執之失度     Grasping for it excessively

必入邪路     Is sure to lead you astray

放之自然     Letting go of it, it will certainly happen on its own

體無去住     Substance never departs; it is abiding

 

If anyone regards bodhi as something to be attained, to be cultivated by discipline, he is guilty of pride of self.  – Saptasatika-prajna-paramita-sutra (quoted in Watts, p. 64)

When you dwell in your Self you have no desire to be liberated. It is only when you are in the ego that you desire liberation. – Lester Levenson

There are no skandhas in Nirvana, nor is there an ego-soul, nor any individual traits. To enter into the Mind-only one must free himself from attachment to emancipation. – The Lankavatara Sutra (p. 302)

Ping-ting the fire god comes looking for fire.

Tai’an of Fu-chou asked Pai-chang: I wish to know about the Buddha. What is he? Answered Pai-chang: It is like searching for an ox while you are yourself on it. (Suzuki, 1949, p. 370)

And having been asked by the rabbis when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them saying: The kingdom of God cometh not by watching;* nor shall it be said, Behold, here, or Behold, there; for behold, the kingdom of God is within you. (Luke 17:20).

*The verb θεαομαι (theaomai) means to watch attentively, or look out for something.

 Lin-chi:

Outside the mind there is no Dharma, and inside also there is nothing to be grasped. What is it that you seek? . . . To seek the Buddha and to seek the Dharma is precisely making karma for the hells. (Watts, p. 102)

Hui-neng:

Even as the light of a lamp can dispel darkness which has been there for a thousand years, so a spark of wisdom can do away with ignorance which has lasted for ten thousand years. We need not bother about the past, for the past is gone and irrecoverable. What demands our attention is the future; so let our thoughts from moment to moment be clear and round, and let use see face-to-face our Mind-essence. (Price and Wong, Chapter VI. “On Repentence”)

Lester Levenson: 

Praying is for those who need praying. When you know what you know, to whom are you praying? If you are That, why do you have to pray to it? You see, praying admits duality—I pray to God. Maintain your oneness. However, when one prays it is best to pray for one thing only: more wisdom, so that you eliminate all need for any prayer, for any asking. It all depends on one’s state of understanding. Most people in the world today need to pray, but prayer admits duality—God is out there. And we should know that God is within. Even though Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within” we still look for God without and he’s not out there: he’s only within. He turns out to be our very own Beingness. – Keys to the Ultimate Freedom (1993); (recorded in New York on September 14, 1984)

The Treatise on Resurrection (Nag Hammadi Scriptures)

Thought and Mind Will Not Perish

The object of belief is great and the believers are also great. The thought of believers will not perish and the mind of those who know will not perish. We are chosen for salvation and redemption, since from the beginning it was determined that we would not fall into the folly of the ignorant, but we would enter into the understanding of those who know the truth.

The truth they guard cannot be lost, nor will it be. The system of the Fullness is strong; what broke loose and became the world is insignificant. What is held fast is the All. It did not come into being — it was.

Flesh and Spirit

So never doubt the resurrection, Rheginus my son. Although once you did not exist in flesh, you took on flesh when you entered this world. Why is it, then, that you will not take your flesh with you when you ascend into the eternal realm? What is better than flesh is what animates the flesh. What came into being because of you, isn’t it yours? If it is yours, doesn’t it exist with you?

But while you are in the world, what are you missing? Is that what you have attempted to learn about, the fate of the body, which is old age? Are you nothing but corruption?

Leaving this behind will profit you, for you will not give up the better part when you leave. You will lose the inferior part, but there is compensation for it. Nothing redeems us from this world, but we are of the All, and we are saved. We have been saved from start to finish. Let us think about it in this way; let us accept it in this way.

 

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

Meyer, Marvin (2007). The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The International Edition. New York: Harper Collins.

Price, A. F. and Wong Mou-Lam (2004). Sutra Spoken by the Sixth Patriarch on the High Seat of “The Treasure of the Law.” Kessinger Publishing Company. (https://terebess.hu/zen/PlatformPrice.pdf)

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, Daisetz Teitaro (1949). Essays in Zen Buddhism (First Series). New York: Grove Press.

Watts, Alan (1957). The Way of Zen. New York: Vintage Books. (https://terebess.hu/english/AlanWatts-The%20Way%20of%20Zen.pdf)

大道體寛     The Great Way is open to all

無易無難     Neither easy nor difficult

小見狐疑     But those with a limited view are irresolute

轉急轉遲     Now hurrying, now lagging behind

 

 

 

 

 

 

不見精麁     Do not discriminate between coarse and refined

寧有偏黨     And you will possess equanimity regarding for and against

Lin-Chi:

Followers of the Way, when I preach the Dharma, what Dharma do I preach? I preach the Dharma of the mind. This pervades everything: it is in the worldly and the sacred, in the impure and the pure, the coarse and the fine. The most important thing is that you do not attach labels such as coarse or fine, worldly or sacred, and think that by naming things you now know them. The coarse and the fine, the worldly and the sacred, cannot be known to man simply by name. Followers of the Way, grasp this and make use of it, but do not attach labels to it, for naming obscures. (Lin-chi)

Meister Eckhart:

A man should receive God in all things and train his mind to keep God ever present in his mind, in his aims, and in his love. Note how you regard God: keep the same attitude that you have in church or in your cell and carry it with you in the crowd and in unrest and inequality. And, as I have often said, when we speak of equality, this does not mean that one should regard all works as equal, or all places or people. That would be quite wrong, for praying is a better task than spinning, and the church is a nobler place than the street. But in your acts, you should have an equal mind and equal faith and equal love for your God, and equal seriousness. Assuredly, if you were equal-minded in this way, then no man could keep you from having God ever present.

From The Talks of Instruction: 6. On Detachment and on Possessing God (Learn to acquire an inward desert)

Buddhaghosa:

Fetter number three: Clinging to practices and precepts

A student of the sutras once visited Guizong Zhichang while he was working the soil in the garden with a hoe. Just as the student drew near, he saw Guizong use the hoe to cut a snake in half, in violation of the Buddhist precept not to take any form of life.

“I’d heard that Guizong was a crude and ill-mannered man, but I didn’t believe it until now,” the student remarked.

“Is it you or I who’s crude or refined?” Guizong asked.

“What do you mean by ‘crude’?” the student asked.

Guizong held the hoe upright.

“And in that case, what do you mean by ‘refined’?” the student asked.

Guizong made a motion as if cutting a snake in half.

“And yet,” the student said, “if you had allowed it, it would have gone away on its own.”

“If I’d allowed it to go away on its own, how would you have seen me chop the snake in two?” https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/GuizongZhichang.html

二見不住     Do not dwell in dual views

慎莫追尋     Be careful not to pursue them

纔有是非     The slightest trace of right and wrong

紛然失心     And mind is lost in confusion

 

二由一有     The two exist because of the One

一亦莫守     But likewise do not cling to the One

一心不生     When the mind is one, nothing disturbs it

萬法無咎     The myriad things are harmless

 

無咎無法     No harm, no things

不生不心     No disturbance, no mind

能隨境滅     The subject vanishes with the object

境逐能沈     The object gone, the subject submerges

境由能境     The object exists because of the subject

能由境能     The subject exists because of the object

 

欲知兩段     If you want to understand the two sides

元是一空     Their origin is the one emptiness

一空同兩     In the one emptiness both are the same

齊含萬象     Undifferentiated emptiness contains the myriad things

 

All things have no reality in themselves; they rise from thought and laws of origination. When that which is thought of vanishes, the thinker himself vanishes. – Pratyutpannasamadhi Sutra (Suzuki 1953, p. 183)

Form is not different from emptiness; emptiness is not different from form. Form itself is emptiness; emptiness itself is form. – Prajna-paramita-hridaya Sutra (Heart Sutra BTTS)

To those who see clearly and properly, the separation between the mind that perceives and that which it perceives ceases; there is no such external world as is discriminated by the ignorant. – The Lankavatara Sutra, p. 285

His students said to him: When will the kingdom come?
Yeshua said: Watching for it will not bring it.
No one will announce, Look, here it is, or Look, there it is.
The father’s kingdom is spread out upon the earth
and people do not see it. – Gospel of Thomas (Meyer)

What liberates man is that there is no one to be saved. . . . There is no ego-soul, no man. Empty, nothing to be attached to—this is nirvana. Seng-fu, Hui-yin San-mei Ching (Jorgensen, 163-164)

 

Hui-neng: (Mahaprajnaparamita)

What is maha? Maha is ‘great’. The capacity of the mind is vast and far-reaching, like the vast sky.  Do not sit with a mind fixed on emptiness; if you do you will fall into a vacant kind of emptiness. Emptiness includes the sun, moon, stars and planets, the great Earth, mountains and rivers, all trees and grasses, good and bad men, good things and bad things, heaven and hell—they are all within emptiness. The emptiness of human nature is also like this.

Self-nature contains the ten thousand things—this is ‘great’. The ten thousand things are all in Self-nature. Although you see all men and other creatures, good and evil, good things and evil things, you must not reject them, nor must you cling to them, nor must you accumulate karma because of them; rather you must regard them as being just like the empty sky. This is what is meant by ‘great’. This is the practice of maha. (Yampolsky, 1967)

The Lankavatara Sutra:

False imagination (parikalpita) teaches that such things as light and shade, long and short, black and white, differ and are to be discriminated from each other. But they are not independent of each other: they are only different aspects of the same thing. They are terms of relation and not of reality. Conditions of existence are not of a mutually exclusive character; in essence things are not two, but one. Even nirvana and samsara are aspects of the same thing, for there is no nirvana except where there is samsara, and no samsara except where there is nirvana. All duality is falsely imagined. (Goddard and Suzuki, 1932, Chapter 2)

Adi Shankara: “Self-Realization”

134. The aspirants after Brahman should not spend a single moment without the thought of Brahman.
135. The nature of the cause (the mind) inheres in the effect (the phenomenal world) and not vice versa; so through reasoning it is found that with the vanishing 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 clay and the pot. (clay represents potential matter)
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 (my mind is not my Self) and then find it by the positive method, as being ever inherent in the effect (my mind is projecting the world).
139. One should verily see the cause in the effect, and then dismiss the effect altogether as not real. What then remains, the sage himself becomes.

Lester Levenson: (1993)

Eliminate all objectivity and the mind resolves. Then there is only subjectivity. The mind must be eliminated permanently by realizing that it is not real but only an apparency, an illusion, that has its source in your Self. Where there is only subject and no object, there the Self is. (Session 10: The Mind)

Bodhidharma:

The perfect awakening of all buddhas of the past, present and future are only the memories and discriminations of sentient beings: therefore I call them dreams. If the conscious mind is quiescent and has no place for the stirring of a single thought, this is called perfect awakening. Anything in which the mind and consciousness are not extinguished is a dream.

Question: What is the wisest method to cultivate the Way and cut off delusion?
Answer: One uses the wise method of expedient devices.
Question: What is this expedient device?
Answer: It is contemplating and knowing that from the beginning delusion has no place from which to arise. With this expedient device one can cut off delusions, so it is called wise.

Question: What delusion is cut off by the mind that is in accord with the Dharma?
Answer: The delusion that ordinary men, heretics, sravakas, solitary buddhas, bodhisattva and so forth attain liberation. (Bodhidharma’s Method For Quieting the Mind)

The Buddha:

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was dwelling at Savatthi in Jeta’s Grove, Anathapindika’s Park. There the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus thus: “Bhikkhus!”
“Venerable sir!” those bhikkhus replied.
The Blessed One said this: “Bhikkhus, I will teach you dependent origination. Listen and attend closely; I will speak.”
“Yes, venerable sir,” those bhikkhus replied.

The Blessed One said this: “And what, bhikkhus, is dependent origination? With ignorance as condition, samskara (expectations); with samskara as condition, vijnana (consciousness of worldly things); with vijnana as condition, name-and-form; with name-and-form as condition, the six sense-domains; with the six sense-domains as condition, contact; with contact as condition, feeling; with feeling as condition, craving; with craving as condition, clinging; with clinging as condition, existence; with existence as condition, birth; with birth as condition, aging and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, displeasure, and despair come to be. Such is the origin of this whole mass of suffering. This, bhikkhus, is called dependent origination.” (SN 12.1 Paṭiccasamuppāda Sutta: Dependent Origination)

 

Goddard, Dwight and Suzuki, D. T. (1932). A Buddhist Bible (First Edition). (http://zen-ua.org/wp-content/uploads/lankavatara_sutra_english.pdf)

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

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

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)

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. (download)

不用求眞     Do not seek the true

唯須息見     Only cease to cling to views

 

Mind is where the idea of truth is not clung to but treated with indifference because of its causing bewilderment. – The Lankavatara Sutra

Inside there were four large chests of silver and a moderate chest of gold, and on seeing their contents a soldier said they had all risked their lives to gain this wealth and that in his opinion it should be shared out equally at once: now, now, equally and at once. His opinion was supported by several men there, but O’Higgins said, “A fig for your opinion,” and shot him dead. (Patrick O’Brian, Blue at the Mizzen)

 

Bodhidharma:

Question: The sutra says: Heretics take delight in the various views; the bodhisattva is unmoved by the various views.
Answer: Because false views are the same as true views, the bodhisattva is unmoved. To be unmoved is to neither reject the true nor reject the false. At the moment of true understanding there is no false and true, so there is no need to reject the false in order to seek the true. Because he relies on the Dharma (doctrine) to investigate the lack of difference between the false and the true, he is said to be unmoved. Further, because it is unnecessary to him to reject the false in order to enter the true, he is said to be unmoved by the various views. A sutra says: By false appearances enter the true Dharma. It also says: Enter the eight forms of liberation without rejecting the eight heterodox practices.  (Bodhidharma’s Method for Quieting the Mind)

Hui-neng: “Verse of the true-false motion-stillness”

Nowhere is there anything true;
Don’t try to see the true in any way.
If you try to see the true,
Your seeing will be in no way true.
If you yourself would gain the true,
Separate from the false; there the mind is true.
If the mind itself does not separate from the false, there is no true.
What place is there for the mind to abide? (Yampolsky)

Bodhidharma:

If you consider right to be right, there is something that is not right. If you consider wrong to be right, there is nothing that is not right. (Bodhidharma’s Method for Quieting the Mind)

Hui-neng:

Always recognize your own faults
And you will be in accord with the Way.
Each form has its own path;
They do not hinder or trouble one another.

If you truly walk the Way,
You are blind to the faults of the world.
If you find fault in others,
Your fault-finding itself is a fault.

Others’ faults I do not judge;
For my faults I judge only myself.
Simply cast out the fault-finding mind;
Once cast out, troubles are gone.

When hate and love no longer block the mind,
Stretch out your legs and lie down.

If you hope to teach and transform others,
You yourself must have the skillful means.
Do not raise doubts in others
And their essential nature will reveal itself on its own.
(Seeing the Nature)

 

Broughton, Jeffrey L. (1999). The Bodhidharma Anthology: The Earliest Records of Zen. University of California Press.

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

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

Yampolsky, Philip B. (1967) The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch. New York: Columbia University Press. (http://www.fodian.net/world/Platform_Sutra_Yampolsky.pdf)

前空轉變     The shifting and changing in emptiness that confronts you

皆由妄見     Only seems real because of ignorance

 

Illusions become reality when experienced by many. When these are incorporated into our own lives they acquire their own reality. After all, what is the truth concerning the things of this world except how they are experienced in our own consciousness? – Deepak Chopra, The Secret of Healing.

When the Mind is agitated by habit-energy (vasana) there rises what appears to be an external world. When the dualistic imagination ceases there is transcendental knowledge (jnana), the realm of suchness, the realm of the wise, free from appearances and beyond thought. (Lankavatara Sutra, p. 285)

“My Master Ramakrishna always told me to meditate whenever I saw an expanse of water. Here its placidity reminds us of the vast calmness of God. As myriad things can be reflected in water, so, too, the whole universe is mirrored in the lake of the Cosmic Mind.” – Mahendra Nath Gupta (Yogananda, Cp. 9)

If ye make not the below into the above and the above into the below, the right into the left and the left into the right, the before into the behind and the behind into the before, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of God. (Mead, p. 599)

 

Layman P’ang: (P’ang was a younger contemporary of the great master, Ma-tsu)

Old P’ang requires nothing in the world;
All is empty with him, even a seat he has not,
For absolute emptiness reigns in his house.
How empty indeed it is with no treasures!
When the sun is risen he walks through emptiness;
When the sun sets, he sleeps in emptiness.
Sitting in emptiness he sings his empty songs,
And his empty songs reverberate through emptiness.
Be not surprised at emptiness so thoroughly empty,
For emptiness is the abode of all the buddhas.
Emptiness is not understood by men of the world,
But emptiness is the real treasure.
If you say there is no emptiness,
You commit a grave offense against the buddhas.
(Suzuki, 1953, p. 341)

Robert Lanza:

First Principle of Biocentrism: What we perceive as reality is a process that involves our consciousness.

Second Principle of Biocentrism: Our external and internal perceptions are inextricably intertwined. They are different sides of the same coin and cannot be separated.

Third Principle of Biocentrism: The behavior of subatomic particles—indeed all particles and objects—is inextricably linked to the presence of an observer. Without the presence of a conscious observer, at best they exist in an undetermined state of probability waves.

Fourth Principle of Biocentrism: Without consciousness, matter dwells in an undetermined state of probability. Any universe that might have preceded consciousness could only have existed in a probability state.

Lester Levenson:

Our real beingness, our real Self, is like the screen in a cinema show. Your real Self is the changeless screen and the flitting pictures are the world. The Self of us, the screen, never moves, but all the pictures on the screen do. When you’re looking at the characters on the screen and all the play that goes on, the fires, floods and bombs don’t touch the screen. The fires don’t burn it, the floods don’t wet it, the bombs don’t destroy it. That screen, like our very own Self, is changeless and untouchable, perfect. (2003, p. 140)

 

Deepak Chopra and Adam Plack, “The Secret of Healing: Meditations for Transformation and Higher Consciousness” (2011).

Lanza, Robert (2009). Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe. Dallas, Texas: BenBella Books, Inc. (download)

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

Mead, George Robert Stow (1900). Fragments of a Faith Forgotten. London: Theosophical Publishing Society.

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

Suzuki, D. T. (1932). The Lankavatara Sutra: A Mahayana Text (Based upon the Sanskrit edition of Bunyu Nanjo, 1923). London. (http://lirs.ru/do/lanka_eng/lanka-nondiacritical.htm)

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

歸根得旨     Return to the Source and gain what you seek

隨照失宗     Pursue enlightenment and you lose it

須臾返照     A flash of light

勝卻前空     And you are beyond emptiness and things

 

There are no skandhas in Nirvana, nor is there an ego-soul, nor any individual traits. To enter into the Mind-only, one must free himself from attachment to emancipation. – The Lankavatara Sutra

Transfer the focus of your attention from the creation to the Creator. – Lester Levenson

They all have a call to return whence they flowed forth. All their life and being is a calling and a hurrying back to what they came out of. – Meister Eckhart (Walshe, Sermon 22)

 

Ma-tsu (709-788):

All beings since the beginningless past have never been outside the Dharma-essence itself. Abiding forever in the midst of the Dharma-essence, they eat, they put on their clothes, they speak, they respond. All the functioning of the six senses, all their doings are of the Dharma-essence itself. Not understanding what it means to return to the Source, they follow names, pursue forms, allow confusing ideas to rise and cultivate all kinds of karma. Let them once, in one thought, return to the Source and their entire being will be of Buddha-mind. (Suzuki, Sayings of the Ancient Worthies)

Hui-neng:

Among men there are the deluded and the wise. The deluded are small, the sages are vast. If deluded ones ask the sages, the sages will expound the doctrine for them to enable them to understand and gain a deep awakening. If the deluded one understands and his mind is awakened, then there is no difference between him and the sage. Therefore we know that, unawakened, a buddha is a sentient being, and that a sentient being awakened in an instant of thought is a buddha, and he knows that the ten thousand dharmas are all within his own mind. Why not make your original nature, true reality, suddenly appear within yourselves? The Boddhisattva-sila-sutra says: From the outset our own nature is pure. If we look into our own mind and see our own nature, we have achieved the Buddha Way. At once, in an instant, we regain our original mind. (The Platform Sutra)

Lin-ji (Rinzai) (d. 866):

Just because your mind is ever running after every object that comes before it and knows not how to restrain itself, it is said by a patriarch that you are the foolish seeker of another head over your own. If you do as you are told and, without delay, turn your light within yourself and reflect, and stop looking for answers outside of yourself, you will realize that there is no difference between your own mind and that of the buddhas and patriarchs. When you thus come to a state of doing nothing, you are said to have attained the truth. (Suzuki, 2014, p. 178)

Kuoan Shiyuan’s Ten Bulls

Whip, rope, person and ox—all merge in no thing
This heaven is so vast, no distinction can mar it
How can a snowflake exist in a raging fire?
Here are the footprints of the ancestors

Too many steps have been taken returning to the root and the source
Better to have been blind and deaf from the beginning!
Dwelling in one’s true abode, unconcerned within and without
The river flows tranquilly on and the flowers are red

Hui-neng:

Hear me as I explain to you. If men in later generations wish to seek the Buddha, they have only to know that the Buddha-mind is within sentient beings; then they will be able to know the Buddha. Because the Buddha-mind is possessed by sentient beings, apart from sentient beings, there is no Buddha-mind.

Deluded, a buddha is a sentient being;
Awakened, a sentient being is a buddha.
Ignorant, a buddha is a sentient being;
Possessing wisdom, a sentient being is a buddha.
If the mind is crooked, a buddha is a sentient being;
If the mind is straight, a sentient being is a buddha.
When a crooked mind is produced,
Buddha is concealed within the sentient being.
If for one instant of thought we straighten out,
Then sentient beings are themselves buddha.
In our mind itself a buddha exists,
Our own buddha is the true Buddha.
If we do not have in ourselves the Buddha-mind,
Then where are we to seek the Buddha? (Yampolsky, p. 180)

Lao-tzu:

16. Returning to the Root

By attaining the height of detachment we gain fullness of rest.

All the ten thousand things arise, and I see them return. Now they burst into bloom, but each one homeward returneth to its root.

Returning to the root means rest. It signifies the return according to destiny. Return according to destiny means the eternal. Knowing the eternal means enlightenment. Not knowing the eternal causes passions to arise, and that is evil.

Knowing the eternal renders one comprehensive. Comprehensiveness renders one broad. Breadth renders one royal. Royalty renders one heavenly. Heaven renders one Tao-like. The Tao renders one everlasting. Thus the decay of the body implies no danger. (Suzuki & Carus, 1913)

Case 9: Daitsu Chisho Buddha

A monk asked Koyo Seijo: Daitsu Chisho Buddha sat in zazen for ten kalpas and could not attain buddhahood. He did not become a buddha. How could this be?

Seijo said: Your question is quite self-explanatory.

The monk asked: He meditated so long; why could he not attain buddhahood?

Seijo said: Because he did not become a Buddha. (The Gateless Gate)

 

Levenson, Lester (1998). The Ultimate Truth. Sherman Oaks, California: Lawrence Crane Enterprises, Inc.

Suzuki, D. T.; (2014). Selected Works of D. T. Suzuki, Volume I. (Richard M. Jaffee, editor). Oakland, California: University of California Press.

Suzuki, D. T. Sayings of the Ancient Worthies, fas. I (Ku tsun-hsiu yu-lu). (https://terebess.hu/english/mazu.html#1)

D. T. Suzuki and Paul Carus (1913). The Canon of Reason and Virtue (Tao Te Ching).
(https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/crv/crv022.htm)

Yampolsky, Philip B. (1967). The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch. New York: Columbia University Press. (http://www.fodian.net/world/Platform_Sutra_Yampolsky.pdf)

多言多慮     Too many words, too much thinking

轉不相應     Do not go round and round

絶言絶慮     Banish words, banish thinking

無處不通     And there is no stage you cannot enter

The wise should always be one with that silence from which words, together with the mind, turn back without reaching it. – Adi Shankara (Self-Realization)

We cannot serve this Word better than in stillness and in silence: there we can hear it, and there too we will understand it aright—in the unknowing. To him who knows nothing it appears and reveals itself. – Meister Eckhart, Sermon Two

The character 慮 ( lǜ ) means to think, but it also means to worry, to be anxious, to be concerned, to care. This is the activity of the left-brain, the limited mind; it is the opposite of wisdom or knowing. It is said that the Dharma blocks the passage of words and thoughts; turning this around, words and thoughts prevent us from knowing the Dharma.

Adi Shankara:

Who can describe that from which words turn away? Or if the phenomenal world were to be described, even that is beyond words. This may also be termed silence known among the sages as present from the beginning. (Self-Realization)

Bodhidharma:

Question: “What is the mind of simplicity? What is the mind of cerebration?” Answer: “Spoken and written words are called cerebration. Things and concepts* are the same. Walking, standing, sitting or lying—maintain the mind of simplicity in all that you do. Even when it encounters unhappy or joyful events, the mind remains unmoved; only then can it be called the mind of simplicity.”

*dharma and adharma

Lester Levenson: (1993)

Mind is Beingness that has assumed limitation. We are naturally unlimited until we assume a mind. Then the evolution begins of progressively limiting ourselves until we can no longer bear it. When life becomes altogether unbearable, we then start the devolution. We reverse the process by letting go of thoughts more and more until the complete peace and total freedom from thought is re-established. The whole process of growth is letting go of thoughts. When our thoughts are totally eliminated, there is nothing left but the Self.

Lester Levenson: (1998)

The most correct thinking is “no thoughts.” Truth is in the realm of knowingness. It is when all thoughts are stilled that we remove the blanket covering the omniscience that we all have now. Pure mind is mind with no thoughts. It is knowingness.

Sermon by Master Ying-an T’an-hua: 

Students of Zen should by all means avoid wrong applications of the mind. To attain enlightenment or to see into one’s own inner nature—this is a wrong application of the mind. To attain Buddhahood or to become a master—this is a wrong application of the mind. To recite the sutras or to discourse on philosophy—this is a wrong application of the mind. Walking, standing, sitting, and lying—this is a wrong application of the mind. Putting on the habit and taking meals—this is a wrong application of the mind. To attend to the calls of nature—this is a wrong application of the mind. In fact, every movement you make, whether turning this way or that, walking on this side or that—all this is a wrong application of the mind. Kuei-tsung has never given you a discourse on the Dharma. Why? Because “when one word passes through the gate of the government office,* even nine bulls can’t pull it out.” (Suzuki, 1965, pp. 58-59)

*A metaphor for the executive function of the mind, which Freud called the ego.

Hui-neng:  (No-thought is the foundation)

17.  Good friends, our teaching, from ancient times up to the present, whether of the Abrupt school or of the Gradual, is established on the foundation of no-thought (wu-nien).

To be free of defilements at all times is called no-thought. This is to be detached from things even as they are present in consciousness, for consciousness is not engaged in weaving thoughts concerning them. When thus all thoughts are cast out, consciousness is cleared of all defilements. When consciousness is swept clean once and for all, there will be no new birth. Hence no-thought is made the foundation of the teaching.

When names are grasped, various thoughts about the world arise; these thoughts lead people astray. All erroneous ideas about the world arise from this: thus it is that our teaching is established on the foundation of no-thought. In order not to become entangled in thoughts one must cast out views. If thoughts are not aroused, no-thought is no place. “No” (wu) is no what? “Thought” (nien) means thinking of what? Wu is no dualism, no passions. Thought rises from original nature. Original nature is [like] the body, and thoughts are the activity of original nature. Thoughts arise from original nature and are manifested in what is seen, heard, believed and known (drista-sruta-mata-jnata), but original nature itself is not defiled by the myriad things; it remains forever pure. So we read in the Vimalakirti,* “Adept in the discrimination of the manifold phenomena, he abides immovably in the Dharma.” (Suzuki, 1971, pp. 33-35)

*They had learned to accept the fact that there is nothing to be grasped, no view of phenomena to be entertained. . . . Expert in comprehending the characteristics of phenomena (dharmalaksana), able to understand the capacities of living beings, they towered over the others of the great assembly and had learned to fear nothing. . . . In fame and renown they soared higher than Mount Sumeru; their profound faith was diamond-like in its firmness. (Wisdom Library)

Nagarjuna:

“Finally, in the eighth stage, the Bodhisattva’s activity is practiced spontaneously: without effort (anabhisamskara), without thought (anabhoga), for it is unaffected by things or concepts (dharma or adharma). This is why it is called anabhisaṃskārābhogavihāra . . .” Acala (Prajnaparamita Sutra)

Mendis, N. K. G. (2007). Anatta-lakkhana Sutta: The Discourse on the Characteristics of Things That Are Not-Self, translated from the Pali by N.K.G. Mendis. https://accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn22/sn22.059.mend.html

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

Levenson, Lester (1998). The Ultimate Truth. Sherman Oaks, California: Lawrence Crane Enterprises, Inc.

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

Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro (1965). The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk. New York: University Books.

莫逐有縁     Neither pursue existence

勿住空忍     Nor dwell in emptiness

一種平懷     Carry oneness serenely in your breast

泯然自盡     And dualism will vanish by itself

止動歸止     Stop motion, and you stop it over and over

止更彌動     The harder you try, the more the motion

唯滯兩邊     If you are merely in one or the other

寧知一種     How will you know oneness?

一種不通     Not understanding oneness

兩處失功     You miss it in two ways

遣有沒有     Pushing away existence, you are without existence

從空背空     Pursuing emptiness, you never catch it

His followers said to him: When will the rest for the dead take place, and when will the new world come? He said to them: What you look for has come, but you do not know it. – Yeshua (Gospel of Thomas 51)

It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”

One should first investigate the nature of the ego-soul and rid oneself of attachments; to try to go beyond without this investigation is of no value. – The Lankavatara Sutra (1932, p. 371)

The Buddha Realm is right here in the world;
There is no awakening apart from this world.
To search for enlightenment somewhere beyond this world
Is like looking for a horned rabbit. – Hui-neng (Verhoeven and Sure, 2014)

SN 12.46 Annatarabrahmana Sutta: A Certain Brahmin

At Savatthi. Then a certain brahmin approached the Blessed One and exchanged greetings with him. When they had concluded their greetings and cordial talk, he sat down to one side and said to him: “How is it, Master Gotama: is the one who acts the same as the one who experiences?”

“The one who acts is the same as the one who experiences: this, brahmin, is one extreme.”

“Then, Master Gotama, is the one who acts one, and the one who experiences another?”

“The one who acts is one, and the one who experiences is another: this, brahmin, is the other extreme.”

“Without veering towards either of these extremes, the Tathagata teaches the Law by the middle way: With ignorance as condition, expectations; with expectations as condition, consciousness . . . . Such is the origin of this whole mass of suffering. But with the remainder-less fading away and cessation of ignorance comes cessation of expectations; with cessation of expectations, consciousness; . . . . Such is the cessation of this whole mass of suffering.”1

When this was said, that brahmin said to the Blessed One: “Magnificent, Master Gotama! . . . I seek refuge in Master Gotama, in the Dhamma and in the Community of Monks. From this day forward, may Master Gotama remember me as a lay follower who has sought refuge for life.” (http://www.suttas.com/chapter-1-nidana-samyutta-on-causation.html)

Suzuki (1953):

Tai-hui declares that mere quiet sitting avails nothing, for it leads nowhere, as no upturning takes place in one’s mind, whereby one comes back into the world of particulars with an entirely different outlook.* Those quietists whose mental horizon does not rise above the level of the so-called “absolute silence of unfathomability” grope in the cave of eternal darkness. They fail to open the eye of wisdom (prajna). This is where they need the guiding hand of a genuine Zen master.

Tai-hui then proceeds to give cases of satori realized under a wise instructor, pointing out how necessary it is to interview an enlightened master and to reject once and for all the whole silence-mechanism, which is inimical to the growth of the Zen mind. This upturning of the whole mind is here called by Tai-hui, after the terminology of a sutra, “Entering into the stream and losing one’s abode,” where the dualism of motion and rest forever ceases to obtain. (p. 27)

*This new outlook is no small thing: Suzuki is talking about enlightenment.

Yuan-chon Hsueh-Yen Tsu-ch’in (d. 1287)

At nineteen I was staying at the monastery of Ling-yin when I made the acquaintance of the recorder Lai of Ch’u-chou. He gave me this advice: Your method has no life in it and will achieve nothing. There is a dualism in it; you keep motion and stillness as two separate poles of thought. To exercise yourself properly in Zen you ought to cherish a questioning spirit (tai-i), for according to the strength of your questioning spirit will be the depth of your enlightenment. (Suzuki, 1953, p. 117)

Hakuin:

It is essential that you neither reject nor grasp for either the realm of activity or that of quietude, and that you continue your practice assiduously. Frequently you may feel that you are getting nowhere with practice in the midst of activity, whereas the quietistic approach brings unexpected results. Yet you should know that those who use the quietistic approach can never hope to enter into meditation in the midst of activity. Should by chance a person who uses this approach enter into the dusts (six sense-phenomena) and confusions (delusion) of the world of activity, even the power of ordinary understanding which he had seemingly attained will be entirely lost. Drained of all vitality, he will be inferior to any mediocre, talentless person. The most trivial matters will upset him, an inordinate cowardice will afflict his mind, and he will frequently behave in a mean and base manner. What can you call accomplished about a man like this?

The Zen Master Ta-hui has said that meditation in the midst of activity is immeasurably superior to the quietistic approach. Po-shan has said that if one does not attain to this meditation within activity, one’s practice is like trying to cross a mountain ridge as narrow as a sheep’s skull with a one-hundred-and-twenty-pound load on one’s back (one’s body). I am not trying to tell you to completely discard quietistic meditation and that you should seek a place of activity in which to carry out your practice. What is most worthy of respect is a pure koan meditation that neither knows nor is conscious of the two aspects, the quiet and the active. This is why it has been said that the true practicing monk walks but does not know he is walking, sits but does not know he is sitting. (Orategama)

Meister Eckhart: Sermon Nine

“You are among things, but they are not in you,” for those who are careful are unhindered in their activity. They are unhindered who organize all their works guided by the eternal light. Such people are among things and not in them. They are very close (to the world), and yet have no less than if they were up yonder on the circle of eternity. Very close, I say, for all creations are means (to get to God). There are two kinds of means. One means, without which I cannot get to God, is work or activity in time, which does not interfere with eternal salvation. Works are performed outwardly, but activity is when one performs with care and understanding inwardly. The other means is to be free of all that. For we are set down in time so that our sensible worldly activity may make us closer and more like to God.

Meister Eckhart: The Talks of Instruction

The more he regards everything as divine—more divine than it is of itself—the more God will be pleased with him. To be sure, this requires effort and love, a careful cultivation of the spiritual life, and a watchful, honest, active oversight of all one’s mental attitudes toward things and people. It is not to be learned by fleeing from the world, running away from things, turning solitary and going apart from the world. Rather, one must learn an inner solitude, wherever or with whomsoever he may be. He must learn to penetrate things and find God there, to get a strong impression of God firmly fixed in his mind.

Lester Levenson: (1993)

Q: How do you go about it? Just by meditating?

Lester: No. By seeing what we are. See, the word, meditation, is a word that doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone. But by discovering what we are, we discover that we have all power, all knowledge, that we are unlimited.

Q: How am I to discover what I am if I don’t know what I am?

Lester: By turning all your attention on you, with the question, What am I? and quieting the mind enough so that the real you is obvious. When your mind is quiet enough, your real being is obvious to you; and when it is, you know, and you know that you know, and that’s it. So, the way is to keep that question going: What am I? And as disturbing thoughts come up you look at them and drop them. And if we keep that going, we reach a point where they don’t come up any more and then the mind is quiet. Then we can see what we are. Then we can undo the balance of the mind. Finally, we can wipe out the entire mind in one stroke. Then we’re totally free. (Seminar recorded in 1969)

Adi Shankara:

11. Knowing 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 composed? 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; I am something other than these. This is the way of enquiry.

14. All things are produced by ignorance, and dissolve in the wake of knowing. The stirring of the mind must be the creator. Such is this enquiry.

15. The substance of everything is the undifferentiated, subtle and unchanging That, just as clay is the substance of the jar, fibers are the substance of cloth, gold is the substance of an earring, water is the substance of waves, wood is the substance of a house, and iron is the substance of a sword. This is the way of that enquiry.

16. As I am also the undifferentiated, the subtle, the knowing, the witness, the ever-existing, and the unchanging, so there is no doubt that I am That. Such is this enquiry. (https://www.shankaracharya.org/aparokshanubhuti.php)

1. “And what, monks, is dependent origination? With ignorance as condition, expectations come to be; with expectations as condition, consciousness; with consciousness as condition, name-and-form; with name-and-form as condition, the six sense-domains; with the six sense-domains as condition, contact; with contact as condition, feeling; with feeling as condition, craving; with craving as condition, grasping; with grasping as condition, existence; with existence as condition, birth; with birth as condition, aging and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, suffering, and despair come to be. Such is the origin of this whole mass of suffering. This, monks, is called dependent origination.” (Samyutta Nikaya 12.1)

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

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

Levenson, Lester (1993). Keys to the Ultimate Freedom: Thoughts and Talks on Personal Transformation (edited by George A.Cappannell). Sedona, Arizona: Sedona Institute. (keys-to-the-ultimate-freedom)

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

Suzuki, D. T.  (1932). The Lankavatara Sutra: A Mahayana Text (Based upon the 1923 Sanskrit edition of Bunyu Nanjo). London. (http://lirs.ru/do/lanka_eng/lanka-nondiacritical.htm)

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)

圓同太虚     Perfect it is, like vast emptiness

無欠無餘     With nothing wanting, nothing superfluous

良由取捨     When you grasp this and reject that

所以不如     You cannot see its suchness

That singleness is known as emptiness, wherein the universe does not exist in the beginning, end or middle, but by which the universe is pervaded at all times. – Adi Shankara

The Tathagata also teaches, for the sake of all beings, that verily the Self is in all phenomena. (Mahaparinirvana Sutra, Chapter Three).

Who can guess how much tranquillity has been reflected to man from the azure sky, over whose unspotted deeps the winds forevermore drive flocks of stormy clouds, and leave no wrinkle or stain? – Ralph Waldo Emerson (Nature)

Huang-po (d. 850):

It is told again by the Tathagata that this Dharma is perfectly empty and unbroken. By Dharma is meant bodhi. That is, this pure Mind, source of all things, is the very same in all sentient beings. In all the Buddha-lands, and also in all other worlds together with their mountains, oceans, etc., form and formless, all is the same, and no marks distinguish one thing from another. This pure Mind, source of all things, is always perfect and illuminating and all-pervading. People are ignorant of this and take what they see or hear or think of or know for Mind itself;* their insight is then veiled and unable to penetrate into the essence itself, which is clear and illuminating. When you realize no-mind without any interference, the essence itself is revealed to you. It is like the sun coming out: its illumination penetrates the ten quarters and nothing obstructs its passage. (Suzuki, 1935, p. 81)

*I.e., devotees mistake religious ideas such as the historical Buddha and the Western Paradise (Sukhavati) for the true Dharma, which is “sameness.”

The Buddha:

     “… one who knows himself as nondual, he wisely knows both Buddha and Dharma. And why? He develops a self which consists of all things; for all things are dependent on the self for their being (atma-svabhava-niyata). One who wisely knows the nondual Dharma wisely knows also the higher truths. From the comprehension of the nondual Dharma follows the comprehension of the higher truths, and from the comprehension of self follows the comprehension of everything belonging to the triple world. ‘The comprehension of self’, that is the reality beyond all things . . .”  (Conze, “Perfect Insight,” The Questions of Suvikrantavikramin)

Lao-Tzu:

34. Trust in its Perfection

1. How all-pervading is the great Tao! It can go left and right.

2. The ten thousand things depend upon it for their life, and it refuses them not. The merit it accomplishes, it does not claim. It loves and nourishes the ten thousand things, yet it plays not the lord. Forever free of tendencies, it can be called humble. The ten thousand things return to it, yet it plays not the lord. It can be called great.

3. Therefore

The holy man until the very end does not strive to be great; only thus can he realize his greatness. (Suzuki & Carus, 1913)

Conze, Edward (2002). Perfect Wisdom: The Short Prajnaparamita Texts. England: BPG.

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

D. T. Suzuki and Paul Carus (1913). The Canon of Reason and Virtue (Tao Te Ching). (https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/crv/crv040.htm)