Monday, July 16, 2012
Some quotes from various spiritual writers:
The summer's grass!
all that's left
of ancient warriors' dreams.
- Matsuo Basho
The true student of the Way clings neither to Buddha, nor to Bodhisattvas, nor to Arhats; he clings not to anything that passes as supreme in the Three Worlds. He keeps his distance, stands alone and free, and is not bothered by things. Though heaven and earth be turned upside down, he will not be bewildered. Though all the Buddhas of the ten directions appear before him, he will not care. And if the three deepest hells47 suddenly gape before him, he will not be afraid.
Why not? Because he sees everything as empty.
If there is change, there is also existence. Without change, there is nothing. "The Three Worlds are the heart only; The ten thousand things are but its differentiation." This is why it is said: "Dreams and phantoms, flowers in the empty sky; why trouble yourself to seize them?"
Followers of the Way, the one right here before your eyes and listening to the Dharma is he who "enters fire without being burnt, goes into water without being drowned, and plays about in the three deepest hells, as if in a fairground; he enters the world of Pretas and dumb animals without being molested by them." Why is this so? Because there is nothing he dislikes. If you love the sacred and dislike the worldly, you will go on floating and sinking in the ocean of birth and death. The passions arise depending on the heart. If the heart is stilled, where then do you seize the passions? Do not tire yourselves by making up discriminations, and quite naturally, of itself, you will find the Way.
- excerpt from The Zen Teaching of Rinzai, translated by Irmgard Schloegl.
True person manifest throughout the ten quarters of the world
The true person is
Not anyone in particular;
But, like the deep blue color
Of the limitless sky,
It is everyone, everywhere in the world.
- Eihei Dogen, English version by Steven Heine
It seems to be such a great task -- it is not, but it appears to be a great task -- to transform your blindness into clear perceptive eyes; to transform your darkness into beautiful morning light. It is a simple thing, the simplest in the world, but just because it is simple, it does not appeal to the mind. Mind is interested in doing great things. The desire behind every ambition of the mind is to be special. And you can be special only with special achievements.
The problem with Zen is that it wants you to be utterly simple, not special. It goes against the very desire of the mind, which is not a small phenomenon -- it is a four-million-yearsold desire, which everybody is carrying in different lives. Mind cannot understand why you should be simple when you could be special, why you should be humble when you could be powerful. And mind is heavy, it has the great weight of the past. The moment the mind sees anyone humble, simple, natural, a buddha, it immediately condemns him, because such a man goes against the whole makeup of the human mind. And in a way the mind is right. To be a buddha you will have to drop the mind completely, you will have to become an empty mirror.
- Osho, from Ma Tzu: The Empty Mirror - Talks on Zen
It has to be understood that buddhahood cannot be attained, it is already your nature. If you try to attain it, you will miss it. You have just to relax and see within yourself, and the buddha is already there in its absolute splendor.
The use of the word `attain' means that something has to be done, you have to go somewhere. There is a possibility of failure - you may succeed, you may not succeed. And attainment is always of the outside world, of the objective world - riches, or fame, or power...
But buddhahood is not an attainment. It is simply a remembrance, as if you had forgotten something, and suddenly in a silent relaxed state you remember it.
- Osho, from Ma Tzu: The Empty Mirror - Talks on Zen
(image of statue of Matsuo Basho found on wikipedia)
