Subhuti, do not think that when one gives rise to the highest, most fulfilled,
awakened mind once needs to see all objects of mind as nonexistent,
cut off from life. Please do not think in that way. One who gives rise to the
awakened mind does not deny objects or say that they are nonexistent.
One who gives rise to the awakened mind should know that what is called a self or a person,
a living being or a life span, is not so in essence but only in concept.
The names self, person, living being, or life span are names only.
Subhuti, you should know that all the things of the world are like this,
and you should have confidence in their essence without names.
~ Diamond Sutra
Ananda, the nature of the Absolute is that it is total enlightenment. It is beyond name and form and beyond the world and all its living beings.
Ignorance creates an illusion of birth and death, but when ignorance is dispelled, the supreme and shining Absolute is there. Then, suffering is changed into insight, and death is transmuted to nirvana.
Śūraṅgama Sūtra
People of the way journey through the world
Responding to conditions,
Carefree and without restraint.
Like clouds finally raining,
Like moonlight following the current,
Like orchids growing in shade,
Like spring arising in everything,
They act without mind,
They respond with certainty.
~ Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091–1157)
There is a vast potential,
latent within human beings,
that remains undiscovered
because of the limitations
placed on consciousness
by habitual preoccupations.
The recommendation
that all cravings be relinquished
does not mean that
detachment itself is a goal;
it is a means of breaking through
self–imposed restrictions
and opening up this
inexhaustible treasure of potential.
~ Muso Kokushi (1275-1351)
To be unstained in all environments is called no-thought…If you stop thinking of the myriad things, and cast aside all thoughts, as soon as one instant of thought is cut off, you enter another realm.
The Dharma of no-thought means: even though you see all things, you do not attach to them, but, always keeping your own nature pure, cast the six thieves of the senses to exit through the six gates.
Even though you are in the midst of the six dusts, you do not stand apart from them, yet are not stained by them, and are free to come and go.
~ Huineng
Be soft in your practice. Think of the method as a fine silvery stream, not a raging waterfall. Follow the stream, have faith in its course.
It will go its own way, meandering here, trickling there. It will find the grooves, the cracks, the crevices. Just follow it. Never let it out of your sight. It will take you.
~ Sheng-yen