眞如法界     In the higher realm of True Suchness

無他無自     There is no other, no self

要急相應     Swiftly to merge with it

唯言不二     Say only: Not two

 

不二皆同     In non-duality all is the same

無不包容     There is nothing that is not a part of it

十方智者     Sages from the ten quarters

皆入此宗     Enter into this truth

 

When duality appears through ignorance, one sees another; but when everything becomes identified with the Atman, one does not perceive another even in the least. – Adi Shankara

The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me. – Meister Eckhart

When I worship thee, O Buddha,
This is Buddha worshiping Buddha. – Saichi (Suzuki, 1957)

 

Lin-chi (Rinzai):

O you followers of the Way, if you wish to obtain an orthodox understanding of Zen, do not be deceived by others. Inwardly or outwardly, if you encounter any obstacles, knock them down right away. If you encounter the buddha, slay him. If you encounter the patriarch slay him. If you encounter the arhat or the parent or the relative, slay them all without hesitation, for this is the only way to deliverance. Do not get yourselves entangled with anything, but stand above, pass on, and be free.

As I see those so-called followers of the Way all over the country, none comes to me free and independent of dharmas. In dealing with them, I strike them down however they come. If they rely on the strength of their arms, I chop them off; if they rely on their eloquence, I silence them; if they rely on the sharpness of their eyes, I will strike them blind. Indeed, so far none have presented themselves before me all alone, completely free, completely unique; they are invariably caught by the idle tricks of the old masters.

I really have nothing to give you; all that I can do is to cure you of the diseases and deliver you from bondage. (Suzuki, 1949, pp. 347-348)

Meister Eckhart: “Sermon Seventy”

Where the soul is, there God is, and where God is, there the soul is, and if I were to say otherwise I would not be speaking truly. Now take note of a saying which I consider very fine: when I think how one He is with me, [it is] as if He had forgotten all creatures and nothing existed but I alone. Now pray for those who are entrusted to me!

Madam Guyon:

When I had lost all worldly supports, and even divine ones, I then found myself happily compelled to fall into the pure divine, and to fall into it through all those very things which seemed to remove me further from it. In losing all of the gifts with all of the support they gave me, I found the Giver. In losing the sense and perception of Thee in myself, I found Thee, O my God, to lose Thee no more in Thyself, in Thy own immutability. (Autobiography)

It was as if all smaller matters had quite disappeared, a higher power having taken and filled up their place. I even perceived no more that soul which He had formerly conducted by His crook and His staff, because now He alone appeared to me, my soul having given up its place to Him. It seemed to me as if it was wholly and altogether passed into its God, to make but one and the same thing with Him; even as a little drop of water cast into the sea receives the qualities of the sea. (Autobiography)

D. T. Suzuki:

Knowledge always implies a dichotomy, and for this reason it can never be the thing itself. We know something about it, that is, the knowable part of it, which of course is not the whole thing. As far as knowledge is concerned, it stands outside the thing, can never enter into it, but to know the thing really in the true sense of the term means to become the thing itself, to be identified with it in its totality, inwardly as well as outwardly. (1972, p. 119)

Lester Levenson: (1993)

You may see fully who you are and not be able to maintain it. What happens is that, being the infinite Self, we can get a glimpse of the infinite, hold it for awhile, and then suddenly feel as though we’ve lost it. The reason for that is that the mind has not been eliminated; the subconscious thoughts of limitation are submerged for the moment. You may go completely into your Self and let go of the mind temporarily, but you haven’t eliminated the mind: you just momentarily let go of it. So there you are, for the moment, totally the infinite Self; however, the mind that has been submerged re-emerges, and then the ego takes over and you just can’t understand what happened to you, what brought you back into the heaviness of the world again.

What is required is that we re-establish that state of the Self again and again until it becomes permanent. Each time we do it, we scorch more of the mind until finally we have scorched the entire mind–then we are permanently established in the Self. Then you sit back and the mind is out there, and the body is out there, and you are not the mind, you are not the body. As long as you know you are not the mind and the body, both of them can go on to their heart’s content and you know that they cannot touch you. (p. 19)

 

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

Suzuki, D. T. (1932). The Lankavatara Sutra: A Mahayana Text (Based upon the Sanskrit edition of Bunyu Nanjo). London. (http://lirs.ru/do/lanka_eng/lanka-nondiacritical.htm)

Suzuki, D. T. (1949). Essays in Zen Buddhism (First Series). New York: Grove Press.

Suzuki, D. T. (1957). Mysticism: Christian and Buddhist. London and New York: Routledge Classics. https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/d-t-suzuki-mysticism-christian-and-buddhist.pdf

Suzuki, D. T. (1972). Living By Zen. New York: Samuel Weiser, Inc. (1950)

究竟窮極     Investigate until you are completely empty

不存軌則     And no discipline remains to follow

契心平等     The mind in accord is in perfect sameness

所作倶息     Where all effort ceases

狐疑盡淨     All doubts vanish completely

正信調直     The true faith is straightened out

一切不留     Not a single division remains

無可記憶     No memories at all retained

虚明自照     Empty, bright, shining

不勞心力     No exertion by the mind

非思處量     This is a place no thought can measure

識情難測     Knowledge and senses can scarcely fathom

Penetrate into the ultimate truth of mind
And we have neither things nor non-things
Enlightened and not enlightened—they are the same
Neither mind nor thing there is
– Dhritaka, the sixth Buddhist patriarch (Suzuki, 1949, p. 172)

‘O Saichi, tell us what kind of flavour is the flavour of Namu-amida-butsu,
Tell us what kind of flavour is the flavour of Namu-amida-butsu’
‘The flavour of Namu-amida-butsu is
A joy filling up the bosom
A joy filling up the liver
Like the rolling swell of the sea
No words—just the utterance: Oh, Oh!’
– Saichi (Suzuki, 1957, p. 174)

At one stroke I have forgotten all knowledge!
There’s no need for artificial discipline
At all times I manifest the ancient Way
And never fall into quietism

Wherever I walk I leave no footprint
My senses unrestrained by rules of conduct
In the ten quarters, all who have realized this truth
Declare it to be the highest
– Hsiang-yen (Suzuki, 1949, p. 243)

The mind moveth with the ten thousand things
Even when moving, it is serene
Perceive its essence as it moveth on
And neither joy nor sorrow there is
– Manura, the twenty-second Buddhist patriarch (Suzuki, 1949, p. 172)

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the LORD;
Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted,
And every mountain and hill shall be made low,
And the crooked shall be made straight,
And the manifold places plain,
And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
And all flesh shall be seen as one,
For the mouth of the LORD hath spoken.
The voice said, Cry.
And he said, What shall I cry?
All flesh is grass,
And all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth,
Because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it.
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth,
But the word of our God shall stand for ever.
(Isaiah 40)

It’s a feeling of complete ‘at-oneness’ with everything
It’s a feeling of ‘no-other-ness’
It’s a feeling of very profound peace
Even though there’s activity, you see no action
Everything just is
The very top state is one of very profound peace
– Lester Levenson, “Experiencing Truth” https://youtu.be/fAMBVE1cElM

Quicker than the blink of an eye one sees through the mundane and witnesses the sublime. Realization is now. Why worry about gray hair?
– Bodhidharma, “Breakthrough Sermon”

Suzuki, D. T. (1949). Essays in Zen Buddhism (First Series). New York: Grove Press.

Suzuki, D. T. (1957). Mysticism: Christian and Buddhist. London and New York: Routledge Classics. https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/d-t-suzuki-mysticism-christian-and-buddhist.pdf

止動無動     Stop motion and you have no motion

動止無止     but motion stopped is not stillness

兩既不成     If the two are not united

一何有爾     how will you attain the One?

 

Hui-neng:

The Samadhi of One Act (一行三昧) is having a straightforward mind [smrti] at all times—walking, standing, sitting, and lying. The Vimalakirti Sutra says: “Straightforward mind is the place of practice; straightforward mind is the Pure Land.” Do not with a crooked mind speak of the straightforward teaching. If while speaking of the Samadhi of One Act you fail to practice the straightforward mind, you will not be disciples of the Buddha. Only practicing the straightforward mind and in all things having no attachments whatsoever is called the Samadhi of One Act.

The deluded man clings to the characteristics of things, latches onto the Samadhi of One Act, [thinking that] the straightforward mind is sitting without moving, casting out delusions and allowing nothing to arise in the mind. This he considers to be the Samadhi of One Act. This kind of practice is the same as insentience and causes an obstruction of the Tao. Tao must be something that flows freely—why should he hinder it? If the mind does not abide in things the Tao flows freely; if the mind abides in things, it becomes entangled. If sitting in meditation without moving is good, why did Vimalakirti scold Sariputra for sitting in meditation in the forest? (The Dharma of Hui-neng)

The Buddha:

But, Mahamati, as earnest disciples go on trying to advance on the path that leads to full realisation, there is one danger against which they must be on guard. Disciples may not appreciate that the mind, because of its accumulated conditioning (samskara), goes on functioning more or less unconsciously as long as they live. They may sometimes think that they can expedite the attainment of their goal of quieting the mind by entirely suppressing all activities. This is a mistake, for even if the activities of the mind are suppressed, the mind will still go on functioning because the seeds of conditioning will still remain in it. What they think is extinction of the mind is really the suspension of the mind’s manifestation of the external world. That is, the goal of quieting the mind is to be reached not by suppressing all mental activity but by getting rid of discrimination and attachments. (Goddard, 1932)

Meister Eckhart:

But you might say, ‘Oh sir, if this requires a mind free of all images and all works (which lie in the powers by their very nature), then how about those outward works we must do sometimes, works of charity which all take place without, such as teaching or comforting the needy? Should people be deprived of this? . . . Shall we then be deprived of this great good [union with God] because we are engaged in works of charity?’

Now note the answer to such questions. The one thing is noblest [contemplation], the other very profitable [charity]. . . . St. Thomas says the active life is better than the contemplative, in so far as in action one pours out for love that which one has gained in contemplation. It is actually the same thing, for we take only from the same ground of contemplation and make it fruitful in works, and thus the object of contemplation is achieved. Though there is motion, yet it is all one. It comes from one end, which is God, and returns to the same, as if I were to go from one end of this house to the other. That would indeed be motion, but only of one in the same. Thus too, in this activity we remain in a state of contemplation in God. The one rests in the other and perfects the other. For God’s purpose in the union of contemplation is fruitfulness in works, for in contemplation you serve yourself alone, but in works of charity you serve the many. (Walshe, pp. 27-28)

Meister Eckhart: 

A man may go out into the fields and say his prayers and know God, or he may go to church and know God: but if he is more aware of God because he is in a quiet place, as is usual, that comes from his imperfection and not from God. For God is equally in all things and all places, and is equally ready to give Himself as far as in Him lies, and he knows God rightly who knows God equally. (Walshe, Sermon Sixty Nine)

Yeshua:

Jesus said:
If they say to you: Whence have you come?,
say to them: We have come from the light,
the place where the light came into being of itself.
It [established itself] and it revealed itself in their image.
If they say to you: Who are you?, say:
We are its children, and we are the elect of the living Father.
If they ask you: What is the sign of your Father in you?
say to them: It is movement and rest.

– Gospel of Thomas, verse 50 (Blatz-NTA, 1991)

 

Blatz, Beate. “The Coptic Gospel of Thomas.” In New Testament Apocrypha. Vol. 1. Rev. ed. Edited by Wilhelm Schneemelcher, 110–133. Translated by R. McL. Wilson. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1991.

Goddard, Dwight and Suzuki, D. T. (1932). A Buddhist Bible (First Edition). (http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/bb/index.htm)

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

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

Yampolsky, Philip B. (1967) The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch. (The text of the Tun-Huang manuscript with translation, introduction and notes by Philip B. Yampolsky.) New York: Columbia University Press. (http://www.fodian.net/world/Platform_Sutra_Yampolsky.pdf)

心若不異     If the mind does not discriminate

萬法一如     The myriad things are of one suchness

一如體玄     In the deep essence of one suchness

兀爾忘虚     Illusions are completely forgotten

萬法齊觀     When the myriad things are seen in their simplicity

歸復自然     You return to your true Self

泯其所以     Putting an end to their cause

不可方比     Nothing can be compared

Emptiness is not a vacancy; it holds in it infinite rays of light and swallows all the multiplicities there are in this world. – D. T. Suzuki

God is free of all things, and so He is all things. – Meister Eckhart (Sermon Eighty Seven)

Lao-tzu:

The Way is like an empty vessel

That yet may be drawn from

Without ever needing to be filled.

It is bottomless, the very progenitor of all things in the world;

It is like a deep pool that never dries up.

I do not know whose offspring it could be;

It looks as if it were prior to God

– The Tao Te Ching  (D. T. Suzuki and Paul Carus, 1913)

The Lankavatara Sutra:

How again, Mahamati, does the Bodhisattva discard notions of birth, abiding and destruction? By this it is meant that all things are to be regarded as forms born of a vision or a dream, a dream that never was, since there are no such things as self, not-self, or duality. They will see that the external world depends on Mind for its existence. And seeing that there is no stirring of the vijnanas and that the triple world is a complicated network of causation which owes its rise to discrimination, they find that all things, internal and external, cannot be asserted to be real; they are seen as devoid of self-nature and unborn. Thus they attain to the realisation that all things are illusions and are unborn. (Suzuki, p. 81)

The Gospel of Thomas: (Stevan Davies)

Jesus saw children being suckled. He said to his disciples: These infants taking milk are like those who enter the Kingdom.

His disciples said to him: We are infants. Will we enter the kingdom?

Jesus responded: When you make the two into one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the upper like the lower and the lower like the upper; and when you make the male and the female the same, so that the male isn’t male and the female isn’t female; when you make an eye to replace an eye, and a hand to replace a hand, and a foot to replace a foot, and an image to replace an image: then you will enter the Kingdom. (http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gosthom-davies.html)

Shih-t’ou (700-790):

My teaching, which has come down from the ancient Buddhas, is not dependent on meditation (dhyana) or on diligent application of any kind. When you attain the insight as attained by the Buddha, you realize that Mind is Buddha and Buddha is Mind; that Mind, Buddha, sentient beings, bodhi and defilements are of one and the same substance although they have different names.

You should know that your own mind-essence is neither subject to annihilation nor eternally existing, is neither pure nor defiled, that it remains perfectly undisturbed and self-sufficient, that it is the same for both the wise and the ignorant, that it is unlimited in its working, and that it is not mind-cognition-consciousness (citta-manas-manovijnana). The three worlds of desire, form and formlessness, and the six paths of existence, are no more than manifestations of your mind itself. They are all like the moon reflected in water or images in the mirror. How can we speak of them as being born or passing away? When you come to this understanding you will be furnished with all that you need. (Suzuki, Manual of Zen Buddhism, p. 71)

Adi Shankara: “Self-Realization”

11. Knowledge is not brought about by any other means than enquiry, just as an object is nowhere perceived without the help of light.
12. Who am I? How is this created? Who is its creator? Of what substance is this made? This is the way of that enquiry.
13. I am neither the body, a combination of the elements, nor am I an aggregate of the senses (skandha); I am something different from these. This is the way of that enquiry.
14. Everything is produced by ignorance and dissolves in the wake of knowledge. The various thoughts must be the creator. Such is this enquiry.
15. The substance of these two (ignorance and thoughts) is the One, subtle and unchanging Beingness, just as earth is the substance of the pot and so on. This is the way of that enquiry.
16. As I, too, am the One, the Subtle, the Knower, the Witness, the Ever-Existent, and the Unchanging, so there is no doubt that I am “That”. Such is this enquiry.

134. The aspirants after Brahman should not remain a single moment without the thought of Brahman.
135. The nature of the cause inheres in the effect and not vice versa; so through reasoning it is found that in the absence of the effect, the cause itself also disappears.
136. Then that pure reality which is beyond speech alone remains. This should be understood again and again verily through the illustration of earth and the pot.
137. In this way alone there arises in the pure-minded a state of awareness, which is afterwards merged into Brahman.
138. One should first look for the cause by the negative method [meditation upon the lack of self-substance of the world] and then find it by the positive method, as ever inherent in the effect.
139. One should verily see the cause in the effect, and then let go of the effect altogether. What then remains, the sage himself becomes.

Suzuki, D. T. (1932). The-Lankavatara-Sutra: A Mahayana Text. Translated for the first time from the original Sanskrit. (http://lirs.ru/do/lanka_eng/lanka-nondiacritical.htm)

Suzuki, D. T. (1935). Manual_of_Zen_Buddhism.

眼若不睡     If the eye never sleeps

諸夢自除     All dreams cease by themselves

 

“With one deluded thought, prajna is cut off; with one wise thought, prajna springs to life.” – Hui-neng

 

Hui-neng:

Good and Wise Friends, unawakened, buddhas are just living beings. At the moment they awaken, however, living beings are buddhas. Therefore, you should realize that the ten thousand dharmas are all within your own mind. Why don’t you immediately see, right within your own mind, the true reality of your original nature? (2014, p. 106)

Hakuin

At all times test to see whether you have lost it or have not lost [the virtue of the Tao]. This is the true practice of the sages of the past and of today. Tzu Ssu has said: “Do not deviate from the Tao even to the smallest degree. What can be deviated from cannot be called the Tao.” In the Li-jen chapter of the Analects we read: “In moments of haste he cleaves to it; in seasons of danger he cleaves to it.” This teaches that not for a moment must one lose it. This Tao may be called the True Tao of the Doctrine of the Mean. . . . Placing the essential between the two states, the active and the passive, and being in a position to be able to move in any direction, with the true principle of pure, undiluted, undistracted meditation before your eyes, attain a state of mind in which, even though surrounded by crowds of people, it is as if you were alone in a field extending tens of thousands of miles. You must from time to time reach that state of understanding described by old P’ang, in which you are with both ears deaf,  both eyes blind. This is known as the time when the true great doubt stands before your very eyes. And if at this time you struggle forward without losing any ground, it will be as though a sheet of ice has cracked, as though a tower of jade has fallen, and you will experience a great feeling of joy that for forty years you have never seen or felt before. (Orategama)

 

The Sixth Patriarch’s Diamond Jewel Platform Sutra (3rd Edition) (2014). Burlingame, California: Buddhist Text Translation Society.

Yampolsky, Philip (1971). The Zen Master Hakuin: Selected Writings. Columbia University Press: New York. https://terebess.hu/zen/Orategama.pdf

迷生寂亂     Ignorance begets tranquility and turmoil

悟無好惡     With enlightenment there is no good and evil

一切二邊     Dividing one thing into two sides

妄自斟酌     Is an absurdity born of discrimination

夢幻虚華     Dreams, illusions, flowers in the air

何勞把捉     Why try to grasp them?

得失是非     Gain and loss, right and wrong

一時放卻     Banish them once and for all!

All things are unworthy of attachment. – Capala Sutra

Bodhidharma:

30. Question: Is the Great Way near or far?
Answer: It is like a mirage in the heat—neither near nor far. An image of a face in a mirror is also neither near nor far. Visions of flowers, needles, etc. produced by henbane* are also neither near nor far. If you say that they are near, how is it that, seeking for them in the ten directions, one cannot grasp them? If you say they are far, they pass clearly and distinctly before the eyes. The treatise says: Near and yet not capable of being seen: this is the nature of the ten thousand things.

*This passage from Bodhidharma’s Method for Quieting the Mind is the source of the famous line, “Dreams, illusions, flowers in the air; Why try to grasp them?” Thus we know from Bodhidharma that “Flowers in the air” refers to hallucinations.

Majjhima Nikaya:

Let not thy mind be disturbed by external objects
Nor let it go astray among thine own ideas
Be free from attachments and fears
This is the way to overcome the sufferings of birth and death

Meister Eckhart:

It is written: “They have become rich in all virtues” (Cor. 1:5). Truly that can never happen unless we become poor in all things. He who would receive all things must first give up all things. This is fair dealing and an even exchange, as I said at one time. Therefore, for God to be able to give us himself and all things in free possession he must first and for all time take away all that we possess. Indeed, God would not that we should possess even so much as a speck of dust in the eye; for of all his gifts, gifts of nature and of grace, he never gave any but that we might possess nothing of our own; for such possession he has not granted in any way, not to his mother, to any man or any creature. And in order to teach us this or to prepare us for this he frequently takes away from us both physical and spiritual things. Not even honour shall be ours but shall belong to him alone. We are to have what we have as if it were loaned to us and not given, without possession, whether it be body or soul, senses, powers, outward goods or honours, friends, relations, houses, castles, or anything at all.

What is God’s purpose that he insists so much on this? He wishes himself to be our sole and perfect possession. His chief delight and enjoyment consist of this, and the more exclusively he can be our own the greater his joy. Thus the more things we keep for ourselves the less we have his love; the less things we own the more we shall own him and his. When our Lord went to speak of things that are blessed he crowned them all with poverty of spirit, and that shows that all blessings and perfection begin with being poor in spirit. Indeed that is the only foundation on which any good may rest; otherwise it is neither this nor that.

When we get rid of outward things, in return God shall give us all that heaven contains—indeed, heaven and all its powers, and all that flows out of God. Whatever the saints and angels have shall be ours as much as theirs, far more than any thing is mine. In return for my going out of myself for his sake, God will be mine entirely with all that he is and can do, as much mine as his, no more and no less.

Do you want to know what a really poor person is like? To be poor in spirit is to do without all unnecessary things. That person who sat naked in his tub said to the mighty Alexander, who had all the world under his feet: “I am a greater Lord than you are, for I have despised more than you have possessed. What you have felt so proud to own I consider too little even to despise.”1 He is far more blessed who does without things because he does not need them, than he who owns everything because he needs it all; but that man is best who can do without because he needs nothing. Therefore, he who can do without the most and has the most disregard for things has given up the most.

It seems a great deed if a man gives up a thousand marks of gold for God’s sake and builds hermitages and monasteries and feeds all the poor; that would be a great deed. But he would be far more blessed who should despise all of that for God’s sake.2 That man would possesses the kingdom of heaven who could give up all things, even those which God had not given him. (Blakney pp. 39-40, “Talks of Instruction”) (Walshe Vol. III, 53-54)

1 Diogenes (411-313), a sage and renunciate who made an abandoned tub his home. Alexander, who had a great admiration for sages, came to Diogenes and asked him if there was anything that he could offer him, and the sage asked Alexander to kindly stop blocking his sunlight. Eckhart seems to have confused this exchange with an encounter between a messenger sent by Alexander and an Indian yogi named Dandamis.

Shortly after Alexander had arrived in Taxila in northern India, he sent a messenger, Onesikritos, to summon Dandamis. “Hail to thee, O teacher of Brahmins!” he said to the sage. “The son of the mighty God Zeus, being Alexander who is the Sovereign Lord of all men, asks you to go to him. If you comply, he will reward you with great gifts, but if you refuse, he will cut off your head!” The yogi answered Onesikritos, “Know this, that the gifts Alexander promises are to me things of no value. Should Alexander cut off my head, he cannot destroy my soul. Let Alexander terrify with threats those who crave wealth and who fear death, for the Brahmins neither love gold nor fear death. Go, then, and tell Alexander this: Dandamis has no need of anything that you have, and therefore will not go to you; and if you want anything from Dandamis, come you to him.” (Yogananda)

2 In Sermon Forty Eckhart said, “that man would give far more who could regard a thousand marks as nothing.”

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

“Bodhidharma’s Method for Quieting the Mind” (https://inscribedonthebelievingmind.blog/2018/09/16/bodhidharma-5)

Jorgensen, John A. (1979). The Earliest Text of Ch’an Buddhism: The Long Scroll. The Australian National University (p. 298).

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

Yogananda, Paramhansa (1946). Autobiography of a Yogi. New York: The Philosophical Library. (download)

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.

智者無爲     The sage does nothing

愚人自縛     while the ignorant bind themselves up

 

The enlightened being’s inner state is: “Even though I am constantly engaged in activity, I do nothing—all happens. Living happens. There is nothing to cling to or grasp, nothing to renounce or run away from.  – Deepak Chopra, The Secret of Healing

When thus the Bodhisattva, discarding all effortful works, attains to the effortless state of consciousness, he enters upon the eighth stage known as Acala, the Immovable. – Suzuki (1929, p. 225)

Choose not the life of this body before eternal life:
put the fear of God in thy heart and thou shalt live without toil.
Psalm CCLXV

When you thus come to a state of doing nothing, you are said to have attained the truth. – Lin-chi

When God created the heavens, the earth, and creatures, he did no work; he had nothing to do; he made no effort. – Meister Eckhart (Suzuki, 1957)

And all your activity must cease, and all your powers must serve His ends, not your own. If this work is to be done, God alone must do it, and you must just suffer it to be. Where you truly go out from your will and your knowledge, God with His knowledge surely and willingly goes in and shines there clearly. – Meister Eckhart, Sermon Four (Solitude)

“And it came to pass when the Lord was come up out of the water, the whole fount of the Holy Spirit descended upon him and rested on him and said to him: My son, in all the prophets was I waiting for you that you should come and I might rest in you. For you are my rest; you are my first-begotten Son that reigns forever. – The Gospel of the Hebrews
(The word “rest” is emphasized because Jews believed that the Messiah’s name would be “Menachem,” meaning “rest.”)

 

Seng-chao (384-414):

“With regard to the Way, the worthy man in every age is he who has nothing to do. With regard to the Way, when one is mindless, all things proceed effortlessly.” (The Pao-tsung lun, quoted in Watson, 1993, p. 30)

Lao-tzu:

1. Without passing out of the gate
The world’s course I prognosticate.
Without peeping through the window
The heavenly Tao I contemplate.
The farther one goes,
The less one knows.

2. Therefore the holy man does not travel, and yet he has knowledge. He does not see things, and yet he perceives them. He does not labor, and yet he accomplishes. (Suzuki, Carus, 1913)

The Diamond Sutra

Furthermore, the Lord said to the Venerable Subhuti: What do you think, Subhuti? Is there any Dharma (True Reality) that the Tathagata has attained as utmost, perfect enlightenment, or is there any Dharma that the Tathagata has taught?

Subhuti said: No, not as I understand what the Lord has said.  And why?  This Dharma which the Tathagata has fully attained and taught cannot be attained or taught; it is neither dharma nor adharma (thing nor concept).  And why?  Because all sages belong to non-doing (asamskara), though in appearance they are different from one another. (Suzuki, 1935)

The Lankavatara Sutra:

“Lord of Lanka, beings are appearances; they are like figures painted on the wall: they have no sensibility.  Lord of Lanka, all that is in the world is devoid of work and action because all things have no reality.  So are all the teachings: there is nothing heard, no one hearing. (Suzuki, 1932, p. 20)

But when it is understood that there is nothing in the world but what is seen of Mind itself, discrimination rises no more, and one is thus established in his own abode, which is the realm of no-work.  The ignorant work and discriminate, but not the wise.  Mahamati, [the doings of the ignorant] are unrealities made real, realities confounded.  They are like the city of the Gandharvas, like magically-created figures.  To illustrate, Mahamati, here is a city of the Gandharvas where children see magically-created people, merchants and many others going in or coming out, and imagine that they are real people going in and coming out.  It is owing to discrimination characterised by perturbation that such takes place. (Suzuki, 1932, pp. 198-200)

Nagarjuna:

Finally and in particular in the eighth stage, the Bodhisattva’s activity is practiced spontaneously, without action (anabhisamskara), without thinking (anabhoga), for it is unaffected by things or concepts (dharma or adharma).  This is why it is called anabhisamskarabhogavihara . . .” (Maha Prajnaparamita, “Acala“)

The Tsung-ching lu

Manjusri said: It is like a man who learns archery and becomes skilful after long practice.  Although later he is mindless, because of his long practice, his arrow hits the bull’s eye every time. . . . Therefore a sutra says, “Having a mind is difficulty; having no-mind is bliss.” (Jorgensen, p. 268)

Ma-tsu (709-788):

Someone asked Ma-tsu: How does a man discipline himself in the Tao?

The master replied: In the Tao there is nothing in which to discipline oneself.  If there is any discipline in it, the exercise of such discipline means the destruction of the Tao.  One will then be like the Sravaka.  On the other hand, if one never disciplines oneself in the Tao, one remains in ignorance.

By what kind of understanding does a man attain the Tao?

On this, the master gave the following sermon:

The Tao in its nature is from the first perfect and self-sufficient. When a man finds himself unceasing in his management of the affairs of life good and bad, he is known as one who is disciplined in the Tao. To shun evils and to become attached to things good, to meditate on emptiness and to enter into a state of samadhi—this is doing. Running after outward things, they are the farthest from the Tao.

Only let a man completely do away with all the thinking and imagining he can possibly have in the triple world. When even an iota of imagining is left with him, this is the triple world, which contains the source of birth and death. When there is not a trace of imagining left, he has wiped out the source of birth and death, and he then holds the unparalleled treasure belonging to the Dharmaraja. All the imagining harboured since the beginningless past by an ignorant being, together with his falsehood, flattery, self-conceit, arrogance, and other evil passions, will be united in the body of One Essence and all will melt away. (Suzuki, https://terebess.hu/english/mazu.html#1)

Madame Guyon:

This action of the soul is a restful action. When the soul acts of itself, it acts with effort; and is therefore more conscious of its action. But when it acts in dependence upon the spirit of grace, its action is so free, so easy, so natural, that it does not seem to act at all.

* * *

Here it is necessary to say that it is of great consequence to put an end to self-action and operations in order to let God act. As the operations of God become more abundant they envelop and overwhelm the soul more and more . . . (James, 2011, p. 78)

Lester Levenson:

Now the very highest state is simply beingness, and if we could only be, just be, we could see our infinity. We would see that there are no limitations. We would see that we are the all. We would be in a perfectly satiated, permanent, changeless state. And it is not a nothingness, it is not a boredom; it is an allness, an everythingness, a total satiation that is eternal. You will never, never lose your individuality. The word “I” as you use it to mean your individuality will never, ever leave you: it expands. What happens as you remember what you are is that you’ll begin to see that others are you, that you are me, that you are now and always have been gloriously infinite.  (1993, “The Basic Goal”)

Ralph Waldo Emerson:

I ask primary evidence that you are a man and refuse this appeal from the man to his actions. I know that for myself it makes no difference whether I do or forbear those actions which are reckoned excellent. I cannot consent to pay for a privilege where I have intrinsic right. Few and mean as my gifts may be, I actually am, and do not need for my own assurance or the assurance of my fellows any secondary testimony. (“Self-Reliance”)

Meister Eckhart:

When I subsisted in the ground, in the bottom, in the river and fount of Godhead, no one asked me where I was going or what I was doing: there was no one to ask me. When I flowed forth, all creatures said, ‘God.’ If anyone asked me, ‘Brother Eckhart, when did you leave your house?’ then I was in there. That is how all creatures speak of God. And why do they not speak of the Godhead? Everything that is in the Godhead is one, and of that there is nothing to be said. God works, the Godhead does no work: there is nothing for it to do, there is no activity in it. It never peeped at any work. God and Godhead are distinguished by working and not-working. When I return to God, if I do not remain there my breakthrough will be far nobler than my emanation. I alone bring all creatures out of their reason into my reason, so that they are one with me.  When I enter the ground, the bottom, the river and fount of the Godhead, none will ask me whence I came or where I have been. No one missed me, for there God unbecomes. (Walshe Vol. II, Sermon Fifty Six, p. 81)

 

Deepak Chopra and Adam Plack. “The Secret of Healing: Meditations for Transformation and Higher Consciousness.” Play It By Ear Music, 2011.

Guyon, J. M. B. de La Mot (1875). A Short and Easy Method of Prayer. https://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/ted_hildebrandt/spiritualformation/texts/guyon_shortmethodofprayer.pdf

James, Nancy C. (2011). The Complete Madame Guyon. Brewster, Massachusetts: Paraclete Press.

Jorgensen, John A. (1979). The Earliest Text of Ch’an Buddhism: The Long Scroll. The Australian National University. (JorgensenBodhidharma)

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

Levenson, Lester (2003). No Attachments, No Aversions: The Autobiography of a Master. Sherman Oaks, California: Lawrence Crane Enterprises, Inc.

Suzuki, D. T. (1998). Studies in the Lankavatara Sutra. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers. (originally published in 1929)

Suzuki, D. T. (1932). The Lankavatara Sutra: A Mahayana Text (Based upon the Sanskrit edition of Bunyu Nanjo). London. (http://lirs.ru/do/lanka_eng/lanka-nondiacritical.htm)

Suzuki, D. T. (1935). Manual of Zen Buddhism.

Suzuki, D. T. (1957). Mysticism: Christian and Buddhist. London and New York: Routledge Classics. (https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/d-t-suzuki-mysticism-christian-and-buddhist.pdf)

The Zen Teachings of Mazu translated by Thomas Cleary; Mondo taken the book Sayings of the Ancient Worthies, translated by D.T. Suzuki: https://terebess.hu/english/mazu.html#1

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

Watson, Burton (1993). The Zen Teachings of Master Lin-chi: A Translation of the Lin-Chi Lu by Burton Watson. Boston & London: Shambhala. (https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-zen-teachings-of-master-lin-chi/9780231114851)

欲取一乘     If you want to follow the One Way

勿惡六塵     Have no aversion to the six sense-objects

六塵不惡     Having no aversion to the six sense-objects

還同正覺     Is equal to true awakening

David J. Kalupahana (1975) explains why many Buddhists believed that meditation consisted in shutting down sense-perception and thoughts—a practice that Zen masters uniformly opposed:

The process of perception, which the Upanishadic thinkers also explained on the basis of a metaphysical self (atman), received a causal explanation in the hands of the Buddha. For him, this was a problem of prime importance because he realized that all the misery and unhappiness in the world were due to the evils associated with sense perception. The Buddha thus found it necessary to explain clearly how sense perception takes place. He realized that a proper understanding of the sensory process would give insight into the origin of suffering as well as into the way one can attain freedom from suffering. Hence, in the Sarrzyutta Nikaya, the higher life (brahmacariya) lived under the Buddha is said to be aimed at understanding the sense organ, the sense object, and sense perception, because it is sense perception that leads to suffering. (p. 121)

Hui-neng:

Once you have attained liberation this, then, is the prajna samadhi. If you have awakened to the prajna samadhi, you have no-thought. What is no-thought? The doctrine of no-thought is thus: even though you see all things, you are not attached to them, but, always keeping your own nature pure, you allow the six thieves (consciousness of a sight, of a sound, etc.) to pass through the six gates (senses). Even though you are in the midst of the six dusts (the visual field, the field of sound, etc.), you do not stand apart from them, yet you are not sullied by them and are free to come and go. This is the prajna samadhi, and freedom and liberation are attained through the practice of no-thought. If you do not think of the manifold things but constantly cut off your thoughts, you will be Dharma-bound. This is known as an erroneous view. Grasping the Sudden-School doctrine of no-thought, you will have a deep insight into all things and you will see the realm of the Buddha. One who grasps the Sudden-School doctrine of no-thought reaches the stage of Buddha. (Hui-neng: Mahaprajnaparamita)

Hakuin:

The Third Patriarch has said: “If one wishes to gain true intimacy with enlightenment, one must not shun the sense-objects.” He does not mean here that one is to delight in the sense-objects but, just as the wings of a waterfowl do not get wet even when it enters the water, one must establish a mind that will continue a true koan meditation without interruption, neither clinging to nor rejecting the sense-objects. A person who fanatically avoids the sense-objects (1) and dreads the eight winds that stimulate the passions unconsciously falls into the pit of the Hinayana and will never be able to achieve the Buddha Way.

Yung-chia has said: “The power of the wisdom attained by practicing meditation in the world of desire is like the lotus that rises from fire; it can never be destroyed.” Here again, Yung-chia does not mean that one should sink into the world of the five desires.2 What he is saying is that even though one is in the midst of the five desires and the sense-objects, one must have a mind that is receptive to purity, as the lotus is unsullied by the mud from which it grows.

Moreover, even if you live in the forests or the wilderness, eat one meal a day and practice the Way both day and night, it is still difficult to devote yourself to purity in your works. How much harder must it be, then, for one who lives with his wife and relatives amid the dusts and turmoils of this busy life. But if you do not have the eye to see into your own nature, you will not have the slightest chance of being responsive to the teaching. Therefore Bodhidharma has said: “If you wish to attain the Buddha Way, you must first see into your own nature.”

If you suddenly awaken to the wisdom of the true reality of all things of the One Vehicle,3 the sense-objects themselves will be Zen meditation and the five desires will be the One Vehicle.* Thus words and silence, motion and tranquility, are all present in the midst of Zen meditation. When this state is reached, it will be as different from that of a person who quietly practices in forests or mountains as heaven is from earth. When Yung-chia speaks of the lotus withstanding the flames he is not here praising the rare man of the world who is practicing Buddhism. Yung-chia penetrated to the hidden meaning of the Tendai teaching that, “the truths themselves are one.” He polished the practice of shikan in infinite detail, and in his biography the four dignities (4) are praised as always containing within them the zen contemplation. His comment is very brief, but it is by no means to be taken lightly. When he says that zen contemplation is always maintained in the four dignities, he is speaking of the state of understanding in which the two are merged. The four dignities are none other than zen contemplation, and zen contemplation is none other than the four dignities. When Vimalakirti says that the bodhisattva, without establishing a place for meditation, practices amidst the activities of daily life, he is speaking about the same thing. (Orategama)

1. Sense objects: forms, sounds, sensations, scents, tastes

2. Five desires: wealth, fame, sex, food, sleep

3. One Vehicle: This may be Hakuin’s term for the Samadhi of One Act

4. Four dignities: sitting, standing, moving, lying down

Kalupahana, David J. (1975). Causality: The Central Philosophy of Buddhism. Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii.

Yampolsky, P. B. (1971). The Zen Master Hakuin: Selected Writings (Translated by Philip B. Yampolsky). New York: Columbia University Press.  (https://terebess.hu/zen/Orategama.pdf)

任性合道     Be your natural self and you are in accord with the Way

逍遙絶惱     Calm and easy and untroubled

繋念乖眞     When thoughts are in bondage they stray from the truth

昏沈不好     Becoming clouded and unsound

不好勞神     When thoughts are unsound, the spirit is troubled

何用疏親     What is the use of not-self and self?

Lester Levenson: (1993)

We must, in our everyday lives, be in that state of tranquility, and until we can be in that state while in the details of daily living, we haven’t reached the top. So there are no two categories—the world and spirit; it’s all one and the same. It’s just a matter of the way we look at it. We should strive to get to the place where no one and no thing can disturb us. When you get to that state, you are at the top. You are in the world and nothing and no one can disturb you in the slightest. Develop this. Make this a practice. Make this your way of life. Do not react to people; do not become angry, envious, hateful and so forth. Remain ever the same, ever the same. No matter what happens, no matter what goes on, you really are ever the same, serene and poised. (“Worldliness and Spirituality”)

Bodhidharma:

The sage has patience with things and is impatient with himself, and with him there is no grasping and rejecting, disliking or liking. The stupid one has patience with himself and is impatient with things, and with him there is grasping and rejecting, disliking and liking. If you can empty your mind, be unhurried and free and completely forget the world, this is having patience with things and going along with events, which is easy. Opposing, resisting and changing things is difficult. If something wills to come, let it come and do not resist it; if it wills to depart, let it go and do not chase after it. Whatever you have done is past and not to be regretted. That which has not yet happened, let go of it and do not think of it. This is to be a practitioner of the Way. Having patience, one leaves the world to its own devices, and gain and loss do not arise from the self. If you have patience and do not oppose, if you let go and do not resist, where and when will you not roam in the beyond?

Question: How does one quickly attain the Way?
Answer: Mind being the substance of the Way, one quickly attains the Way. When the practitioner himself realizes that delusion has arisen, then, relying on the doctrine, he gazes at it and causes it to vanish.

If the mind is attached to anything, that is bondage. The sutra says: “It is not through inferior, average or superior things that one attains Nirvana.” Even though the mind has entered delusion, do not push delusion away. Instead, when something arises from the mind, rely on the doctrine to gaze at the place from which it arises. If the mind discriminates, rely on the doctrine to gaze at the place of the discrimination. Whether greed, anger or ignorance arise, rely on the doctrine to gaze at the place from which they arise. To see that there is no place from which these can arise is to cultivate the Way. If there is anything arising from the mind, then investigate it, and relying on the doctrine, resolve it! (Bodhidharma’s Method for Quieting the Mind)

Ma-tsu: (709-788)

THE ORDINARY MIND

The Tao does not require cultivation: just don’t pollute it. What is pollution? As long as you have a restless mind creating artificialities and contrivances, all of this is pollution. If you want to understand the Tao directly, the ordinary mind is the Tao. What I mean by the ordinary mind is the mind without artificiality, without subjective judgments, without attachments or aversions.

THE TAO

Right this moment, as you walk, stand, sit, and lie down, responding to all situations and dealing with people—all of is the Tao. The Tao is the realm of reality. No matter how numerous are the uncountable, inconceivable functions, they are not beyond this realm. If they were, how could we speak of the teaching of the Mind-ground, and how could we speak of the inexhaustible lantern? (translated by Thomas Cleary, https://terebess.hu/english/mazu.html)

Adi Shankara:

The Vedas declare that the ignorant man who allows himself to make the slightest distinction between the individual soul and the Supreme Self is in peril. Where there is duality by virtue of ignorance, one sees all things as distinct from the Self; but when everything is seen as the Self, then there is not even an atom other than the Self. In that state when one realizes all things as the Self, there is neither delusion nor sorrow, in consequence of the absence of duality. (“Self Realization,” translation by Yogananda, Cp. 21)

The Zen Teachings of Mazu translated by Thomas Cleary; Mondo taken from the book Sayings of the Ancient Worthies, translated by D.T. Suzuki. (https://terebess.hu/english/mazu.html#1)

Levenson, Lester (1993). Keys to the Ultimate Freedom: Thoughts and Talks on Personal Transformation. Phoenix, Arizona: Sedona Institute. ISBN 0-915721-03-1 (download)

Yogananda, Paramhansa (1946). Autobiography of a Yogi. New York: The Philosophical Library.
(https://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Autobiography-of-a-Yogi-by-Paramahansa-Yogananda.pdf )