the great dharma boat

 

When hate and

love don’t block the mind,

stretch out both legs and

then lie down.

 

If you hope and intend

to transform others, you must perfect

expedient means. Don’t cause them to have

doubts, and then their self-nature

will appear.

 

The Buddhadharma is

here in the world; enlightenment is

not apart from the world. To search for Bodhi

apart from the world is like looking for

a hare with horns.

 

Right views are

transcendental; deviant views

are all mundane. Deviant and right

completely destroyed: the

Bodhi nature appears

spontaneously.

 

This verse is

the Sudden Teaching, also called

the great dharma boat. Hear in confusion,

pass through ages, in an instant’s

space, enlightenment.

 

Hui Neng

not even enlightenment will help now

deathbed zen

 

One morning in the zendo

as we were all silently sitting zazen,

Suzuki Roshi said, “Don’t move. Just die over

and over. Don’t anticipate. Nothing can save you

now, because this is your last moment. Not even

enlightenment will help you now, because

you have no other moments. With no

future, be true to yourself —

and don’t move.”

 

Shunryu Suzuki

To Shine One Corner of the World