
Just don’t seek
from another or you’ll be far
estranged from the Way.
I now go on alone
Meeting it everywhere
It now is just what I am
I now am one with it.
You must comprehend
in this way to merge
with thusness.
we are all wanderers in the unknown

Just don’t seek
from another or you’ll be far
estranged from the Way.
I now go on alone
Meeting it everywhere
It now is just what I am
I now am one with it.
You must comprehend
in this way to merge
with thusness.
we are all wanderers in the unknown

were snowed in on Tortoise Mountain.
Day after day, Yantou slept while Xuefeng sat up
and meditated. On the third day, Yantou sat up
too and said, “Get some sleep. What do you
think you are — a roadside shrine?”
Xuefeng touched his chest and
said, “My heart isn’t at peace.
I can’t fool myself.”
Yantou grave a great yell.
“Don’t you know the family treasure doesn’t
come in through the gate?” he said. “Let the teaching
flow out from your own breast to cover
the sky and the earth.”
Xuefeng was suddenly enlightened
and cried out, “Today Tortoise Mountain
has finally awakened!”

The worthies of old
all had means of emancipating people.
What I teach people just requires you not to take on
the confusion of others. If you need to act,
then act, without any further
hesitation or doubt.
Don’t
seek a Buddha,
don’t seek a teaching,
don’t seek a community.
Don’t seek virtue, knowledge,
intellectual understanding, and
so on. When feelings of defilement
and purity are ended, still don’t hold
to this non-seeking and consider it right.
Don’t dwell at the point of ending, and
don’t long for heavens or fear hells.
When you are unhindered by
bondage or freedom, then
this is called liberation
of mind and body in
all places.