach. There can be no loss so great in life as having the spark glittering in one’s heart and yet groping in the darkness through life.
The
great truth of zen
is possessed by everybody.
Look into your own being and seek
it not through others. Your own mind is
above all forms; it is free and quiet and sufficient;
it eternally stamps itself in your six senses and four elements.
In its light all is absorbed. Hush the dualism of subject and object,
forget both, transcend the intellect, sever yourself from
the understanding, and directly penetrate deep
into the identity of the buddha-mind;
outside of this there are
no realities.
…Put your
simple faith in this,
discipline yourself accordingly;
let your body and mind be turned into
an inanimate object of nature like a stone or
a piece of wood; when a state of perfect motionlessness
and unawareness is obtained all the signs of life will depart and
also every trace of limitation will vanish. Not a single idea will disturb
your consciousness, when lo! All of a sudden you will come to realize
the light abounding in full gladness. It is like coming across the
light in thick darkness; it is like receiving treasure in poverty.
The four elements and the five aggregates are no more
felt as burdens; so light, so easy, so free you are.
Your very existence has been delivered
from all limitations; you have
become open, light, and
transparent.
