"Here it is - right now. Start thinking about it and you miss it."
-Huang Po
Showing posts with label Huang Po. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Huang Po. Show all posts
"This pure mind, which is the source of all things, shines forever with the radiance of its own perfection. But most people are not aware of it, and think that mind is just the faculty that sees, hears, feels, and knows. Blinded by their own sight, hearing, feeling, and knowing, they don't perceive the radiance of the source. If they could eliminate all conceptual thinking, this source would appear, like the sun rising through the empty sky and illuminating the whole universe. Therefore, you students of the Tao who seek to understand through seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing, when your perceptions are cut off, your way to mind will be cut off and you will find nowhere to enter. Just realize that although mind is manifested in these perceptions, it is neither part of them nor separate from them. You shouldn't try to analyze these perceptions, or think about them at all; but you shouldn't seek the one mind apart from them. Don't hold on to them or leave them behind or dwell in them or reject them. Above, below, and all around you, all things spontaneously exist, because there is nowhere outside the Buddha mind."
-Huangbo Xiyun
-Huangbo Xiyun
Thursday's Thoughts - July 5th, 2012
“Not till your thoughts cease all their branching here and there, not till you abandon all thoughts of seeking for something, not till your mind is motionless as wood or stone, will you be on the right road to the Gate.”
-Huang Po
The river at its source is irrepressible, but as it travels it loses its potency. The river with its tributaries, turns, and forks loses the strength it had in its dedicated direction. The mind is not unlike this river, and as we think our mind forks, and we lose our dedicated purpose.
Does this mean that we should not have thoughts? No, it means we should not dwell on them. To think of the past is to be consumed by it, and to dwell on thoughts of your future will accomplish nothing in the present. You must let thoughts come and go, perpetually flowing in and out of our temporal existence, acting only as your nature dictates.
Can you silence the mind, and satiate your desires? To yearn for something is to neglect what you have, and happiness can never be achieved when you fail to realize the import of your own value over all else. Envy not, for this is yet another form of desire, and such practices bring imbalance to your existence.
The ancient Ch'an Sect expresses this ideal by the maxim: "If you open your mouth, you are wrong. If you give rise to a single thought, you are in error." So, if you can quiet your mind in entirety, all that remains is ensÅ, voidness, stillness, and the Tao. You will not be tempted, or goaded into an emotional response. You will simply be.
Are you capable of understanding how to halt the concept-forming activities of your mind? This is the only way you can make certain of attaining your reward. Only when you have foregone all perceptions, will there be nothing objective to perceive. Only when chaos obstructs you no longer; only when you have shed from yourself the scores of dualistic concepts of the ignorant and Enlightened, will you understand the Tao.
The river at its source is irrepressible, but as it travels it loses its potency. The river with its tributaries, turns, and forks loses the strength it had in its dedicated direction. The mind is not unlike this river, and as we think our mind forks, and we lose our dedicated purpose.
Does this mean that we should not have thoughts? No, it means we should not dwell on them. To think of the past is to be consumed by it, and to dwell on thoughts of your future will accomplish nothing in the present. You must let thoughts come and go, perpetually flowing in and out of our temporal existence, acting only as your nature dictates.
Can you silence the mind, and satiate your desires? To yearn for something is to neglect what you have, and happiness can never be achieved when you fail to realize the import of your own value over all else. Envy not, for this is yet another form of desire, and such practices bring imbalance to your existence.
The ancient Ch'an Sect expresses this ideal by the maxim: "If you open your mouth, you are wrong. If you give rise to a single thought, you are in error." So, if you can quiet your mind in entirety, all that remains is ensÅ, voidness, stillness, and the Tao. You will not be tempted, or goaded into an emotional response. You will simply be.
Are you capable of understanding how to halt the concept-forming activities of your mind? This is the only way you can make certain of attaining your reward. Only when you have foregone all perceptions, will there be nothing objective to perceive. Only when chaos obstructs you no longer; only when you have shed from yourself the scores of dualistic concepts of the ignorant and Enlightened, will you understand the Tao.
