宗非促延     This truth is beyond time and space

一念萬年     A single thought, ten thousand years

無在不在     No existence, no nonexistence

十方目前     It is everywhere before you

 

極小同大     The smallest is the same as the greatest

忘絶境界     Dimension and boundaries entirely forgotten

極大同小     The greatest is the same as the smallest

不見邊表     No borders seen manifest

 

Tai-hui (1089-1163):

Just steadily go on with your koan every moment of your life. If a thought arises, do not attempt to suppress it by conscious effort; only renew the attempt to keep the koan before the mind. Whether walking or sitting, let your attention be fixed upon it without interruption. When you begin to find it entirely devoid of flavour, the final moment is approaching—don’t let it slip out of your grasp! When suddenly something flashes out in your mind, its light will illuminate the entire universe, and you will see the spiritual land of the Enlightened Ones fully revealed at the tip of a single hair and the great wheel of the Dharma revolving in a single mote of dust. (Suzuki, 1953, pp. 103-104)

Deepak Chopra:

What is the duration of a lifespan in eternity? This lifespan of ours is but a trivial moment. Eternity stretches before and after it. Existence is the infinite unbounded consciousness. A lifespan is just a single thought in that consciousness. (“The Secret of Healing”)

Lester Levenson:

Question: What does it feel like to be infinite?

Answer: Absolutely no limitation in any direction whatsoever. No limitations, total freedom from everything, needing no food, no oxygen, no job. Instantly materializing anything you want. Being anywhere in the universe. Being as tall as you want, or the size of an atom. Being at perfect peace and contentment. Being in the most delightful state possible. (1993, “Thou Art That”)

Meister Eckhart:

A day, whether six or seven days ago or more than six thousand years ago, is just as near to the present as yesterday. Why? Because all time is contained in the present now-moment. Time comes out of the revolution of the heavens and day began with the first revolution. . . .

The soul’s day and God’s day are different. In her natural day the soul knows all things above time and place: nothing is far or near. And that is why I say, in this day all things are of equal rank. To talk about the world as being made by God tomorrow or yesterday would be talking nonsense. God makes the world and all things in this present now. Time gone a thousand years ago is now as present and as near to God as this very instant. (Blakney, “In his days he pleased God and was found just,” p. 212)

Lester Levenson:

You went to sleep and you dreamt that you were borne into a little infant body and you went through one year, two years, three years, into youth, middle age and old age, all the way up to ninety years. It took ninety years to get up to that old body. It was a long, long time, right? Ninety years? Until you woke up and you realized it was a dream and it might have taken a second or two. The dream lasted a few seconds and in that time you went through a ninety-year period! And it seemed like ninety years while you were in the dream; it wasn’t until you woke up that you realized it was only a few seconds. Some day you’ll see that creation is instantaneous, with the mental concept of time in it. (1993, p. 84)

Meister Eckhart: Sermon Eight

Suppose a man owned a whole kingdom or all the goods of this world, and that he gave it up purely for God’s sake and became one of the poorest of the poor who ever lived on earth. Suppose that God then gave him as much suffering as He ever imposed on any man and that he bore all this to his dying day. Now suppose that God then gave him one fleeting glimpse of how He is in this power: that man’s joy would be so great that all this suffering and poverty would be insignificant. Yea, though God were never to vouchsafe him any further taste of heaven than this, he would yet be all too richly rewarded for all that he had ever endured, for God is in this power as in the eternal now. If a man’s spirit were always united with God in this power he would not age, for the now in which God made the first man and the now in which the last man shall cease to be and the now I speak in—all are the same in God and there is but one now. Observe, this man dwells in one light with God, having no suffering and no sequence of time, but one equal eternity. This man is bereft of wonderment and all things are in him in their essence; therefore, nothing new comes to him from future things nor any accident, for he dwells in the now, ever new and without intermission. Such is the divine sovereignty dwelling in this power. (Walshe, p. 79)

 

Levenson, Lester (1993). Keys to the Ultimate Freedom: Thoughts and Talks on Personal Transformation. Phoenix, Arizona: Sedona Institute. (download pdf)

Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro (1953). Essays in Zen Buddhism (Second Series). London: Rider and Company.

Blakney, Raymond B. (1941). Meister Eckhart: A Modern Translation. New York: Harper & Row. (https://archive.org)

Walshe, Maurice O’C. (2009). The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company. (download pdf)