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.
There are
great pressures at work.
By meeting them with modesty and
patience, you avoid misfortune
and meet with success.
The image of this hexagram is that of a beam under a great load: it sags in the middle and is in danger of giving way. You are in a similar situation now. The pressures of the moment are enormous, and there is a temptation to wriggle away and flee, or to resort to the plotting, conniving, and aggressive actions of the ego. It is by resisting this temptation and holding firmly to proper principles that you survive and succeed.
This is in fact a moment for which you have been preparing yourself for some time. A powerful energy has been accumulated—imagine a flood pressing against a dam—and it is up to you to direct its flow. If you succumb to fear, desire, or anger and resort to incorrect behaviors, the dam bursts and the pent-up energy causes destruction and misfortune. If, on the other hand, you cling to what is correct—modesty, balance, patience, independence, and gentleness—then you will obtain the aid of the Higher Power and the accumulated energy will be directed toward creating a profound success.
What is called for now is quiet integrity. With others, no matter how they may assault you, remain modest and patient. In your actions, seek to penetrate gently and steadily rather than forcibly and explosively. Meet the difficulties of the day cheerfully and resolutely. By taking great care now, by remaining correct in every moment, by embodying the principles of the Sage, you make possible the arrival of good fortune.
The I Ching, or Book of Changes
Hexagram 28 / Ta Kuo (Preponderance of the Great)
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In every moment,
your enlightenment is directly
in front of you, being handed to you.
All that’s necessary to receive it
is to empty your hands
and relax your
mind.
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When you stop your
compulsive mind, to reach the point
where not a single thing is born, you pass
through to freedom, no longer falling
into feelings and not dwelling
on concepts, transcending
all completely.
Then Zen is obvious everywhere
in the world, with the totality of everything everywhere
turning into its great function. Everything comes from your
own heart. This is what one ancient called bringing
out the family treasure.
The practice of true reality is simply to sit serenely in silent introspection. When you have fathomed this you cannot be turned around by external causes and conditions. This empty, wide open mind is subtlety and correctly illuminating. Spacious and content, without confusion from inner thoughts or grasping, effectively overcome habitual behavior and realize the self that is not possessed by emotions.
You must be broad-minded, whole without relying on others. Such upright independent spirit can begin not to pursue degrading situations. Here you can rest and become clean, pure, and lucid. Bright and penetrating, you can immediately return, accord, and respond to deal with events.
Everything is unhindered; clouds gracefully floating up to the peaks, the moonlight glitteringly flowing down mountain streams. The entire place is brightly illumined and spiritually transformed, totally unobstructed and clearly manifesting responsive interaction like box and lid or arrow points meeting.
Continuing, cultivate and nourish yourself to enact maturity and achieve stability. If you accord everywhere with thorough clarity and cut off sharp corners without dependence on doctrines, like the white bull or wildcat helping to arouse wonder, you can be called a complete person.
So we hear that this is how one of the way of non-mind acts, but before realizing non-mind we still have great hardship.
People who study the Way begin by having the faith to turn toward it. They are fed up with the vexations and filth of the world and are always afraid they will not be able to find a road of entry into the Way.
Once you have been directed by a teacher or else discovered on your own the originally inherently complete real mind, then no matter what situations or circumstances you encounter, you know for yourself where it’s really at.
But then if you hold fast to that real mind, the problem is you cannot get out, and it becomes a nest. You set up “illumination” and “function” in acts and states, snort and clap and glare and raise your eyebrows, deliberately putting on a scene.
When you meet a genuine expert of the school again, he removes all this knowledge and understanding for you, so you can merge directly with realization of the original uncontrived, unpreoccupied, unminding state. After this you will feel shame and repentance and know to cease and desist. You will proceed to vanish utterly, so that not even the sages can find you arising anywhere, much less anyone else.
That is why Yantou said, “Those people who actually realize it just keep serene and free at all times, without cravings, without dependence.” Isn’t this the door to peace and happiness?”