Those people
who actually realize it just
keep serene and free at all times,
without cravings, without
dependence.
Posts Tagged → yantou
the ultimate path is simple and easy
Yantou said,
“Abandoning things is
superior, pursuing things is inferior.”
The Ultimate Path is simple and easy —
it is just a matter of whether
you abandon things or
pursue them.
let the teaching flow out from your own breast
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!”
abandoning things is superior
an object of esteem becomes a nest
Haven’t you seen the saying of Master Yantou that whenever you have an object of esteem, it becomes a nest?…
Those who get a taste for the sayings of people of old make extraordinary sayings and wonderful statements into a nest…Those who get a taste for a state of quiescent silence without words or speech make a nest of closing the eyes and sitting in a ghost cave in a mountain of darkness on the other side of the prehistoric Buddhas. Those who get a taste for the goings-on of daily activities make a nest of raising their eyebrows, blinking their eyes, and alerting attention…
If you do not have a strong will and discipline to step back and realize your error, you will imagine what you esteem to be extraordinary, imagine it to be mysterious and marvelous, imagine it to be peace and security, imagine it to be ultimate, imagine it to be liberation.
Those who entertain such imaginations could not be helped even if the Buddha appeared in the world. In the teachings this is called the confusion of ignorance and benightedness. Why? because you are ignorant you cling to error and consider it right. Because you are benighted you remain plunged into what you esteem and cannot budge.
If you do not produce anything in your mind, and are not fixated on anything, then you have no object of esteem. When you have no object of esteem, you naturally have no greed and no dependence on things, independent in the midst of things, with bare-boned strength.
If you want such accord right now, it is not difficult; just be equanimous in mind, unaffected by anything. What is affectation? Formulating concepts of sentient beings, concepts of Buddha, concepts of the mundane, concepts of the transcendental, concepts of seeking detachment, concepts of seeking enlightened knowledge. Those are all called affectations.
Just concentrate intensely on the brink of arousal, and leap out in one jump — this mind will be clear, independently liberated. Then as soon as you sense this, turn upward, and you will spontaneously be lucid everywhere; it will be evident in everything.
When you manage to reach such a state, don’t keep taking note of it. If you keep taking note of it, then you’ll have an object of esteem.
treasury of the eye of true teaching