Outwardly, all activities
cease; inwardly, the mind stops
its panting. When one’s mind has
become a wall, then he may
begin to enter
the tao.
Outwardly, all activities
cease; inwardly, the mind stops
its panting. When one’s mind has
become a wall, then he may
begin to enter
the tao.
Favor
and disgrace are
equally problematic. Hope
and fear are phantoms
of the body.
What
does it mean that
“favor and disgrace are
equally problematic”? Favor
lifts you up; disgrace knocks you down.
Either one depends on the opinions
of others and causes you to
depart from your
center.
What
does it mean that
“hope and fear are phantoms
of the body”? When you regard your
body as your self, hope and fear have real
power over you. If you abandon the
notion of body as self, hope
and fear cannot
touch you.
Know
the universe as
your self, and you can live
absolutely anywhere in comfort.
Love the world as your self,
and you’ll be able
to care for it
properly.
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Mountain home sleeping
No dreams of dust.
Three robes are plenty;
Who says I’m poor?
One for my pillow,
One to serve as a mat,
And at the thunder of my snoring
Heaven and Earth disappear.
At all times just remain free and uninvolved. Never make any displays of clever tricks — be like a stolid simpleton in a village of three families. Then the gods will have no road on which to offer you flowers, and demons and outsiders will not be able to spy on you.
Be undefinable, and do not reveal any conspicuous signs of your special attainment. It should be as if you are there among myriad precious goods locked up securely and deeply hidden in a treasure house. With your face smeared with mud and ashes, join in the work of the common laborers, neither speaking out nor thinking.
Live your whole life so that no one can figure you out, while your spirit and mind are at peace. Isn’t this what it is to be imbued with the Way without any contrived or forced actions, a genuinely unconcerned person?
Among the enlightened adepts, being able to speak the Truth has nothing to do with the tongue, and being able to talk about the Dharma is not a matter of words.
Clearly we know that the words spoken by the ancients were not meant to be passively depended on. Anything the ancients said was intended only so that people would directly experience the fundamental reality. Thus the teachings of the sutras are like a finger pointing to the moon, and the sayings of the Zen masters are like a piece of tile used to knock on a door.
If you know this, then rest. If your practice is continuous and meticulous and your application broad and all-pervading, and you do not deviate from this over the years, then you will mature in your ability to handle the teachings, to gather up and to release, and you will be able to see through petty things and cut them off without leaving a trace.
Then you when you come to the juncture of death and birth, where all the lines intersect, you won’t get mixed up. You will be clear and immovable, and you will be set free as you leave this life behind. This is deathbed Zen, for the last day of your life.
Any activity or
occupation can be your practice.
As you go about what you do, simply detach
your mind from its objects. Opening
to emptiness in an alert state,
you become One
with what
is.
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