Posts Tagged → yuanwu

the myriad things are peaceful

dream baby dream

 

Haven’t you

read the ancient worthy’s saying?

“The white clouds are clear and still, and the rivers

flow into the blue sea. The myriad things are

originally peaceful, but people

make trouble for

themselves.”

 

After all,

this statement is completely

accurate and true. If you know what it means

as soon as you hear it mentioned, you can use it to pass

through birth and death to freedom and no longer be obstructed

by the psycho-physical nexus. You will be like a bird getting

out of a cage — independent and free. With a single

stroke you put a stop to all other actions and

talk, and you no longer fall into

secondary views.

 

Yuanwu

 

wake up! don’t waste time

tassajara zen center

 

I often see

those who are trying

to study Buddhism just use

their worldly intelligence to sift

among the verbal teachings of the buddhas

and ancestral teachers, trying to pick out especially

wondrous sayings to use as conversation pieces to display

their ability and understanding. This is not the correct view

of  the matter. You must abandon your world view and sit

quietly with mind silent. Forget entangling causes

and investigate with your whole being. When

you are thoroughly clear, then whatever

you bring forth from your own

inexhaustible treasure of

priceless jewels is sure

to be genuine and

real.

 

So first

you must awaken

to the Fundamental and

clearly see the essence where

mind equals buddha. Detach from

all false entanglements and become free

and clean. After that respectfully practice all

forms of good, and arouse great compassion to bring

benefits to all sentient beings. In all that you do, be even and

balanced and attuned to the inherent equality of all things —

be selfless and have no attachments. When wondrous

wisdom manifests itself and you penetrate through

to the basic essence, all your deeds will

be wonder-working. Thus it is said,

“Just manage to accept the

truth — you won’t be

deceived.”

 

Make

enlightenment your

standard, and don’t feel bad

if it is slow in coming.

Take care!

 

Yuanwu

 

without leaving where you are

sachi cunningham

 

Yongjia said,

“Without leaving where you are,

there is constant clarity.” No words come closer

to the truth than these. If you start seeking, then we

know that you are unable to see. Just cut off any duality

between “wherever you are” and “constant clarity”,

and make yourself peaceful and serene. Avoid

concocting intellectual understanding

and seeking. As soon as you seek,

it is like grasping at

shadows.

 

Yuanwu

zen letters

 

step back from conventional perceptions

demand justice for the beautiful soulful human that was tyre nichols

 

You

must constantly step

back from conventional perceptions and

worldly entanglements to move along on your own

and reflect with independent awareness. Cleanse and purify

your karma of mind, body, and mouth, sit upright

and  investigate reality, until you arrive

at subtle insight and clear

liberation.

 

Right in your own life,

detach from conditioned views and cut off

sentiments. Stand like a wall a mile high…spend twenty

or thirty years doing dispassionate and tranquil meditation

work, sweeping away any conditioned knowledge and

interpretive understanding as soon as it arises,

and not letting the traces of the

sweeping itself remain

either.

 

Yuanwu

make this great light your standard

 

Fundamentally, this great light is there with each and every person right where they stand — empty clear through, spiritually aware, all-pervasive, it is called the scenery of the fundamental ground.

Sentient beings and buddhas are both inherently equipped with it. It is perfectly fluid and boundless, fusing everything within it. It is within your own heart and is the basis of your physical body and of the five clusters of form, sensation, conception, motivational synthesis, and consciousness. It has never been defiled or stained, and its fundamental nature is still and silent.

False thoughts suddenly arise and cover it over and block it off and confine it within the six sense faculties and sense objects. Sense faculties and sense objects are paired off, and you get stuck and begin clinging and getting attached. You grasp at all the various objects and scenes, and produce all sorts of false thoughts, and sink down into the toils of birth and death, unable to gain liberation.

All the buddhas and ancestral teachers awakened to this true source and penetrated clear through to the fundamental basis. They took pity on all the sentient beings sunken in the cycle of birth and death and were inspired by great compassion, so they appeared in the world precisely for this reason. It was also for this reason that Bodhidharma came from the West with special practice outside of doctrine.

The most important thing is for people of great faculties and sharp wisdom to turn the light of mind around and shine back and clearly awaken to this mind before a single thought is born. This mind can produce all world-transcending and worldly phenomena. When it is forever stamped with enlightenment, your inner heart is independent and transcendent and brimming over with life. As soon as you rouse your conditioned mind and set errant thoughts moving, then you have obscured the fundamental clarity.

If you want to pass through easily and directly right now, just let your body and mind become thoroughly empty, so it is vacant and silent yet aware and luminous. Inwardly, forget all your conceptions of self, and outwardly, cut off all sensory defilements. When inside and outside are clear all the way through, there is just one true reality.

…Let no one be deluded about cause and effect. You must realize that the causal basis of hell and heaven is all formed by your own inherent mind.

You must keep this mind balanced and equanimous, without deluded ideas of self and others, without arbitrary loves and hates, without grasping or rejecting, without notions of gain and loss. Go on gradually nurturing this for a long time, perhaps twenty or thirty years. Whether you encounter favorable or adverse conditions, do not retreat or regress — then when you come to the juncture between life and death, you will naturally be set free and be not afraid. As the saying goes, “Truth requires sudden awakening, but the phenomenal level calls for gradual cultivation.”

I often see those who are trying to study Buddhism just use their worldly intelligence to sift among the verbal teachings of the buddhas and ancestral teacher, trying to pick out especially wondrous sayings to use as conversation pieces to display their ability and understanding. This is not the correct view of the matter. You must abandon your world view and sit quietly with mind silent. Forget entangling causes and investigate with your whole being. When you are thoroughly clear, then whatever you bring forth from your own inexhaustible treasure of priceless jewels is sure to be genuine and real.

So first you must awaken to the Fundamental and clearly see the essence where mind equals buddha. Detach from all false entanglements and become free and clean. After that respectfully practice all forms of good, and arouse great compassion to bring benefits to all sentient beings. In all that you do, be even and balanced and attuned to the inherent equality of all things — be selfless and have no attachments. When wondrous wisdom manifests itself and you penetrate through to the basic essence, all your deeds will be wonder-working. Thus it is said, “Just manage to accept the truth — you won’t be deceived.”

Make enlightenment your standard, and don’t feel bad if it is slow in coming. Take care!

Yuanwu