one day,
some day,
i will learn to read this in the language it was written...
Mind set free in the Dharma-realm,
I sit at the moon-filled window
Watching the mountains with my ears,
Hearing the stream with open eyes.
Each molecule preaches perfect law,
Each moment chants true sutra:
The most fleeting thought is timeless,
A single hair’s enough to stir the sea.
- Shutaku (14th c)
@rookie54 said“A painting of a rice cake doesn’t satisfy hunger...”
Xiangyan Zhixian studied at the assembly of Guishan Lingyou; Zen Master Dayuan said, “you are bright and knowledgeable. Say something about yourself before your parents were born, but don’t use words you have learned from sutras and commentaries.
Xiangyan tried and tried but could not say anything. He poured through the many books he had collected over the years but could ...[text shortened]... e, an equivalent of our kitchen assistant. He followed this vow for years.
- Xiangyan and Guishan
It is pure honor to be a gruel monk.
@rookie54 saidHere is an expansion of this story and the previous one with commentary.
One day Xiangyan said to Guishan, “My mind is undifferentiated; I cannot speak. Can you explain this to me, Master?”
Guishan said, “I wouldn’t mind explaining it to you, but if I did, you would resent me.”
- Xiangyan and Guishan
http://www.chogyezencenter.org/2014/05/what-to-do-with-despair/
@hakima
thank you for the illumination
Someone asked, “What do you mean by the true Buddha, the true Dharma and the true Way? Would you be good enough to explain to us?”
The Master said,”The Buddha- this is the cleanness and purity of the mind. The Dharma- this is the shining brightness of the mind. The Way- this is the pure light that is never obstructed anywhere. The three are in fact one. All are empty names and have no true reality.”
- Lin-chi (d.867)
Even profound concepts are ultimately empty: the Ultimate Path is wordless, and if we speak, we go astray from it. Though we may characterize the fundamental basis as “empty by nature,” there is no “fundamental basis” that can be labeled. Emptiness itself is wordless: it is not a mental construct.
- Records of the Lanka