do not even do this non-doing

on this date a buddha was born

 

A monk asked Chao Chou,

“Does a dog also have the Buddha nature, or not?”

Chao Chou replied, ‘Mu.’ This Mu is not the Mu of yes or no;

it is not the Mu of true nonexistence. Ultimately what is it?

To reach that place from where Chao Chou said Mu

one must straightaway lay down

the entire body.

 

Do not do anything

(good or bad) and do not even do this

not-doing; then straightaway one reaches that place

where there is no concern for external affairs, that vast

and peaceful place where there are absolutely

no obstructing thoughts.

 

There, all thoughts

of the past are extinguished,

all thoughts of the future do not arise,

and all present thoughts

are void.

 

Taego Pou

 

the calm light from the spirit

nothing in particular

 

Do not

do anything (good or bad)

and do not even do this not-doing;

then straightaway one reaches that place where

there is no concern for external affairs, that

vast and peaceful place where there

are absolutely no obstructing

thoughts.

 

There,

all thoughts of the past

are extinguished, all thoughts of

the future do not arise, and

all present thoughts

are void.

 

Nevertheless,

this void-ness is also not

to be maintained. This non-maintenance

(of the void) is also to be forgotten, and this forgetting

is also not to be legitimized; further, free your­self from this

non-legitimizing. At the time when even the idea of

getting free is not preserved, only the alert

yet calm light from the spirit will

appear prominently before

oneself.

 

T’aego Pou