Beyond Seeking

In the Great Perfection, contemplation is uncontrived. It is systematic. It bears fruit. We embody just this and express it in a voice beyond dispute. Consider these three things: the real meaning of material phenomena; a path free of seeking, our eternal heart; and the fruition that comes on its own, not due to seeking or striving. These three are equal and inseparable but require three different modes of setting forth. The ground, the way and the goal come about by virtue of a Wisdom that is self-existent (uncaused). This Wisdom brings radiant joy to contemplatives, and the light of clarity to their thoughts.

This Wisdom arises naturally in its own way. It is uncreated and uncontrived, present within us primordially, not encountered or lost. It is inherently perfect. It is an unperturbed clarity, a domain that comes into being on its own, a continuum of tranquility of which we become aware, but which we cannot grasp using (intellectual) conceptions. It is unobstructedly radiant, an awareness of which we become cognizant and which we come to recognize as the essence of our understandings. It is self-luminous, beyond visualization, not part of any object. The radiant spaciousness of flawless Wisdom cannot be expressed in words. Beyond thoughts of self or other, it is self-perfected tranquility, utterly free of extreme positions. Nothing need be generated, and there is no reason to practice deity generation. The heart of enlightenment is uncaused and unceasing.

Where all is one, how could there be differences? In the heart of enlightenment, in clear self-awareness is perfection beyond our seeking and striving. There is no need to generate anything, no requirement for causes and results. In the perfection of the heart’s core, all is instantaneously self-perfected. The true condition has no location and cannot be visualized. Uncontrived, self-originating, beyond conditions, there is nothing about it that has anything to do with a material view of Reality. It has no connection to words, representations or expressions as we can see from our direct experience. We see this from our (firsthand) knowledge arising from familiarization. It bears no relation to the extremes we fall into when using conceptual designations. There is nothing that can designate it, which places it outside the domain of our intellectual certitude or uncertitude. It cannot be expressed by words and their specific meanings, or meanings arising from letters (of an alphabet).

Right from the beginning, the true nature of our Wisdom has been emptiness. Rejecting no definitions, the clarity of our heart’s essence sustains its self-perfection. It is ever perfect in a realm completely removed from the fantasy of our thought-bound minds. It is ever present at all times, come what may.

Present in all appearances, a singleness that is uncompromised, it pierces our preoccupation with appearances, and is far beyond anything that could be the object of our seeking. Because of its invisible equanimity, whatever we intend appears, and although the true condition is nothing (no thing) whatsoever, it can bring forth the appearance of any thing whatsoever. Like the radiant heart of the sun, it is beyond measurement, relatedness and comparisons. The precious jewel of mind itself (consciousness) is intrinsically pure, beyond conceptual designations which we use to take in and grasp appearances. The heart-essence of our Wisdom, sustaining our knowledge, knows nothing (no thing) at all, yet is aware of its very own intrinsic clarity. This Wisdom, clear within itself, is inseparable from perfection and as we experience it, comes to us as both appearances and consciousness (the light of awareness).

The abode of self-arising Wisdom is a treasure of (precious) gems, a point of entry for many other portals. Though incomprehensible, if rightly recognized it is an abode where we dwell in oneness.

The supreme secret of the Bodhichitta is a treasury of jewels with many doors and is to be understood through its radiance. Self-radiant awareness is perfection itself and affords us the possibility and method for discussing the blissful heart-essence. This we can do, as regards results, but with no reference to striving and seeking. The supreme tantra is not written down and has no relation to form, colour, movement and the rest. It may be called the Greatness that has never been captured in words. This tantra is vast as the sky, a treasury of all secrets. It alone represents the supremely great perfection that makes it possible for us to abide in our way and realize the stages of enlightenment.

This is the most precious preserve of our contemplation, an all-pervading spaciousness. The secret whispered instructions are all summarized in this, and it gives us the impetus to go beyond our book learning. When we get involved with vows, techniques, samaya, good works, mandalas, stages and paths and enjoy the results of it all, we are inadvertently cherishing and holding on to the small self. We think of the supreme truth in terms of categories and are bound up in our chosen practices. Everything that we appropriate or renounce in this way constitutes a deviation and an obstruction. The principal point to understand is that by connecting causes to results we go astray. Reality is non-dual. When we get involved in “this” versus “that”, we are going backwards. We break up and misunderstand the essential unity of truth. We strive to build up something pure within the emptiness of the invisible clear light, which is a fundamental contradiction. The ultimate view is utterly unchained from preoccupations here-below. At the same time, struggling against responsibilities in life is a form of delusion.

There are certain dharmas that complicate our lives and dim down our Wisdom. This jewel of a teaching is free of them. Just know that seeking and striving with notions about purity is a mistaken path. When we seek and strive, we are separated from the inner treasure of our heart’s essence.

The Great Perfection view is self-radiant and quite unconnected to what happens on the various planes. There are limitations obstructing the light of Wisdom, but the clear light of awareness is perfected in and through all of this. The All-Good is endlessly playful. Inherently perfect, unstoppable awareness arises from its own beingness; so it is that the spontaneous play of our uncontrived heart-essence fills the whole of space, beyond all our concepts of center or perimeter. This play is our practice. The Wisdom of this awareness dawns on us instantaneously. Your spiritual teacher can clarify the timing of this.

Without any action on our part, the perfection of Wisdom becomes obvious (to us). The samadhi which arises out of this naturally appearing Wisdom comes about spontaneously and is inherently luminous. When it arises, do not let it be disturbed. It pierces through all forms of seeking and agitation.

Samsara is Wisdom unrecognized. Inconceivable fruition comes to its skylike fullness within samsara. Offering all that we have and are, we melt into the self-originating luminosity of Wisdom. Through our spontaneous self-offering, free of calculation, we taste the blissful radiance of the omniscient. We are to immerse ourselves in this without hesitation. It is for this that the most secret and sacred teachings, beyond any form of symbolically expressed meaning, have been transmitted to us.

In the domain of the inherent luminosity of all things, we are perfected. This transmission comes into play on its own, cutting through aggrandizement and aspersion. It is known as the heart-essence and has no center and no boundaries. It is a condition of conscious equanimity beyond all reference points, like a heap of precious jewels. Radiantly present in all, it has no preferences and no (fixed) positions.

The heart-essence is a treasure, boundless as the sky, a wish-fulfilling jewel that abides in its own pristine space all by itself. One who opens this portal of radiant and complete comprehension will come upon a treasure trove of precious gems. One who is qualified to teach this Wisdom will use his speaking skills to reveal connections between words and their meanings. He will be a master at conveying (true) meanings through (verbal and non-verbal) symbols. He inwardly abides in a domain (of consciousness) that transcends conceptual designations. His intuition is all-pervading like space. His Wisdom encompasses that which is without center or boundary. His is the power of transmission of a contemplation that transcends words (and concepts). Upon meeting such a one, you will have confidence. His self-awareness is radiant, and his presence manifests it. In transmitting the light of Wisdom, he simultaneously manifests it to himself. The precondition for our growth in understanding is a transmission that shines light on our learning, our meditation and our contemplation. Its source is the self-arising light of Wisdom, the luminous awareness that grows within us. It is an inexhaustible treasure, a magic treasury of priceless jewels. Now is the occasion to possess the key which opens any spiritual path (you may choose). This Wisdom encompasses all the particulars of the various teachings and paths.

There is a self-arisen continuum that has no location and no boundaries, a unitary perfection of non-dual awareness. This glowing treasure of the mandala of awareness is unaffected by our notions. It reveals its full perfection in our field of experience in the beatitude of unperturbed samadhi. Abiding in an equanimity that transcends complexity and contrivance, we have let go of our grasping at duality’s appearances. Primordially we are liberated from thoughts that cling to reference points and preferences. Here in the luminosity of our heart’s core, we are liberated from any cherishing of opinions concerning meditation, non-meditation (and so on). The flawless transmission of radiant insight pierces through notions based in dualities. In manifesting the unspeakable light of awareness, we relinquish our notions about speech and silence. This luminous Wisdom is a unique treasure that harbours no intellectual opinions. The eye of Wisdom has no dualistic knowledge and does not see in terms of duality. It arises in the heart’s inmost intent (for our lives), something we cannot lay hold of by thinking. Being the treasure of all that is, it has no intellectual views or preferences. The nondual nature of Reality overwhelms our predilection for seeking and active practices. Unconcerned with what transpires here-below, awareness is pristine in its own space of being. The light and the appearance of everything (that appears) unfolds within our awareness. Like the stars in the sky, self-luminous, undefiled, it is perfect in its own domain. Vajrasattva is (in Reality) a continuum of (pure) uncontrived awareness. Come to firsthand knowledge of the joy that comes untrammeled, free of complexity, unrelated to causes and conditions. Make no attempt to visualize the clear light of pristine awareness. It is precious equanimity that abides beyond agitation and grasping. This treasure, this fullness, this self-radiant (inner) sun abides in all. It is a continuum that has no connection to our thoughts and notions.

In general, the non-dual truth is expressed in a distorted and diminished manner, and this veils it in obscuration. It is a perfect circularity, undistorted, in which samsara and nirvana have never actually transpired. In the heart of enlightenment, samsara and sorrow are merely the play of the All Good (Samantabhadra), and the five poisons of lust, aversion, dullness, arrogance and jealousy reveal themselves as five Wisdoms. Wisdom is all-pervading like the light of the sun. It is an all-healing flow of compassion that washes away our five defilements. The realm of the Great Perfection is an inherently luminous and mirror-like space that has no objects. Within the clear light of the true condition, the non-dual Reality will reflect itself to us in just the way we see and think about it. Our notions about the true condition are always too inflated or too circumscribed, but it is always beyond these distortions. Being infinite, it always transcends the material perspective from which we conceptualize.

Pristine awareness is utterly transparent. This inherently luminous awareness is undefiled, un-adulterated (by our notions). This treasure of equanimity has no relation whatsoever to any point of reference that we could conceptualize, and exists as it actually is, unadulterated regardless of whether we turn to it or not. Our human happiness and our human sorrows are both confusions of samsara. They are non-dual in their true condition and perfected in the light of our heart’s Wisdom. Whether we know it or not, we abide in the sphere of inherently luminous awareness and are continuously perfected. The Ground of Being is unmanifest, but the clear light of Wisdom that unfolds from it is a ninefold treasury of gemlike spaces that shines in our hearts. The perfection of awareness abides in this treasury, a store of precious wish-fulfilling jewels that blesses us and brings us all fulfillment. It is the treasury of the sky, unobstructed, wherein the five elements arise and move, actively present in all things, not inherently real, but emanating from the Reality of their source. It cannot be seen, for it is inherent luminosity, pure like the sky, an unobstructed flow of blessings. It unifies all into its innate clear light. It is the treasury of all blessings, the very nature of the Dharma’s manifestation.

There is nothing that needs to be done. Everything has already been accomplished, primordially. Beneficent energies flow from the inherent luminosity where nothing needs doing, and this efficacious flow (of good works) is self-effulgent, making no demand that we renounce anything whatsoever.

The enlightened beings are the lords of the treasury of the sky, the treasure-store that brings us total fulfilment. They abide in continuous recognition of their eternal nature, but in their thoughts words and actions they participate in the play of energies which is the cosmic flow. Within the sky of infinite consciousness, the heart of our hearts that has no center or border, appearances will arise and appear to us in just the way we think of them. Living in right relation to their spiritual master, those who with heartfelt sincerity devote their awareness to the jewel in the heart (of Reality) will fulfil the requirements of service and be introduced directly to the treasure of treasures. Gradually learning the true meanings behind the symbols, they will be introduced by the master to instant enlightenment, the timeless continuum (of being-consciousness). In the realm of pure consciousness beyond their exaggerated or limiting ideas, they will come face to face with non-conceptual inherently luminous awareness.

We fabricate the concepts which fill our minds in order to designate and grasp the utter simplicity of the true condition. When we abide in the light of Wisdom, however, the obscurations of our limiting notions melt away and our innate clarity is uncovered. We no longer need to approach truth through the fog of definitions and grammar. We know the meanings behind the symbols. In the heart of luminous Wisdom, we abide in clarity, free of concepts.  In this spacious domain which is the origin of all that appears, beyond any association with meditation, we are perfected. We abide in luminous awareness, untroubled by (the stress of) contraction or (the thrill of) expansion. We cut through (trekcho) concepts about this pristine luminosity.

It is not something we ponder, nor has it any association with material things. The light of Wisdom shines with no points of reference and no preferences. Inconceivable are the blessings of this clear light. Fortunate ones are able to abide in the samadhi of (infinite) luminous Wisdom, the awareness of totality which dissolves aversion and ill-will, dullness and craving, pride and jealousy. The delight of the single taste in all appearances enters into our every experience by way of a Dharma requiring no practice or comprehension. We are not required to think. Our evenly balanced mind need not search. In the clear light (of Wisdom), in the heart of the sky (of awareness), we come to know the true significance of what could never be expressed in written words.

The significance of uncontrived pristine awareness cannot be unraveled by means of concepts and narratives. There are no reference points or predilections in pristine awareness. Its equality is equal in all. Its equanimity can appear as any form whatsoever. However things may appear to our human minds, there is no such thing as a “this” or a “that” for pure (non-conceptual) awareness. A true teacher is a living embodiment of Vajrasattva. The magic of his words is a lamp revealing to us the awareness (that is our true nature). He opens the doorway of the precious treasury of jewels that he carries in his heart, revealing the meanings of the symbols of the ineffable. He brings us to planes of inner experience that we arrive at without going anywhere (outwardly). He reveals a deathless manifestation of the Dharma. He conveys to us the secret Wisdom by a form of awareness that has no need of sounds, placing us in the sunlit radiance (of the true condition). He brings us to a realization that is not the outcome of any seeking or active striving. Such teachings as these should be given only to those of enlightened attitude and never to the naturally evil, the ignorant or the disdainful.  

Revealing The True Meanings This Tantra Equal To The Farthest Reach Of The Sky, is an elixir which carries you into the heart-space of the Great Perfection. Here, you possess a treasure which is as vast as the kingdom of the sky. Its meaning is not fixed and cannot be grasped conceptually by way of thoughts or ruminations. Nor does it have any relation to any form of active practice. Awareness abides in a realm that is utterly uncontrived and imponderable. This is nothing that we need to reflect on or practice, and there is no need to visualize any special levels (of practice, or attainment) either. (Be clear on this point): the intellect is not to conceptualize or grasp with words. Uncontrived awareness is the way we engage the Wisdom that transcends all obscurations. We abide naturally in a continuum of awareness where there is no searching and nothing to do. This awareness, something that we do not try to search for or grasp, is that into which we enter. We do not see awareness as a goal to attain. We simply settle into a consciousness of uncontrived light, not following methodologies or seeking for any (specific) objective.

The intrinsic radiance (of Wisdom) is flawless. Free from self-centered thoughts or considerations, it seeks no designated results. It is clear light, completely beyond (any notion of) desired outcomes. All-inclusive, it is not something which can be visualized. Here, in this pure space, the hopes and fears we typically cherish are present no longer.

The Intrinsic Radiance of Awareness Wisdom shows us that all appearances are free from the imputations of our concepts. All appearances are luminous and beyond defilements. Wisdom makes clear the singularity that underpins the multiplicity of appearances. It frees us from grasping and from thinking in terms of “things”. In the nonduality of the true condition we are liberated from the mental conditioning created by our concepts. All appearances arise spontaneously in the mirrorlike luminosity which is the nature of mind. This Reality is utterly unfabricated. Here, we abide in an undistorted continuum of awareness that is inherently radiant, uncontrived and pristine, like the sky. The domain of primordial purity is skylike (in its spaciousness), beyond (intentional) abiding, inherently radiant, a non-dual way with no boundaries or center. It is pristine awareness beyond fixations, a crystal palace of utterly clear light beyond anyone’s capacity to describe or measure. With no need to conceptualize or take any actions, we have the ultimate proof of a pure manifestation of timeless awareness. Indescribable, inherently radiant and all-pervasive, the ineffable continuum has no conceptual activity. It requires no active striving, and is luminous in all possible ways. Pristine awareness neither contrives nor fabricates. It does not seek or grasp. It is spacious and luminous equanimity, total lucidity with no need for active striving on our part.

The Reality of inherently radiant awareness cannot be (indicated or) represented (to the human mind) by way of words or concepts. It can come through transmission, but never by explication, and (when it comes) it carries the taste of bliss. We take leave of the many palaces built up from awareness to abide eternally in the clear light itself, something quite impossible to define. The self-transmission of Wisdom’s light cannot be distorted by playing it up or playing it down. We accept what is, the way it is, with no attempt at manipulation.

Once we have direct experience of the nature of mind (Bodhicitta), we will be wary of any attempt to define it. We would never dream of trying to actively practice it. We choose rather the way of non-striving. We simply allow the true condition to dawn by itself without interference. We do not conceptualize nirvana and then strive for it or entertain notions that foster samsara. Our liberated intellect abides in a luminous samadhi that has no horizon. Being undistracted, we pay no regard to anything that comes and goes, arising only to disappear. The bounteous power of our uncontrived heart-essence outshines all other preoccupations, drawing (us) into the light of the sun. Samsara is simply the play of the light that is Wisdom. We make no effort to accrue merit or expunge negative karma, or to fabricate desired outcomes in the way that goldsmiths do when they shape objects out of gold. We are like birds abiding in the vastness of the sky, happy to navigate the ups and downs of samsara and its magical illusions, not apart from the continuum of the true nature.

Inconceivable is the power of the light of the divine. The radiance of Wisdom is constant, beyond alteration, beyond coming and going. The light of compassion equally is beyond all reckoning in its scope. The wind of thinking activity is nowhere to be found in the luminous continuum of Wisdom. Wisdom knows no bondage and requires no liberation. Just as an oil lamp without fuel does not generate fire, a mind that is concept-free is not engaged in thinking activity. We are free of ideation. We do not reflect on any topic. This is nothing special, just the way that Wisdom is.

When we give voice to some topic of concern within the sky (of mind), we have set foot on a false path. The mind of equanimity has no interest in boundaries, centers or designated areas. The essence of our hearts comes to the fore as the sun of Wisdom dawns and in the treasury of self-revealing awareness it achieves its perfect expression. Non-dual awareness is the sole instrument by which we grow into that which cannot be grasped. Non-dual living is like water flowing into water. Samsara is actually Wisdom (that we misperceive), free of darkness or constriction primordially. The sun of radiant Wisdom burns away samsara and pervades all that is. This is not something to be visualized. It is not a dogma to be grasped or believed. It is simply the true condition of all that appears. The highest Reality cannot be apprehended by points of view or anyone’s preferred notions. There is nothing fixed in any fashion whatsoever in the way that Reality actually exists, contrived or uncontrived, centerless and borderless, neither in this location nor in that, but rather abiding in its own realm, an uncontrived ground of (supreme) peace. This primordial equanimity does not conceptualize emptiness or its opposite. The furthest reach of thought is transcendence of thinking activity altogether. Wisdom cannot be reproached for having no center, boundary or demarcation. The obscurations of ignorance have never existed (in actuality). Nothing is outside the mandala of radiant Wisdom. The world of the all-good, the continuum of pristine awareness, is not anything (any discreet thing) whatsoever. It is ceaseless, unstoppable, imponderable, beyond anything that can be contemplated or studied. We abide in the state of self-liberation, uncontrived supreme mind, not focusing or opening our minds, at rest in the depths of a samadhi that naturally overflows with fullness.

From: Gospel of Garab Dorje: The Highest, Secret Teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. Lotus Press. By Yeshe Donden Roger Calverley.

 

Linji Yixuan

Selected excerpts from The Recorded Sayings of Linji - translated by J.C. Cleary

There is only the person in all of you right here and now listening to the Dharma. This person enters fire without being burned and water without being drowned. This person enters the mires of hell as if strolling in a garden sightseeing. This person enters the planes of the hungry ghosts and animals without being subject to their suffering. Why so? Because for this person there is nothing to reject, nothing to avoid.

When it's time to get dressed, put on your clothes. When you must walk, then walk. When you must sit, then sit. Just be your ordinary self in ordinary life, unconcerned in seeking for Buddhahood. For if you love the sacred and despise the ordinary, you are still bobbing in the sea of delusion. The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on earth. Those who are nothing in particular are noble people. Don't strive - just be ordinary.

If you try to grasp Zen in movement, it goes into stillness. If you try to grasp Zen in stillness, it goes into movement. It is like a fish hidden in a spring, drumming up waves and dancing independently. The moment a student blinks his eye, he’s already way off. The moment he tries to think, he's already differed. The moment he arouses a thought, he's already deviated. But for the one who understands, it’s always right there before their eyes. 

Never ever engage in random speculation— whether you understand or don’t understand, either way you’re mistaken. I, a mountain monk, tell you clearly—within the body-field of the five skandhas there is a true person with no-rank, always present, not even a hair's breadth away. Why don't you recognize him? The real being, with no status, is always going in and out through the doors of your face. Followers of the Way, if you take my viewpoint you’ll cut off the heads of the Saṃbhogakāya and Nirmāṇakāya Buddhas; a bodhisattva who has attained the completed mind of the tenth stage will be like a mere hireling; a bodhisattva of equivalent enlightenment or a bodhisattva of marvelous enlightenment will be like pilloried prisoners, an arhat and a pratyeka- buddha will be like privy filth; bodhi and nirvana will be like hitching posts for asses. Why is this so? Followers of the Way, it is only because you haven’t yet realized the emptiness of the innumerable kalpas that you have such obstacles. 

Be a master everywhere and wherever you stand is your true place. Followers of the Way, when I, this mountain monk, expound the dharma, what dharma do I expound? I expound the dharma of mind-ground, which enters the secular and the sacred, the pure and the defiled, the real and the temporal. But your ‘real and temporal,’ your ‘secular and sacred,’ cannot but attach labels to all that is real and temporal, secular and sacred. The real and the temporal, the secular and the sacred, cannot attach a name to this person. Followers of the Way, grasp and use, but never name—this is called the ‘mysterious principle’.

Followers of the Way, don’t have your face stamped with the seal of sanction by any old master anywhere, then go around saying, ‘I understand Chan, I understand the Way.’ Though your eloquence is like a rushing torrent, it is nothing but hell-creating karma. 

The true student of the Way does not search out the faults of the world,  but eagerly seeks true insight. If you can attain true insight, clear and complete, then, indeed, that is all. There is only the person of the Way who depends upon nothing, here listening to my discourse—it is they who is the mother of all buddhas. Therefore buddhas are born from nondependence. Awaken to nondependence, then there is no buddha to be obtained. Insight such as this is true insight.

Outside mind there’s no dharma, nor is there anything to be gained within it. What are you seeking? Everywhere you say, ‘There’s something to practice, something to obtain.’ Make no mistake! Even if there were something to be gained by practice, it would be nothing but birth-and-death karma. 

You say, ‘The six pāramitās and the ten thousand [virtuous] actions are all to be practiced.’ As I see it, all this is just making karma. Seeking buddha and seeking dharma are only making hell-karma. Seeking bodhisattva- hood is also making karma; reading the sutras and studying the teachings are also making karma. Buddhas and patriarchs are people with nothing to do. Therefore, for them, activity and the defiling passions and also nonactivity and passionlessness are ‘pure’ karma.

From Samaneri Jayasāra - Wisdom of the Masters

 

               Bodhidharma by Sesshu (1420-1506)

                           

Bodhidharma

Wake-up Sermon

The essence of the Way is detachment. And the goal of those who practice is freedom from appearances. The sutras say, "Detachment is enlightenment because it negates appearances." Buddhahood means awareness. Mortals whose minds are aware reach the Way of Enlightenment and are therefore called buddhas. The sutras say, "Those who free themselves from all appearances are called buddhas." The appearance of appearance as no appearance can't be seen visually but can only be known by means of wisdom. Whoever hears and believes this teaching embarks on the Great Vehicle and leaves the three realms.

The three realms are greed, anger, and delusion. To leave the three realms means to go from greed, anger, and delusion back to morality, meditation, and wisdom. Greed, anger, and delusion have no nature of their own. They depend on mortals. And anyone capable of reflection is bound to see that the nature of greed, anger, and delusion is the buddha-nature. Beyond greed, anger, and delusion there is no other buddha-nature. The sutras say, "Buddhas have only become buddhas while living with the three poisons and nourishing themselves on the pure Dharma." The three poisons are greed, anger, and delusion.

The Great Vehicle is the greatest of all vehicles. It's the conveyance of bodhisattvas, who use everything without using anything and who travel all day without traveling. Such is the vehicle of buddhas. The sutras say, "No vehicle is the vehicle of buddhas."

Whoever realizes that the six senses aren't real, that the five aggregates are fictions, that no such things can be located anywhere in the body, understands the language of buddhas. The sutras say, "The cave of five aggregates is the hall of zen. The opening of the inner eye is the door of the Great Vehicle." What could be clearer?

Not thinking about anything is zen. Once you know this, walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is zen. To know that the mind is empty is to see the buddha. The buddhas of the ten directions56 have no mind. To see no mind is to see the buddha.

To give up yourself without regret is the greatest charity. To transcend motion and stillness is the highest meditation. Mortals keep moving, and arhats stay still. 57 But the highest meditation surpasses both that of mortals and that of arhats. People who reach such understanding free themselves from all appearances without effort and cure all illnesses without treatment. Such is the power of great zen.

Using the mind to look for reality is delusion. Not using the mind to look for reality is awareness. Freeing oneself from words is liberation. Remaining unblemished by the dust of sensation is guarding the Dharma. Transcending life and death is leaving home.

Not suffering another existence is reaching the Way. Not creating delusions is enlightenment. Not engaging in ignorance is wisdom. No affliction is nirvana. And no appearance of the mind is the other shore.

When you're deluded, this shore exists. When you wake up, it doesn't exist. Mortals stay on this shore. But those who discover the greatest of all vehicles stay on neither this shore nor the other shore. They're able to leave both shores. Those who see the other shore as different from this shore don't understand zen.

Delusion means mortality. And awareness means Buddhahood. They're not the same. And they're not different. It's just that people distinguish delusion from awareness. When we're deluded there's a world to escape. When we're aware, there's nothing to escape.

In the light of the impartial Dharma, mortals look no different from sages. The sutras say that the impartial Dharma is something that mortals can't penetrate and sages can't practice. The impartial Dharma is only practiced by great bodhisattvas and buddhas. To look on life as different from death or on motion as different from stillness is to be partial. To be impartial means to look on suffering as no different from nirvana, because the nature of both is emptiness. By imagining they're putting an end to suffering and entering nirvana arhats end up trapped by nirvana. But bodhisattvas know that suffering is essentially empty. And by remaining in emptiness they remain in nirvana. Nirvana means no birth and no death. It's beyond birth and death and beyond nirvana. When the mind stops moving, it enters nirvana. Nirvana is an empty mind. Where delusions don't exist, buddhas reach nirvana. Where afflictions don't exist, bodhisattvas enter the place of enlightenment.

An uninhabited place is one without greed, anger, or delusion. Greed is the realm of desire, anger the realm of form, and delusion the formless realm. When a thought begins, you enter the three realms. When a thought ends, you leave the three realms. The beginning or end of the three realms, the existence or nonexistence of anything, depends on the mind. This applies to everything, even to such inanimate objects as rocks and sticks.

Whoever knows that the mind is a fiction and devoid of anything real knows that his own mind neither exists nor doesn't exist. Mortals keep creating the mind, claiming it exists. And arhats keep negating the mind, claiming it doesn't exist. But bodhisattvas and buddhas neither create nor negate the mind. This is what's meant by the mind that neither exists nor doesn't exist. The mind that neither exists nor doesn't exist is called the Middle Way.

If you use your mind to study reality, you won't understand either your mind or reality. If you study reality without using your mind, you'll understand both. Those who don't understand, don't understand understanding. And those who understand, understand not understanding. People capable of true vision know that the mind is empty. They transcend both understanding and not understanding. The absence of both understanding and not understanding is true understanding.

Seen with true vision, form isn't simply form, because form depends on mind. And mind isn't simply mind, because mind depends on form. Mind and form create and negate each other. That which exists exists in relation to that which doesn't exist. And that which doesn't exist doesn't exist in relation to that which exists. This is true vision. By means of such vision nothing is seen and nothing is not seen. Such vision reaches throughout the ten directions without seeing: because nothing is seen; because not seeing is seen; because seeing isn't seeing. What mortals see are delusions. True vision is detached from seeing.

The mind and the world are opposites, and vision arises where they meet. When your mind doesn't stir inside, the world doesn't arise outside. When the world and the mind are both transparent, this is true vision. And such understanding is true understanding.

To see nothing is to perceive the Way, and to understand nothing is to know the Dharma, because seeing is neither seeing nor not seeing and because understanding is neither understanding nor not understanding. Seeing without seeing is true vision. Understanding without understanding is true understanding.

True vision isn't just seeing seeing. It's also seeing not seeing. And true understanding isn't just understanding understanding. It's also understanding not understanding. If you understand anything, you don't understand. Only when you understand nothing is it true understanding. Understanding is neither understanding nor not understanding.

The sutras say, "Not to let go of wisdom is stupidity." When the mind doesn't exist, understanding and not understanding are both true. When the mind exists, understanding and not understanding are both false.

When you understand, reality depends on you. When you don't understand, you depend on reality. When reality depends on you, that which isn't real becomes real. When you depend on reality, that which is real becomes false. When you depend on reality, everything is false. When reality depends on you, everything is true. Thus, the sage doesn't use his mind to look for reality, or reality to look for his mind, or his mind to look for his mind, or reality to look for reality. His mind doesn't give rise to reality. And reality doesn't give rise to his mind. And because both his mind and reality are still, he's always in samadhi.

When the mortal mind appears, buddhahood disappears. When the mortal mind disappears, buddhahood appears. When the mind appears, reality disappears. When the mind disappears, reality appears. Whoever knows that nothing depends on anything has found the Way. And whoever knows that the mind depends on nothing is always at the place of enlightenment.

When you don't understand, you're wrong. When you understand, you're not wrong. This is because the nature of wrong is empty. When you don't understand, right seems wrong. When you understand, wrong isn't wrong, because wrong doesn't exist. The sutras say, "Nothing has a nature of its own." Act. Don't question. When you question, you're wrong. Wrong is the result of questioning. When you reach such an understanding, the wrong deeds of your past lives are wiped away. When you're deluded, the six senses and five shades are constructs of suffering and mortality. When you wake up, the six senses and five shades are constructs of nirvana and immortality.

Someone who seeks the Way doesn't look beyond himself. He knows that the mind is the Way. But when he finds the mind, he finds nothing. And when he finds the Way, he finds nothing. If you think you can use the mind to find the Way, you're deluded When you're deluded, buddhahood exists. When you're aware, it doesn't exist. This is because awareness is buddhahood.

If you're looking for the Way, the Way won't appear until your body disappears. It's like stripping bark from a tree. This karmic body undergoes constant change. It has no fixed reality. Practice according to your thoughts. Don't hate life and death or love life and death. Keep your every thought free of delusion, and in life you'll witness the beginning of nirvana,65 and in death you'll experience the assurance of no rebirth.

To see form but not be corrupted by form or to hear sound but not be corrupted by sound is liberation. Eyes that aren't attached to form are the Gates of Zen. Ears that aren't attached to sound are also the Gates of Zen. In short, those who perceive the existence and nature of phenomena and remain unattached are liberated. Those who perceive the external appearance of phenomena are at their mercy. Not to be subject to affliction is what's meant by liberation. There's no other liberation. When you know how to look at form, form doesn't give rise to mind and mind doesn't give rise to form. Form and mind are both pure.

When delusions are absent, the mind is the land of buddhas. When delusions are present, the mind is hell. Mortals create delusions. And by using the mind to give birth to mind they always find themselves in hell. Bodhisattvas see through delusions. And by not using the mind to give birth to mind they always find themselves in the land of buddhas. If you don't use your mind to create mind, every state of mind is empty and every thought is still. You go from one buddha-land67 to another. If you use your mind to create mind, every state of mind is disturbed and every thought is in motion. You go from one hell to the next. When a thought arises, there's good karma and bad karma, heaven and hell. When no thought arises, there's no good karma or bad karma, no heaven or hell.

The body neither exists nor doesn't exist. Hence existence as a mortal and nonexistence as a sage are conceptions with which a sage has nothing to do. His heart is empty and spacious as the sky.

That which follows is witnessed on the Way. It's beyond the ken of arhats and mortals.

When the mind reaches nirvana, you don't see nirvana, because the mind is nirvana. If you see nirvana somewhere outside the mind, you're deluding yourself.

Every suffering is a buddha-seed, because suffering impels mortals to seek wisdom. But you can only say that suffering gives rise to buddhahood. You can't say that suffering is buddhahood. Your body and mind are the field. Suffering is the seed, wisdom the sprout, and buddhahood the grain.

The buddha in the mind is like a fragrance in a tree. The buddha comes from a mind free of suffering, just as a fragrance comes from a tree free of decay. There's no fragrance without the tree and no buddha without the mind. If there's a fragrance without a tree, it's a different fragrance. If there's a buddha without your mind, it's a different buddha.

When the three poisons are present in your mind, you live in a land of filth. When the three poisons are absent from your mind, you live in a land of purity. The sutras say, "If you fill a land with impurity and filth, no buddha will ever appear." Impurity and filth refer to delusion and the other poisons. A buddha refers to a pure and awakened mind.

There's no language that isn't the Dharma. To talk all day without saying anything is the Way. To be silent all day and still say something isn't the Way. Hence neither does a tathagata's speech depend on silence, nor does his silence depend on speech, nor does his speech exist apart from his silence. Those who understand both speech and silence are in samadhi. If you speak when you know, your speech is free. If you're silent when you don't know, your silence is tied. If speech isn't attached to appearances, it's free. If silence is attached to appearances, it's tied. Language is essentially free. It has nothing to do with attachment. And attachment has nothing to do with language.

Reality has no high or low. If you see high or low, it isn't real. A raft isn't real. But a passenger raft is. A person who rides such a raft can cross that which isn't real. That's why it's real. According to the world there's male and female, rich and poor.

According to the Way there's no male or female, no rich or poor. When the goddess realized the Way, she didn't change her sex. When the stable boy awakened to the Truth, he didn't change his status. Free of sex and status, they shared the same basic appearance. The goddess searched twelve years for her womanhood without success. To search twelve years for one's manhood would likewise be fruitless. The twelve years refer to the twelve entrances.

Without the mind there's no buddha. Without the buddha there's no mind. Likewise, without water there's no ice, and without ice there's no water. Whoever talks about leaving the mind doesn't get very far. Don't become attached to appearances of the mind. The sutras say, "When you see no appearance, you see the buddha." This is what's meant by being free from appearances of the mind.

 Without the mind there's no buddha means that the buddha comes from the mind. T he mind gives birth to the buddha. But although the buddha comes from the mind, the mind doesn't come from the buddha, just as fish come from water, but water doesn't come from fish. Whoever wants to see a fish sees the water before he sees the fish. And whoever wants to see a buddha sees the mind before he sees the buddha. Once you've seen the fish, you forget about the water. And once you've seen the buddha, you forget about the mind. If you don't forget about the mind, the mind will confuse you, just as the water will confuse you if you don't forget about it.

Mortality and buddhahood are like water and ice. To be afflicted by the three poisons is mortality. To be purified by the three releases is buddhahood. That which freezes into ice in winter melts into water in summer. Eliminate ice and there's no more water. Get rid of mortality and there's no more buddhahood. Clearly, the nature of ice is the nature of water. And the nature of water is the nature of ice. And the nature of mortality is the nature of buddhahood. Mortality and buddhahood share the same nature, just as wutou and futzu share the same root but not the same season. It's only because of the delusion of differences that we have the words mortality and buddha hood. When a snake becomes a dragon, it doesn't change its scales. And when a mortal becomes a sage, he doesn't change his face. He knows his mind through internal wisdom and takes care of his body through external discipline.

Mortals liberate buddhas and buddhas liberate mortals. This is what's meant by impartiality. Mortals liberate buddhas because affliction creates awareness. And buddhas liberate mortals because awareness negates affliction. There can't help but be affliction. And there can't help but be awareness. If it weren't for affliction, there would be nothing to create awareness. And if it weren't for awareness, there would be nothing to negate affliction. When you're deluded, buddhas liberate mortals. When you're aware, mortals liberate buddhas. Buddhas don't become buddhas on their own. They're liberated by mortals. Buddhas regard delusion as· their father and greed as their mother. Delusion and greed are different names for mortality. Delusion and mortality are like the left hand and the right hand. There's no other difference.

When you're deluded, you're on this shore. When you're aware, you're on the other shore. But once you know your mind is empty and you see no appearances, you're beyond delusion and awareness. And once you're beyond delusion and awareness, the other shore doesn't exist. The tathagata isn't on this shore or the other shore. And he isn't in midstream. Arhats are in midstream and mortals are on this shore. On the other shore is buddhahood.

Buddhas have three bodies: a transformation body, a reward body, and a real body. The transformation body is also called the incarnation body. The transformation body appears when mortals do good deeds, the reward body when they cultivate wisdom, and the real body when they become aware of the sublime. The transformation body is the one you see flying in all directions rescuing others wherever it can. The reward body puts an end to doubts. The Great Enlightenment occurred in the Himalayas suddenly becomes true. The real body doesn't do or say anything. It remains perfectly still. But actually, there's not even one buddha-body, much less three. This talk of three bodies is simply based on human understanding, which can be shallow, moderate, or deep.

People of shallow understanding imagine they're piling up blessings and mistake the transformation body for the buddha. People of moderate understanding imagine they're putting an end to suffering and mistake the reward body for the buddha. And people of deep understanding imagine they're experiencing buddhahood and mistake the real body for the buddha. But people of the deepest understanding look within, distracted by nothing. Since a clear mind is the buddha, they attain the understanding of a buddha without using the mind. The three bodies, like all other things, are unattainable and indescribable. The unimpeded mind reaches the Way. The sutras say, "Buddhas don't preach the Dharma. They don't liberate mortals. And they don't experience buddhahood." This is what I mean.

Individuals create karma; karma doesn't create individuals. They create karma in this life and receive their reward in the next. They never escape. Only someone who's perfect creates no karma in this life and receives no reward. The sutras say, "Who creates no karma obtains the Dharma." This isn't an empty saying. You can create karma, but you can't create a person. When you create karma, you're reborn along with your karma. When you don't create karma, you vanish along with your karma. Hence, with karma dependent on the individual and the individual dependent on karma, if an individual doesn't create karma, karma has no hold on him. In the same manner, "A person can enlarge the Way. The Way can't enlarge a person."

Mortals keep creating karma and mistakenly insist that there's no retribution. But can they deny suffering? Can they deny that what the present state of mind sows the next state of mind reaps? How can they escape? But if the present state of mind sows nothing, the next state of mind reaps nothing. Don't misconceive karma.

The sutras say, "Despite believing in buddhas, people who imagine that buddhas practice austerities aren't Buddhists. The same holds for those who imagine that buddhas are subject to rewards of wealth or poverty. They're icchantikas. They're incapable of belief."

Someone who understands the teaching of sages is a sage. Someone who understands the teaching of mortals is a mortal. A mortal who can give up the teaching of mortals and follow the teaching of sages becomes a sage. But the fools of this world prefer to look for sages far away. They don't believe that the wisdom of their own mind is the sage. The sutras say, "Among men of no understanding, don't preach this sutra." And the sutras say, "Mind is the teaching." But people of no understanding don't believe in their own mind or that by understanding this teaching they can become a sage. They prefer to look for distant knowledge and long for things in space, buddha-images, light, incense, and colors. They fall prey to falsehood and lose their minds to insanity.

The sutras say, "When you see that all appearances are not appearances, you see the tathagata." The myriad doors to the truth all come from the mind. When appearances of the mind are as transparent as space, they're gone.

Our endless sufferings are the roots of illness. When mortals are alive, they worry about death. When they're full, they worry about hunger. Theirs is the Great Uncertainty. But sages don't consider the past. And they don't worry about the future. Nor do they cling to the present. And from moment to moment they follow the Way. If you haven't awakened to this great truth, you'd better look for a teacher on earth or in the heavens. Don't compound your own deficiency.

From: THE ZEN TEACHING of Bodhidharma. Translated and with an Introduction by Red Pine

 

The Flowers whirl away in the wind like snow.

The thing that falls away is myself.

Kintsune, 13th Century

Dogen Zenji 1200 - 1253

“To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of enlightenment remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly.”

 

When all thoughts are exhausted,

I slip into the woods and gather

A pile of shepherd's purse.

Like the little stream making its way

Through the mossy crevices,

I, too, quietly turn clear and transparent.

-Ryokan 1758-1831

 

Hekiganroku (Blue Cliff Record) Case 22

By Yamada Kôun Roshi

Instruction:

As for greatness, there is no boundary, as for minuteness it is as if it were next to emptiness. Grasping and setting free are not in someone else, rolling up and spreading out are in me. If you by all means want to rid yourself of what sticks and remove all fetters, straight off you must erase the traces and swallow your voice. Each person will sever the point of essence by sitting, and each one will be a thousand-foot cliff. Tell me, whose state of consciousness is this? I will try to present such a case, look!

Case:

Seppô, instructing the assembly, said, "There's a poisonous snake on the South Mountain. All of you should look at it carefully!" Chôkei said, "Today in the Zen hall there is a great one who has lost his body and life." 

A monk told this to Gensha, who said, "Only Elder Brother Ryô could say something like that. However, I wouldn't talk like that." The monk asked, "What then would you say, Master"? Gensha replied, "Why does it have to be 'the southern side of the mountain'?"

Unmon threw his staff down in front of Seppô and acted frightened.

 

Verse:

Elephant-bone Rock is too high for people to reach;

Whosoever gets there must be a skilled handler of snakes.

Master Ryô and Master Bi cannot do anything.

Is there anyone at all who has lost body and life?

Shôyô knows and sweeps the grass again;

North, south, east, west – it is nowhere to be found.

Suddenly the staff sticks out;

It hurls itself at Seppô, mouth open wide;

It opens its mouth wide, quickly like a flash of lightning,

If you raise your eyebrows, you will not see it.

It's hidden now before Breast Peaks;

Those who come, look at each maneuver.

The master shouts loudly: "Look under your feet!"

 

Today is the middle day of our sesshin; we have only two and a half days left. Do your very best. To those people working on post-kensho koans, I would say that your kenshos are still covered with lots of dirt. When you go on practicing with further koans, you can be polished gradually. In fact, you should take the moment you finish all your koans to be the real starting point of your practice.

There are quite a few ways to understand "kensho." One of the two representative ways tends to apply the word "kensho" very rigidly and deeply, and the other acknowledges kensho rather generously, somewhat like in a "bargain sale." As far as I know, the master who regards kensho in the deepest sense is Master Bassui. With him it is "kensho" from the very beginning to the very end. No matter how far you go, you are dealing only with attaining kensho. Even when you're struggling with post-enlightenment practice, after completing all koans, you are no less concerned with getting kensho. According to Master Bassui, "the clear kensho" is the alpha and omega of Zen.

To use an example I often cite, when you graduate from college with a bachelor's degree, you are only starting your own academic study; up to that point you have been instructed by your teacher. In Zen, you have been taught by your own master [up to the completion of the koan study]. So please bear in mind: Only when you are through with all your koans can you say you have "attained kensho" to a certain degree. From that point of view, your so-called initial kensho experience allowed you to see but a little bit of the essential world. Of course, it makes a lot of difference whether you've actually seen it a little or you haven't seen it at all. But even if you have seen it, that's just a tiny bit of it, and it takes a long time to make it really clear. At any rate, I know you are trying your best: those who are endeavouring to attain kensho, please get this very first glimpse of it by all means. The most important thing is to be purely one with your practice. Be purely one, and get the first peep into the true world – once in your life is enough – then (I'm presumptuous to say that) I'll take over the rest of the work to make your kensho clearer and clearer. My wish would be to bring you to the first kensho as soon as possible, but I can't control that. I can only tell you how to practice; it is you who have to have the experience. After your experience happens, however, you can trust me to make it deeper and deeper as you go along. Please become single-mindedly one with your Mu and attain the very first glimpse, however cursory it may be, into the world of essence.

On the Instruction:

As for greatness, there is no boundary; as for minuteness it is as if it were next to emptiness. This rather puzzling sentence depicts our true self. It's an explanation of our essential nature. When you observe it from the standpoint of greatness, there is no limit. No matter how far you go, there's no point at which you can say, "This is far enough." It's limitless. In the Hôkyô-Zanmai [Samadhi of the Treasure Mirror] it says: "As for minuteness, it enters where there is no gap; as for greatness, it transcends space." So, concerning greatness, it is as big as the universe. Or rather, if you say, "the universe," that too is limited. We don't know how vast it is. Why is that? Because there is not one thing. With nothingness there is no point where we could stop and say, "This will do." When we examine our true nature carefully – how do we examine it? from inside our minds! – we find that no matter how far we go, there is no boundary. "As for greatness, there is no boundary." "As for minuteness, it is as if it were next to emptiness." You might perhaps wonder if there is such a thing as "next to emptiness." Recently, that seems to have made its appearance. In his teisho, Iida Tôin Roshi calls "next to emptiness" an electron. An "electron" is a particle, and these days still smaller particles have been discovered and they are truly next to zero. Somewhere in the United States there is an enormous setup which has helped to discover new particles (I have heard there is something similar in Japan, too). These particles are given extremely complicated names. Where such a particle springs from I don't know, but it appears suddenly, shows its form for just an instant in the visible world and then disappears, leaving nothing behind. This is indeed "next to emptiness." Humans are amazing beings to be able to discover such a thing and measure its life span. That is said to be one-hundred millionth of a trillionth of a second. How on earth could scientists measure such a short span of time? Probably not through an apparatus, but through theoretical calculation.

Now it is true even with the smallest of particles that "one is all, all is one." One such particle is nothing but the whole universe. This must be clearly grasped. In "Gutei's one-finger," for example, the raised finger exhausts the universe. But now, the tiniest particle exhausts the entire universe as well. From the point of view of greatness, our essential nature is limitless; from the point of view of minuteness, it is infinitesimal. No wonder it is so, because there is nothing at all. The Instruction says its minuteness is next to emptiness, but I'd prefer to say that, while its greatness is without boundary, its minuteness is zero. As for smallness, it is null. That is our true self. Not until a person grasps this world clearly can she or he instruct others in Zen; only then can one be Zen teacher.

Next, the activity of such a teacher comes to the fore: Grasping and setting free are not in someone else; rolling up and spreading out are in me. "Not in someone else" means it is in me. The power to "grasp and set free" is in my own hands. It is the same thing with "rolling up and spreading out." Think of a scroll, for example: when unrolled it spreads out; when rolled up, however, it becomes smaller and smaller, and becomes eventually a stick.

"Grasping" and "rolling up" designate the same aspect, corresponding to the "minuteness". Now, such expressions as "grasping and setting free," "rolling and spreading out," "killing and giving life," "depriving and granting," and "gathering and letting go" – they are all saying the same thing about Zen practice. The easiest to understand may be "killing and giving life." A single sword can be wielded both as "a sword that takes life away" and as "a sword that gives life"; freely one can take life away or one can give life. So, freely you can "grasp and set free," since that is "not in someone else." Freely you can "roll up and spread out," as it is in your own hands. The "killing," "grasping" or "rolling up" means to make the student throw everything away and bring him or her to the point of total nothingness. It is to deprive the student of all delusive thoughts and carry him or her to a state of colorless transparency. That is, to bring the student to kensho. This activity is called "rolling up" or "killing." Then, simultaneously, the person comes back to greater life, as the "great life manifests itself" [daikatsu-genjô].

The universe consists of the phenomenal world and the essential world, and these two worlds are one and the same. They are not two worlds but one. Seen from one side, there is only the world of essence where there is nothing at all; observed from the other side, the phenomenal world is clearly revealed before us. If you truly die and come to see the world of colorless transparency, immediately the great life will manifest itself and the phenomenal world comes back to life as it really is. This is what the phrase "great death – great manifestation of life" [daishi-ichiban, daikatsu-genjô] signifies. In other words, "Grasping and setting free are not in someone else; rolling up and spreading out are in me" means that "killing" completely and "giving" the great life anew is the ability of every accomplished Zen master. This is pointing to Seppô and Unmon in the Case which follows. They take away everything, deprive a person of all delusions and concepts and bring him or her to the state of colorless transparency, only to give great life anew. This is the strength of a true teacher – so maintains the Instruction.

If you by all means want to rid yourself of what sticks and remove all fetters. We havehabitual attachments to things, sticking to them like birdlime [torimochi]. When we practice zazen the dense lime gradually thins out and becomes more like honey. But that's still sticky! If we go on still further, it becomes like water with no stickiness at all, until we no longer adhere to anything. It is extremely hard to reach this stage. Even for one who has attained kensho it's not easy to become free of the "sticking" attachments. That's why the practice of zazen after enlightenment requires so much time and effort. If you try with all your devotion you might come to some enlightenment even during a one-week sesshin. But the most important thing is to disencumber yourself of attachments, and this work can't be accomplished perfectly in this world. Classical Zen texts often mention this point. To return to one's true self is that difficult. So long as we are inclined to stick to something, we are never free. "And remove all fetters" means to cut off all the binding ropes, called delusive thoughts and feelings, that trammel us. After enlightenment there still remain sticky birdlime and fettering ropes. These kinds of dirt, together with the traces of enlightenment, must gradually be cleaned away.

Straight off you must erase the traces and swallow your voice. To "swallow your voice" means you have nothing more to say. When you keep rubbing out all traces of enlightenment, there is nothing left to talk about. How hard it is to get there! But once enlightened you must reach this level, and the task of a genuine Zen master is to lead people to that point.

When all traces of enlightenment have been thus banished, then what? Each person will sever the point of essence by sitting, and each one will be a thousand-foot cliff. Various explanations have been offered for the meaning of "the point of essence." Yasutani Roshi says it means the pivotal point of Zen practice. By sitting and sitting the essentials of zazen are also cut off, or rather are killed. That is, even the most important points in zazen practice are killed by sitting. If you sit really radically, even such things become unnecessary, says Haku'un Roshi. Iida Tôin Roshi, on the other hand, says that "the point of essence" means the place where consciousness does not reach, where the way of the mind is extinguished, and all delusions have disappeared. I somehow feel that this is a better interpretation. The place to which consciousness has no access to, the place where there is nothing at all, where not even the slightest delusive thought stirs – that is "the point of essence." Now you must kill even this "point" by sitting persistently on your cushion. If you don't do that, the great life will never be truly manifested.

All paths of consciousness are deadlocked, not one delusive thought arises .... As you practice "Muuuu, Muuuu," you reach a stage where you are in a daze and your mind doesn't move at all. This fogged, dazed state of mind is crucial. The most important thing at this juncture is not to let go of Mu. Persist desperately in your practice of Mu to the end. Then your eyes will open to the real world, the world of great life.

Having reached this point, each one will be a thousand-foot cliff. Every person who severs the "point of essence" is likened to "a cliff of a thousand feet" (or sometimes: "of ten thousand feet"). It is a sheer cliff that defies scaling, not granting any access at all. That means, not even the Buddha or Bodhidharma can get a hold on it. There is no way the buddhas and patriarchs could get even a peep at it, let alone find a place to grab onto it. Not until you become this way are you truly on your own, able to swallow the universe and say, "Above and below the heavens I alone exist," or "In heaven and on earth there is no one else." To become one with the universe to this degree is what is meant by "Each one will be a thousand-foot cliff."

Tell me, whose state of consciousness is this? I will try to present such a case, look! Has there ever been a person like this? Reaching the stage of a "one-thousand-foot cliff"? I'll show you an example, so have a good look at it!

On the Case:

Seppô, instructing the assembly, said, "There's a poisonous snake on the South Mountain. All of you should look at it carefully!" In all probability Master Seppô was delivering a teisho in front of his disciples. "South Mountain" is Mt. Seppô, where Master Seppô resided. Mr. Ino'ue Shûten explains that the "poisonous snake" was a cobra, and that cobras must have inhabited the area including the Province of Kanton in southern China at that time. Seppô tells his students, "On South Mountain there is a cobra, so watch carefully!" But what is the "cobra" we are supposed to deal with today?

Seppô was a great master with many fine disciples, among whom are Unmon Bun'en, Gensha Shibi, Chôkei Eryô and Hofuku Jûten. Seppô himself was a disciple of Master Tokusan Senkan, famous for using a stick to whack anyone who came before him. It took Seppô a long time to come to kensho. An early kensho is not necessarily an unmixed blessing, for it tends to be shallow. People of old said, "Hard work will necessarily result in great brilliance." It's just like saying that the harder you try, the greater will be the light of your kensho. That's how it was with Seppô, creating a magnificent light. I hope that each of you too will attain a great enlightenment rather than a feeble one, even if it takes a long time.

How Seppô came to enlightenment is a very illuminating story, but today I cannot go into it. Gantô, Seppô's brother in the dharma under Tokusan, was a kind of Zen genius. Although he didn't practice as hard as Seppô, he had a deeply enlightened eye. However, he apparently had some form of bad karma from a previous life, of which he was well aware. He said that he was not the type to go out into the world to teach, and that Seppô would be the most appropriate person for such work instead (Seppô was older, but in the dharma Gantô was the senior). Indeed, Gantô ended his life without gaining any fitting acknowledgement from the world. He was murdered by bandits in the end. When Master Hakuin heard this story as a young man, he was deeply distressed. How could a great man like Gantô come to such a tragic end? What value was there in practicing Buddhism, then? When he had a deep enlightenment, however, Master Hakuin clapped his hands with joy and exclaimed, "Oh, Gantô has been very well! He is still very much alive!" Gantô and Seppô always encouraged each other, and Gantô, being senior to Seppô, guided the latter to become a great master, and from Seppô came forth one famous master after another.

Now, Seppô said, "There's a poisonous snake on the South Mountain. All of you should look at it carefully!" Then Chôkei Eryô stepped forward and said, "Today in the Zen hall there is a great one who has lost his body and life." The Japanese word ôi-ni, translated here as "great," can also mean "many," so Yasutani Roshi interprets it as "Today there are many people in the Zen hall." But other people maintain that it's not a question of number and I'm inclined to follow this interpretation. Chôkei is saying, "Today there's a great person in the Zen hall. He was bitten by this poisonous snake and died." Chôkei is speaking of himself, and the "poisonous snake" means, of course, our essential nature. "Being bitten by the snake" means coming to kensho, with the mind and body fallen off. There is such a person in the zendo. "Today there's a great person in the Zen hall. He was bitten by this poisonous snake and died."

A monk told this to Gensha. Then a monk in the assembly went and told this to Gensha, another of Seppô's disciples,and elder brother in the dharma to Chôkei. Gensha also was a great master. Until he was 30 years old, he worked as a fisherman. One day, when he was out fishing with his father, the latter fell over the side of the boat and drowned right before his eyes. This experience made him realize the impermanence of all things and he decided to become a monk. Therefore, although he may have had little learning, his state of enlightenment was splendid. He was respected highly by Master Dôgen.

Upon being told by the monk what Chôkei had said, Gensha commented, "Only Elder Brother Ryô could say something like that. However, I wouldn't talk like that." "Ryô" means Chôkei, whose full name was Chôkei Eryô. So Gensha said, "Oh I see. Only my big brother Chôkei could talk that way. But I am a bit different myself."

The monk asked, "What then would you say, Master?" Gensha replied, "Why does it have to be 'South Mountain'?" Gensha's answer was, "What's the use of bringing in South Mountain? That wouldn't be necessary. Isn't the poisonous snake everywhere?" That's right. Everyone of us is a poisonous snake. In fact, all human beings are poisonous snakes! And these poisonous snakes are wonderful snakes! That's why Gensha says that the poisonous snakes aren't limited to South Mountain. They are everywhere.

Unmon must have been in the assembly. Unmon threw his staff down in front of Seppô and acted frightened. Unmon threw his staff and acted frightened, "Here's the snake! Here's the snake!" If you think he made a snake out of the staff, you are wrong. That would be mere play. You must understand that he presented the poisonous snake itself. In fact, Unmon liked to make use of his staff. In Case 60 of the Hekiganroku (Unmon's Staff), it says, "Unmon showed his staff to the assembly and said, 'This staff has changed into a dragon and has swallowed up heaven and earth.'" He means to say, "This staff has become a dragon and gulped down the entire universe." So the same staff is at one time a dragon, another time a snake. How true! A single staff exhausts the entire universe. Unmon's presentation is outstanding.

In short, the "poisonous snake," the cobra, has come out as the essential nature here. It is nothing but our essential nature that is the topic of this koan. When we talk about "our essential nature" or "our true self," you may think it is limited to human beings. But our "essential nature" and the "essential world" are one and the same. They are not two, just one. That is what this koan is dealing with.

 

On the Verse:

Elephant-bone Rock is too high for people to reach. "Elephant-bone Rock" is another way of referring to Mt. Seppô, where Master Seppô resided. It is said that this name came from the fact that on its top there was a rock shaped like an elephant bone. That this Rock is too high for people to come up to means that Seppô's state of realization is so lofty that no one else can attain it or even have access to it.

Whoever gets there must be a skilled handler of snakes. Seppô's state of enlightenment being so high, there's scarcely anyone who could come near it. But if there ever were such a person, he or she would have to have the ability to play freely with snakes. Unmon is certainly one such master snake charmer.

Chôkei and Gensha are in the same league as Unmon, but, in order to extol Unmon, in this Verse they are handled with the depreciating words, Master Ryô and Master Bi cannot do anything. "Master Ryô" is Chôkei Eryô and "Master Bi" is Gensha Shibi. Setchô, belonging to the Unmon Sect, probably felt a special affection and respect for Unmon. Although Chôkei and Gensha are likewise splendid, they are intentionally kept low so that Unmon should be praised.

Is there anyone at all who has lost body and life? Is there anyone who has died away? That is, has anyone been bitten by the snake and perished? In common terminology, is there anyone here who has had a deep enlightenment and lost his or her ego? When you open your eyes to your true essential nature, you understand clearly that what you thought was "I" or "me" is really empty. This is what it means to lose your body and life. How many are here who have truly attained great enlightenment? Are there any at all?

Shôyô knows and sweeps the grass again. Great Master Unmon lived in Shôyô in Kanton Province, so "Shôyô" here means Unmon himself. Great Master Unmon knows the matter well and sets off to sweep the grass to find the snake again. "Again" means that Chôkei and Gensha already swept the grass to expose the snake, but now it's Unmon's turn to sweep the grass once more to find the snake.

North, south, east, west – it is nowhere to be found. No matter where you go, you won't find the snake. This refers to the world of nothingness. Zen always handles freely both the world of nothingness and the clearly manifest phenomenal world. In actuality it's all just one reality: Looked at from one side we see the world of nothingness, from the other we see the phenomenal world. It's just like the famous verse that goes, "In nothingness there are limitless things: flowers, the moon and lofty towers."2 It is from the point of view of nothingness that the Verse says, "North, south, east, or west – it is nowhere to be found."

But suddenly the staff sticks out. All of a sudden Unmon flings out his staff. The "staff" is actually the poisonous snake. Abruptly, the cobra appears.

It hurls itself at Seppô, mouth open wide. This cobra bears the spirit of Unmon; in fact, it is Unmon himself. Frightening! Its mouth is wide open.

 It opens its mouth wide, quickly like a flash of lightning; if you raise your eyebrows, you will not see it. The lightning flashes, and at the same instant it opens up its mouth wide. If you open your eyes big and try to see it, you can't. No wonder, because the one trying to see is the IT itself. Sometimes I think how strange it is that I can never see my own face, my whole life long. I can see my reflection in a mirror, but that's just an image and not my real face. There is no way that you can see your own face. How mysterious! And how sad, too, that no matter how wide you open your eyes, it cannot be seen. But if you ask me whether or not I have a face at all, yes, I do have one. And that's certain. This is the same as "if you raise your eyebrows, you will not see it."

Where is the snake now? It's hidden now before Breast Peaks. "Breast Peaks"[Nyû-Hô] refer to Mt. Setchô since it had two peaks called Small Breast Peaks, resembling two female breasts. That the snake is now hidden and is in front of Mt. Setchô means that it is hidden with Setchô himself.

Those who come, look at each manoeuvre. All those who come to Mt. Setchô should observe what a competent snake handler he is. The snake rests in his hands.

And the last line: The master shouts loudly: "Look under your feet!" A loud shout! If you want to see the snake, come to Mt. Setchô! Observe my skill! Where is the snake? Look under your feet! But if you literally look under feet, you won't find it there. It's in everyone – but even this wording is incorrect because it becomes two. Rather, each person is the snake. Everyone must wake up to the fact that he or she already has something marvellous. The way to come to awakening is to do MU right to the finish [toko-ton made]. This "right to the finish" is difficult. It means thoroughly, or in common Japanese, "until you penetrate to the bottom" [soko ni tessuru made]. Your MU must penetrate to the bottom, it must clearly touch the lowest bottom. You shouldn't just go halfway with your MU and then draw back, and keep repeating the same process. Your "MUUUUU...." must hit the very bottom. If it does, without fail IT will appear. Practice wholeheartedly and thoroughly, and IT will certainly appear.