Topic: A drop of Zen/Chan

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"When ordinary and sacred
Feelings are forgotten,
Being is revealed, real and eternal.
Just detach from arbitrary involvements,
And you awaken to Being as it is."
Although these are the leavings
Of an ancient Zen master,
There are many people who
Cannot partake of them.
I've lost considerable profit
Just by bringing them up.
Can anyone discern? If you can,
You will recognize the disease of "Buddhism"
And the disease of "Zen."

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Wearing black robe and straw sandals,
I walk soundlessly.
Thinking of the far distant future,
My eyes never cease to gaze
Toward the ultimate reality.

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Mind is like a vast space in which there is no good or evil, as when the sun shines upon the four corners of the world. For when the sun rises and illuminates the whole earth, the vast space does not get brighter, and when the sun sets, the universe does not get dark. The phenomena of light and dark alternate with each other, but the nature of the universe is unchanged. The same is true with the Mind of the Buddha and of sentient beings.

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Whether Perfect Ones appear in the world, or whether Perfect Ones do not appear in the world, it remains a condition, an immutable fact and fixed law, that all formations are impermanent, that all formations are subject to suffering, and that everything is without a self.

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To be free from the passions
And to be calm,
This is the most excellent Way.

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If you want to learn the Principles,
Don't study fine bound books.
The True Pearl's in a hemp sack
The Buddha nature rests in huts.
Many grasp the sack
But few open it.

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Wu Mountain's person of the Way
Has a mind like water,
With eyes clear, so free from dust
There's none to sweep away.
That's why he can lodge powerful emotions
In marvelous phrases,
Using this leveling device,
To test old East Slope.

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It is like how a goldsmith must smelt ore to obtain
gold before he can fashion it into implements for use.
If you have a body, you have bodily impediments.
And if you have bodily impediments, your dharma
body is obscured by your outer shell. If you have a
heart, you have impediments of the heart. And if you
have impediments of the heart, your true wisdom will
be obscured by your thinking and apprehensions.

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84,000 delusions,
84,000 lights,
84,000 joys abounding

(There are 84,000 sutras in Buddhism)

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Buddhas know beings' minds,
Their natures each different;
According to what they need to be freed,
Thus do the Buddhas teach.
To the stingy they praise giving,
To the immoral they praise ethics;
To the angry they praise tolerance,
To the lazy they praise effort.

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Twilight scene in a hot-spring temple,
Autumn wind, a mountain where leaves flutter down:
People hurry along with the valley stream,
Birds go home in company
With the white clouds.
Monks' quarters in the middle of the dusty town,
Laymen's houses among the emerald of the woods.
All day long on the bridge above the ravine
The green peaks face me in silence.

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If one can release the mind
That desires merit and fame,
Wealth and distinction,
He will be able to avoid the ordinary.
If one can release the mind
That desires the Way and its virtue,
Humanity and righteousness,
He will, for the first time,
Be able to join the sages.

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There is something in each of you that you will only be able to perceive when you turn around. So how does one turn around? By nonseeking seeking, seeking without seeking. This is precisely what people find hard to deal with or get into. How can you seek if you are not seeking? How can you not seek if you are seeking? If you only seek, how is that different from pursuing sounds and chasing forms? If you do not seek at all, how are you different from inert matter?