...

When water is pure and sparkling clear
You see straight to the bottom
When your mind holds no concern
No circumstance can turn you
And once your mind doesn’t stray
A kalpa has no changes
From such awareness nothing hides.

Cold Mountain

@rookie54 said
Learned friends,
Our self-natured Bodhi
Is fundamentally pure
And clean.
Use only this mind
Of yours for direct
Understanding and
Attainment of Buddhahood.

Altar Sutra

@Arkturos said
[Commentary]

Sorry to clutter this thread yet again (deletion perhaps to follow), but I wonder whether "fundamentally pure" was an anecdotal assertion based on personal experience, or an idealistic assertion based on a relayed tradition.

Also, there seems to be an a priori assumption that attainment of Buddhahood would be a good idea, as well as a preference for an extreme of purity over an average quotidian mixity.

If you want to be free,
Get to know your real self.
It has no form, no appearance,
No root, no basis, no abode,
But is lively and buoyant.
It responds with versatile facility,
But its function cannot be located.
Therefore when you look for it,
You become further from it;
When you seek it
You turn away from it all the more.

~ Linji (d. 867)


this may be a repeated lesson
there is prolly a reason for it being repeated
please forgive me

If you memorize slogans,
you are unable to make
subtle adaptations according
to the situation.

It is not that there is no
way to teach insight to learners,
but once you have learned a way,
it is essential that you get
it to work completely.

If you just stick to your
teacher’s school and memorize slogans,
this is not enlightenment,
it is a part of intellectual knowledge.

~ Fayan

Tell me and I forget.
Teach me and I remember.
Involve me and I learn.

~ Xunzi

Silently and serenely,
One forgets all words;
Clearly and vividly,
It appears before you.
When one realizes it,
Time has no limits.
When experienced,
Your surroundings come to life.
Full of wonder is the pure illumination.

~ Hung Chih (1092-1157)

Night brings eighty-four thousand poems of Buddha.
Listen, and someday you may awaken.

~ Su Shih (1031-1101)

Spring has its hundred flowers,
Autumn has its many moons.
Summer has cool winds,
Winter its snow.
If useless thoughts do not
Cloud your mind,
Each day is the best of your life.

~ Wu-Men-Hui-Kai (1183–1260)

Silently and serenely,
One forgets all words;
Clearly and vividly,
It appears before you.
When one realizes it,
Time has no limits.
When experienced,
Your surroundings come to life.
Full of wonder is the pure illumination.

~ Hung Chih Cheng Chueh (1092-1157)

All along the trail of moss,
I followed your wooden shoeprints.
White clouds hung around your little island
Where spring grass hid your unlocked door.
I enjoyed the colors of pines after rain
And reached the river’s source
Along the mountain trail.
Facing the stream and the flowers
I came inside a sense of Zen,
Yet cannot find the words.

~ Liu Chang Ching (709–780)

Spring has its hundred flowers,
Autumn has its many moons
Summer has cool winds,
Winter its snow.
If useless thoughts do not
Cloud your mind,
Each day is the best of your life.

~ Wu-Men-Hui-Kai (1183–1260)

I found my way up
Yoshino’s precipice-hung
Path and into its
Past, seeing there the blossoms
I sought that spring ages ago.

~ Saigyo (1118-1190)

A hard cold rain
A forest of wind
Late at night
The lotus drips
Who knows the dream
That entrances the world
Is simply the luminous
Prajna mind

~ Han-shan Te-ch’ing (1546-1623)

What I teach people just
Requires you not to take
On the confusion of others.
Act when necessary,
Without further hesitation or doubt.
When students today do not attain this,
Wherein lies their sickness?
The sickness is in not
Trusting yourself.
If your inner trust is insufficient,
Then you will frantically go along
With changes in situations,
And will be influenced and
Affected by myriad objects,
Unable to be independent.
If you can stop the mentality
Of constant frantic seeking,
Then you are no different
From Zen masters and Buddhas.

~ Linji (d. 866)