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Satori noted,
"the mind, like quicksilver goes, falsely enlightened,
down those old wrong-headed roads,
each more wrong than one before"

~ Muso Soseki

This morning I came from the expanse of reality.
Tonight I’ll go into the expanse of reality.
I have the master’s oral instructions
For a friend when I’m sad.
I spread out great bliss as a seat.
I wear the natural warmth
Of the primordial for clothing.
I use great equanimity for a pillow.
I’m friendly with intrinsic self-awareness
As a close companion.
I eat pure meditative concentration for food.
I drink continuity for a drink.
The food is eaten in nonduality,
The taste experienced as great bliss.
The actualization of the three true buddha bodies is achieved.

~ Godrakpa (1170-1249)

The moon is a house
In which the mind is master.
Look very closely:
Only impermanence lasts.
This floating world, too, will pass.

~ Ikkyu Sojun (1394-1481)

When you are sitting in meditation,
watch carefully to know when your consciousness starts to move.
Consciousness is always moving and flowing.
According to its coming and going, we must all be aware of it.

To know there is nothing to know
is the wisdom to know everything.
This is the Dharma-gate of a Bodhisattva.

~ Tao-shin (580-651)

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 (1930-2009)

Chapter 34

The way is broad, reaching left as well as right.
The myriad creatures depend on it for life yet it claims no authority.
It accomplishes its task yet lays claim to no merit.
It clothes and feeds the myriad creatures yet lays no claim to being their master.

For ever free of desire, it can be called small;
Yet as it lays no claim to being master when the myriad creatures turn to it, it can be called great.

It is because it never attempts itself to become great that it succeeds in becoming great.

All Buddhas preach emptiness. Why? Because they wish to crush the concrete ideas of the students.
If a student even clings to an idea of emptiness, he betrays all Buddhas.
One clings to life although there is nothing to be called life; another clings to death although there is nothing to be called death.
In reality there is nothing to be born, consequently, there is nothing to perish.

Bodhidharma

@rookie54 said
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 (1930-2009)

Search out the point
where your thoughts
arise and disappear.
See where a thought
arises and vanishes.
Keep this point in mind
and try to break right through it.
Take up this awareness
as if holding a sharp sword in your hand.

~ Han Shan (1545-1623)

I’ve built a grass hut
Where there’s nothing of value
After eating, I relax and enjoy a nap.
When it was completed, fresh weeds appeared.
Now it’s been lived in
Covered by weeds.
The person in the hut
Lives here calmly,
Not stuck to inside, outside,
Or in between.

~ Sitou (700-790)

Turn around the light to shine within,
Then just return.
The vast inconceivable source
Can’t be faced or turned away from
Meet the ancestral teachers,
Be familiar with their instruction,
Bind grasses to build a hut,
And don’t give up.

~ Sitou (700-790)

Yoka Daishi says: "Going too is Zen; sitting too is Zen. Speaking or silent, moving the body or still, one is at peace."

This teaches that going and sitting and talking are all Zen. It is not only being in zazen and letting the thoughts come and go.

Whether rising or sitting, keep concentrated and watchful. All of a sudden, the original face will confront you.

~ Shuho Myocho (1282-1337)

The Buddha said, “Learning and thinking are like being outside the door; sitting in meditation is returning home to sit in peace.”

How true this is! While learning and thinking, views have not stopped and the mind is still stuck – that is why it is like being outside the door.

But in this sitting meditation, Zazen, everything is at rest, and you penetrate everywhere – thus it is like returning home to sit in peace.

~ Keizan Jokan (1264-1325)