24: The silkworm

法無異法     Things are not separate and distinct

妄自愛著     Yet ignorance leads to attachment

將心用心     To use the mind to bind the mind

豈非大錯     Is this not the greatest mistake?

The Lankavatara Sutra:

These and others, Mahamati, are the deep-seated attachments which the ignorant and simple-minded cherish towards the things that they discriminate. Tenaciously attaching themselves to these, the ignorant and simple-minded go on discriminating forever like silk-worms. With their thread of discrimination and attachment they envelop themselves and others, and are entranced with the thread; thus they cling to notions of existence and non-existence. Mahamati, here there are no signs (nimitta) of attachment or detachment; all things are to be seen as abiding in solitude (viviktadharma), where there is no spinning of discrimination. Mahamati, the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva should dwell where he can see all things from the viewpoint of viviktadharma. (Suzuki, p. 162)

Meister Eckhart:

Nothing hinders the soul so much from knowing God as time and place. Time and place are divisions, and God is one. Therefore if the soul is to know God, she must know him above time and place, for God is neither this nor that as these manifold things are: God is one. . . . Before the eye can see colour, it must be free of all colour. A master says, if the soul is to know God, she must have nothing in common with anything. He who knows God knows that all creatures are nothing. (Walshe, Vol. II, Sermon 69)

Suzuki, D. T. (1932). The Lankavatara Sutra: A Mahayana Text (Based upon the Sanskrit edition of Bunyu Nanjo). London.

M. O’C. Walshe (1987). Meister Eckhart: Sermons and Treatises Volume II. UK: Element Books Limited.

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