tunneling into secret depths

the singular victo ngai

 
With greatest respect and reverence, I encourage all you superior seekers in the secret depths to devote yourselves to penetrating and clarifying the self as earnestly as you would put out a fire on the top of your head. I urge you to keep boring your way through as assiduously as you would seek a lost article of incalculable worth.

I enjoin you to regard the teachings left by the Buddha-patriarchs with the same spirit of hostility you would show toward a person who had murdered both your parents. Anyone who belongs to the school of Zen and does not engage in the doubting and introspection of koan must be considered a deadbeat rascal of the lowest kind, someone who would throw aside his greatest asset. As a teacher of the past said, “At the bottom of great doubt lies great enlightenment … From a full measure of doubt comes a full measure of enlightenment.”

Don’t think the commitments and pressing duties of secular life leave you no time to go about forming a ball of doubt. Don’t think your mind is so crowded with confused thoughts you are incapable of devoting yourself singlemindedly to Zen practice. Suppose a man was in a busy market place, pushing his way through the dense crowd, and some gold coins dropped out of his pocket into the dirt. Do you think he would just leave them there forget about them and continue on his way because of where he was?

Do you think someone would leave the gold pieces behind because he was in a crowded place or because the coins were lying in the dirt? Of course not. He would be down there frantically pushing and shoving with tears in his eyes trying to find them. His mind wouldn’t rest until he had recovered them. Yet what are a few pieces of gold when set against that priceless jewel found in the headdresses of kings — the way of inconceivable being that exists within your own mind? Could a jewel of such worth be attained easily, without effort?
 

Hakuin Ekaku

mas hakuin

 

light inside and dark outside

liu i-ming

 
People’s intellect and knowledge are like the light of a lamp. If that light is mistakenly used outside, in a contentious and aggressive manner, aiming for name and gain, scheming and conniving day and night, thinking a thousand thoughts, imagining ten thousand imaginings, chasing artificial objects and losing the original source, light on the outside but dark inside, this will go on until the body is injured and life is lost.

If people give up artificiality and return to the real, dismiss intellectuality and cleverness, consider essential life the one matter of importance, practice inner awareness, refine the self and master the mind, observe all things with detachment so all that exists is empty of absoluteness, are not moved by external things and are not influenced by sensory experiences, being light inside and dark outside, they can thereby aspire to wisdom and become enlightened.

Light that does not dazzle progresses to lofty illumination; therefore a classic says, “The great sage appears ignorant, the great adept seems inept.”
 

Liu I-Ming

awakening to the tao

hard copy

 

you are already realized

it is not handed on by written words

 

You are

already realized.

It is critical to understand this.

Enlightenment is less a matter of charging

forward to achieve something, and more

one of doing non-doing — of leaning

slightly back and silently

accepting its constant

presence.

 

Once you have

done this, go on practicing.

Without straining, continually pour the

emptiness of your being into the

emptiness of existence, and

drink what comes back:

emptiness.

 

Wei wu Wei Ching, Chapter 17

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open, light, and transparent

bruno bisang

 

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.

 

Yuanwu

zen letters