Shidō Bunan [or Munan] (1603–1676)

Although our school considers enlightenment [satori] in particular to be fundamental, that doesn't necessarily mean that once you're enlightened you stop there. It is necessary only to practice according to reality and complete the way.

According to reality means knowing the fundamental mind as it really is; practice means getting rid of obstructions caused by habitual actions by means of true insight and knowledge. Awakening to the way is comparatively easy; accomplishment of practical application is what is considered most difficult. That is why the great teacher Bodhidharma said that those who know the way are many, whereas those who carry out the way are few.

You simply must wield the jewel sword of the adamantine sovereignty of wisdom and kill this self. When this self is destroyed, you cannot fail to reach the realm of great liberation and great freedom naturally.

If you can really get to see your fundamental mind, you must treat it as though you were raising an infant. Walking, standing, sitting, lying down, illuminate everything everywhere with awareness, not letting him be dirtied by the seven consciousness. If you can keep him clear and distinct, it is like the baby's gradually growing up until he's equal to his father - calmness and wisdom clear and penetrating, your function will be equal to that of the buddhas and patriarchs. How can such a great matter be considered idle?

Now the reason that we consider human life best is for no other reason than being a means to realize true liberation in this lifetime. However, if you seek profit and support, considering these the ultimate truth, then in every moment of thought used by delusive ideas, vainly ending your life, at the time of death nothing you can do will be any use. The Buddha came into the world to guide those on the paths of illusion, directly pointed to the fundamental mind, letting them leave behind birth, death, and myriad things. While this body clearly exists, clearly realizing this body doesn't exist; while there are clearly seeing, hearing, discernment and knowledge, clearly realizing there are no seeing hearing discernment or knowledge - this is called the effect of true investigation; how could it be easy?

When you go near fire, you are warm; when you go near water, you are cool; and when you go near people imbued with the way, they naturally make your mind die and conceptions dissolve, causing all wrong thoughts to cease. This is called the spiritual effect of complete virtue. You all call yourselves people of the way as soon as you enter the gate. Really, you should be ashamed.

The moon’s the same old moon,

The flowers exactly as they were,

Yet I’ve become the thingness

Of all the things I see!

When you’re both alive and dead,

Thoroughly dead to yourself,

How superb

The smallest pleasure!

There are names,

Such as Buddha, God, or Heavenly Way:

But they all point to the mind

Which is nothingness.

Live always

With the mind of total nothingness,

And the evils that come to you

Will dissipate completely.

Not doing zazen,

Is no other than zazen itself;

When you truly know this,

You are not separate

From the way of Buddha. 

To acquiesce to the teaching of enlightenment, as it
is, directly abandon all things, merge with the body of   
thusness and experience peerless peace and bliss, is no  
more than a matter of whether or not you think of the   
body. Although there are people who think this teaching 
is true, it's hard to find someone who strives to make it his own.

There are no mountains to enter outside of mind,
making the unknown your hiding place.

Fire is something that burns; water is something that
wets; a buddha is someone who practices compassion.
Teaching people to be kind and compassionate to
others means imitating the Buddha. If you just practice
compassion, you will certainly become good. The basis
of compassion is purity of the mind. Purity of the mind
is "not a single thing." "Not a single thing" means
nothing at all; it is beyond the reach of speech, beyond
affirmation and negation. If there is any affirmation or
negation in your heart, it will be obstructed by that
affirmation and negation; if there is no affirmation or
negation, then heaven and earth are one. If there is
something, it separates you from heaven-this you
should well understand.

The mind which knows nothing is a Buddha
By a different name.

When the heart is pure and compassionate, there is
no Buddha outside of this.

Once you have been greatly enlightened, there is no
great enlightenment; when praying, there is no prayer;    
when rejoicing, there is no one to rejoice. Living, there
is nothing living; dying, there is nothing that dies; there   
is nothing existent or nonexistent. Though you have   
physical form, you have no form; beyond being and  
nonbeing, you let existence and nonexistence be, 
beyond affirmation and negation, you let right and wrong be—   

While deluded, 
It is things that are things;  
When enlightened,  
You leave things to their thingness.

The teachings of Buddhism are greatly in error. How much more in error it is to learn them. See directly. Hear directly. In direct seeing there is no seer. In direct hearing there is no hearer. 

A person’s delusion by fame   
Is the greatest folly in the world.   
People should be as those  
Who know not even their own name.

“Die while alive, and be completely dead,
Then do whatever you will, all is good.”

And there is really a person who hates the word Buddha. His name is Shidô Bunan Zenji. As you might know, he was the teacher of Shôju Rôjin, who was the master of Hakuin Zenji. I consider Shidô Bunan Zenji to be a truly outstanding person. Shidô Bunan Zenji was originally the innkeeper of a watering place along the Tokaido Road at that time. He became a student of the Zen master Gudô Oshô. - Yamada Koun

https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/bunan.html

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Japanese Zen master Shido Munan was born in 1603 and died in 1676.  Munan was highly venerated by Zen master Hakuin Zenji (1685–1768) who was the teacher of Hakuin’s teacher, Shoju Etan.  Of all the Japanese Zen masters, Munan had an extraordinary grasp of Mind.  It stands to reason because he spent a long time on the path not being merely content following form, or words and letters, but understanding that seeing Mind and cultivating it is of the greatest importance.  Like all of the best Zennists, Munan fully understood the importance of Mind in Buddhism (not to be confused with mind which is in a constant state of disturbance owing to the perturbations of carnal existence).  

For Munan, in a nutshell, Mind is Buddha in which one fully awakens (bodhi) to their fundamental or original Mind (the primordial undisturbed Mind) which verifies itself as only it can.  Thus, one goes from a state of corporeal sleep to awakening to Mind upon which all things are based.

Munan understood that real practice meant getting rid of the obstructions that prevent us from knowing the original Mind in its own natural state, undisturbed.  He also realized that even after we have attained an initial glimpse of Mind (satori), we still have to practice, continually, removing as much of the remaining obstructions as possible. Accordingly, Munan said:

“If you can really get to see your original Mind, you must regard it as if you were raising an infant.  In whatever you do such as walking, standing, sitting, lying down, be aware of Mind so that everything is illuminated by it, so that nothing of the seven consciousnesses (vijnana) soils it.  If you can keep him [the new born Mind] clear and distinct, it is like an infant growing up becoming equal with the father.”

Raising this special infant means paying attention to it more and more—not the desires of the body.  Munan regarded the body as the cause of delusion, and satori as seeing the Mind as being fundamentally free of the body.  We may draw from this that the more we practice, correctly, the more the original Mind should become outshining so that the body becomes less and less of a burden for us.  In this way, we see the truth of birth and death which only affect the body—never the original Mind.  Indeed, the original Mind is empty, unborn, and bodiless.

https://zennist.typepad.com