' WERE THE SKY TO SEEK TO BECOME THE SKY, IT COULD NEVER SUCCEED...'

Liberation is our very nature. We are that. The very fact that we wish for liberation shows that freedom from all bondage is our real nature. It is not to be freshly acquired. All that is necessary is to get rid of the false notion that we are bound. When we achieve that, there will be no desire or thought of any sort. So long as one desires liberation, so long, you may take it, one is in bondage.

If you regard Brahman, your own real nature, as something
different from you, it will feel shy, separate from you and slip
away.

Any effort to reach reality, thinking it to be different from oneself, will cause the non-dual experience, wherein one abides as reality, to go extremely far away.

- Sri Ramana Maharshi

“Self-arising wisdom, the essence of Dharmakaya, is not realized through effort, but conversely, by just remaining in the natural condition. It transcends all the aims of the practices, for that which is called “aim” is only a name: in reality “enlightenment” itself is only a name. Using the definition of “enlightenment” is a characteristic of the provisional teachings and not of the definitive ones.”

“As the true nature transcends cause and effect, those desirous of the fruit should not engage in its cause; It is realized by just remaining in the natural condition free of concepts.”

“Enlightenment is mind free of concepts and it is not achieved by following a gradual path.”

“The very word “realize” is not part of my language but of the language of those who base themselves on cause and effect”.

“Likewise, the sky does not change: were the sky to seek to become “the sky” it could never succeed. The nature of being does not change: were being to seek to become its own nature, it could never succeed. The nature of mind does not change: were the nature of mind to seek to realize itself it could not succeed. Meditation that seeks to transform that which cannot change presupposes hope in some future time: as it is based on desire and depends on time, it becomes a desperate meditation and is utterly not what I mean by the “definitive teaching.”

From the root Dzogchen Semde text, the Kunje Gyalpo

"There is a way. No one will reveal the secret. 

You must enter the door yourself. 

But there is no door. In the end, there is not even a way.

The great achievements of the world are but snowflakes melting on fire,

Accomplishments that move oceans are but dew disappearing in the glare of the sun,

Why live a dream in this ethereal life of dreams,
I forsake all to walk towards the great eternal truth.

- Dongshan (Tozan)

Although not a Chinese like Dongshan, this master of the Tibetan tradition, Khampar Kagyud Togden Achö. (1980) radiated what the quote expresses.

THE LOOK OF PEACE

 

"As children our attitude to Bhagavan was perhaps slightly different from that of the adults. We of course knew that He was God and a wonderful person to be near - truly a magical feeling, but we accepted this quite naturally and without a feeling of awe. However sometimes even children can be awed:

One of these memories i have is rather strange because to this day i recall my amazement and yet nothing actually happened at all. A lady came to Tiruvannamalai from North India; in those days all 'foreigners' whether they were North Indians or Norwegians were sent to our home. I was about ten years old at the time and not an especially sensitive child but even i could not bear to stay in the room with her as she was so tense, nervous and unhappy that it made me most uneasy.
Her story was that she had married a man she loved very much although her parents had not approved as he was of a different caste - however they had overcome all the opposition and they went to the seaside somewhere for their honeymoon. They had a week of great happiness until one day he was killed by a shark right in front of her eyes. All this had happened about 2 years earlier and the distraught widow was traveling through India, going to various ashrams and seeing various holy men. She had a list of questions which she asked at each place - all more or less a demand why such a thing should happen if there was a God of Justice and so on. She was an unhappy and aggressively angry lady and my heart sank when my mother asked me to show her the way to the hall where Bhagavan sat.. I led in silence and she followed me, i showed her the hall and went off to play. A while later i realised it was lunch time and i went to collect her and bring her home - most reluctantly.

I will never, never forget the change that had come over her in just an hour or so. She was calm and relaxed and peaceful and happy! I was so awed and intrigued that i hung around anxiously waiting for my mother to ask her what Bhagavan had said to her. Whatever it was it must have been words of the greatest wisdom and power to have such an effect. Eventually my mother did ask and the lady answered that she had gone into the hall and sat down and Bhagavan had just looked at her - just looked -with such infinite compassion that she felt that her questions were of no importance any more. She sat there and felt the peace and no word was spoken ...." (Katya Osborne)

(from 'Moments Remembered, by V. Ganesan); Photo shows Katya Osborne standing besides Bhagavan

World of the Absolute

Buddhism claims that present reality is absolute. If you open the eye of the heart, you'll see that samsara is paradise. So there's no need to look elsewhere for the absolute world; simply strive to open the eye.

And once you do, you'll see that a great sun lights all the universes and beyond. If you perceive this correctly, you'll realize that wherever we sit, wherever we stand, wherever we go — everyplace — is the world of the absolute.

Tong Songchol (1912~1993), also SeongCheol, one of the great Zen masters in the last century was also called the Living Buddha of Korea.

BEING IS TRUTH

We are all born with being veiled in obscurity. We may recognize the transparency of being shining in the eyes of an infant, but such being is not conscious of itself. It is veiled in an absence of self-awareness. Infants live in a magical world of unconscious being, while adults live in a world of egocentric separation and denial of being. Rectifying and restoring being to its true dominion and sovereignty is what spiritual awakening makes possible.

The question of being is everything. Nothing could be more important or consequential—nothing where the stakes run so high. To remain unconscious of being is to remain asleep to our own reality and therefore asleep to Reality at large. The choice is simple: awaken to being or sleep an endless sleep.

Adyashanti, THE WAY OF LIBERATION

There Is a Wonderful Game

There is a game we should play,
And it goes like this:

We hold hands and look into each other's eyes
And scan each other's face.

Then I say,
"Now tell me a difference you see between us."

And you might respond,
"Hafiz, your nose is ten times bigger than mine!"

Then I would say
"Yes, my dear, almost ten times!"

But let's keep playing.
Let's go deeper,
Go deeper.
For if we do,
Our spirits will embrace
And interweave.

Our union will be so glorious
That even God
Will not be able to tell us apart.

There is a wonderful game
We should play with everyone
And it goes like this...

Hafiz

I used to know my name

I used to know my name.
Now I don't.
I think a river understands me.

For what does it call itself in that blessed
moment when it starts emptying into the
Infinite Luminous Sea,

and opening every aspect of self wider than
it ever thought possible?

Each drop of itself now running to embrace
and unite with a million new friends.

And you were there, in my union with All,
everyone who will ever see this page.

- Hafiz

SEXUALITY AND CHASTITY (BRAHMACHARYA)

Q: What are the passions?

M: They are the same force that is used in meditation, but diverted into other channels
.
Q: Isn't brahmacharya necessary?

M: Brahmacharya means 'living in Brahman". It has no connection with celibacy as is commonly understood. A real brahmachari finds bliss in Brahman, the same as Self.

Q: But isn't celibacy a requirement for yoga? 

M: Yes, it is. It is one of many aids to realization.

Q: Isn't brahmacharya essential? Can a married person realize the Self?

M: Certainly! married or unmarried, a person can realize the Self because it is here and now. It is only a matter of the fitness of the mind. Have there not been people living with their spouse and family yet attaining realization?

Q: Is it better for reaching salvation to be married or celibate?

M: Whatever you think better. There is no difference. Thoughts must cease and reason disappear. Feeling is the prime factor in meditation, not reason. It ought to come at the right side of the chest, not in the head, because the Heart is there. It must be held tight.

Q: Is marriage a bar to spiritual progress?

M: The householder's life is not a bar, but householders must do their utmost to practice self-control. If a person has a strong desire for the higher life then sexual desire will drop away. When the mind is destroyed the other desires are also destroyed.

Q: How can we root out the sex idea?

M: By rooting out the false idea of the body being the Self. There is no sex in the Self. Be the real Self, then there will be no trouble with sex.

Q: Do you approve of sexual continence?

M:. A true brahmachari is one who dwells in Brahman. In that case there will be no question of desires any more.

If you understand the truth in nature, sexual desire will not arise at all. If you remove the sense of diversity, that which gives sex its power will also be removed.

Q: At Sri Aurobindo's Ashram there is a strict rule that married couples can live there on condition that they abstain from sexual intercourse.

M: What use is that? If it exists in the mind, what use is there in forcing people to abstain?

Conscious Immortality

AWAKENING: ZEN MASTER KUSAN SUNIM

While on a pilgrimage Kusan promised to a dying fellow monk named Popch’un Sunim to assist him after death to find liberation through his own enlightenment.

“I went to stay in a small cabin behind the hermitage.
A young monk brought me my morning and noon meals, since I intended to practice without going down to the main hermitage. However, since I had been so busy, much of the concentration I had developed through my previous
hard practice had dissipated. When I sat, I often dozed, and the practice did not go well. This went on for two
days, leaving me with only six days within which to awaken
in order to ferry Popch'un Sunim across by the ceremony
day.

With so little time left, I could not continue with such
poor practice. I decided to do standing on the toes meditation. So, with the palms of my hands together, I meditated standing on my toes. By meditating in this way,
drowsiness could not interrupt me as it had before. For
days and nights I stood like this. I would only sit to eat my meals when they were brought. Then, once again, with my palms together, I would resume the meditation standing on my toes. In such standing meditation the hardest part is to get over the first two hours. After this, the main difficulties are overcome. Whether sitting, lying, or standing, one s meditation continues unaffected as soon as the mind is settled in concentration. Consequently, I felt neither tiredness nor pain in my legs as I was pursuing this practice.

On the day of the memorial ceremony, around three o'clock in the afternoon, the spirit of Popch’ un Sunim appeared to me. He was wearing a traditional hat, holding a wooden staff and carrying a monk's knapsack on his back. He said, “I came to visit you as it is the forty-ninth day."
I just continued practicing.
Even though it was the forty-ninth day, I did not
go down for the ceremony. As I had not been able to awaken, what would have been the use of going? The monks there performed the ceremony, but I just continued meditating.

On the seventh day of this standing meditation, as it was approaching nine o'clock, the clock made a loud click before striking the hour. Upon hearing that click “One thought turned back." On that occasion I chanted following stanza:

“One single sound: the three thousand worlds are swallowed up.

This fellow appears alone and shouts “Ha"
nine times.

The ticking of the clock is but the all-embracing exposition of the teaching.

Piece by piece the metal and the wood are but the pure Dharma body.”

This was one time when I put effort into my practice in order to ferry a friend across.

Such intense standing practice served to remove the obstructions caused by torpor and restlessness. The effect was
like the experience of a clear sky completely free of clouds.
It instantaneously allowed me to enter and abide at the original place. Thus I was enabled to pass over a very
difficult step. You can only do such continuous standing meditation with the thought, "It doesn't matter it I die.”

It takes much more than just a feeble effort to endure such
practice for seven days. But if you try with a sense of great urgency, then awakening comes about quickly. There are no fixed rules saying that you must spend many decades
before awakening. If you raise a strong resolve and persevere with great effort, the practice will rapidly progress.
If you put little effort into the practice without any sense of urgency, awakening will take immeasurable aeons.

ONLY BE AWARE AND YOUR BEING IS CLEAR IN YOUR AWARENESS

No one can deny his own being. Being is knowledge, i.e., awareness. That awareness implies absence of ignorance.

And yet why should he suffer? Because he thinks he is this or that. That is wrong. “I am” alone is; and not “I am so and so”, or “I am such and such”. When existence is absolute it is right; when it is particularized it is wrong.That is the whole truth.

Does he require a mirror to reveal his own being now? Only be aware, and your being is clear in your awareness.

D.: How is one to know the Self?
M.: “Knowing the Self” means “Being the Self”. Can you say that you do not know the Self? Though you cannot see your own eyes and though not provided with a mirror to look in, do you deny the existence of your eyes? Similarly, you are aware of the Self even though the Self is not objectified. Or, do you deny your Self because it is not objectified? When you say “I cannot know the Self” it means absence in terms of relative knowledge, because you have been so accustomed to relative knowledge that you identify yourself with it. Such wrong identity has forged the difficulty of not knowing the obvious Self because it cannot be objectified; and you ask. “How is one to know the Self?” 

Your duty is to be: and not to be this or that. “I AM that I AM” sums up the whole truth. The method is summed up in “BE STILL”.

From Talk 363

DOGEN ZENJI: ENLIGHTENMENT

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on the grass, or even in one drop of water. Enlightenment does not divide you, just as the moon does not break the water. You cannot hinder enlightenment, just as a drop of water does not hinder the moon in the sky. The depth of the drop is the height of the moon. Each reflection, however long or short its duration, manifests the vastness of the dewdrop, and realizes the limitlessness of the moonlight in the sky.

Dogen Zenji (1200 - 1253)

"BHAGAVAN, IS THIS IT?"

Once, I asked Chadwick, “Are you realized?” I have put this question to all of the old devotees like Muruganar, Cohen, Osborne, Sadhu Natanananda, Devaraja Mudaliar and others. None of them either said yes or no - all smiled. When I asked him whether he was realized, he did not say yes or no. Instead, he told me, “I will tell you what happened. After many years of my stay with Bhagavan - four or five years, I committed the mistake of trying to evaluate how much I have progressed spiritually. This is a thing any seeker should not do. I felt that I have not progressed. Many who saw me in Ramanasramam, looked at me like I was a sage or a saint saying, „Oh! He is so fortunate. He is so close to Bhagavan. He meditates so much. He is already in that state.‟ This created a contradiction in me as I personally felt that I was not progressing spiritually. However, having left the material life I could not go back to a worldly life either. I felt caught between the devil and the deep sea. I was sorrow stricken. I ran to Bhagavan‟s hall. He was alone. I told him, „Bhagavan, this is my plight. I am neither here nor there and this causes much sorrow in me.‟

Bhagavan looked at me compassionately and said, „Chadwick, who says all this?‟ Immediately, there was a current like shock in my body and I literally ran to my room, shut the doors and went into a neutral state. I was not bothered whether I was spiritually maturing or whether I would be able to stay in the world. I was in a neutral state of silence. A few days passed like that wherein I was neither happy nor worried.” The only luxury that Chadwick allowed himself was taking his bath in a bath tub which he had in the verandah of his cottage. One day, shortly after the above incident, something happened unexpectedly. As Chadwick told me later, “I was taking my bath and very honestly Ganesan, I was not in a spiritual state or in a prayerful mood when it suddenly dawned - the „I AM‟!”

He experienced it - not just as words. He was so ecstatic that he did not even dry himself. He just wrapped a towel around his waist and ran to the Old Hall from where a few days back he had run away. Fortunately, this time too, Bhagavan was alone. In this spiritual ecstasy of experiencing the „I AM‟, where there was no Chadwick, just the „I AM‟, he asked Bhagavan, “Bhagavan, is THIS it?” Chadwick recounted,

“Bhagavan gave me the most glorious smile, and then confirmed, „Yes, Chadwick, THIS is THAT!‟ I then asked him, „Bhagavan, is it so simple?‟ Bhagavan replied, „Yes it is that simple.‟ Since then, I‟ve never had any doubt.”

V. Ganesan in 'Ramana Periya Puranam'

ALFRED TENNYSON : "DEATH A LAUGHABLE IMPOSSIBILITY"

"Sat all alone, revolving in myself
The word that is the symbol of myself,
The mortal limit of the Self was loosed,
And passed into the nameless, as a cloud
Melts into heaven. I touch’d my limbs, the limbs
Were strange, not mine—and yet no shade of doubt,
But utter clearness, and thro’ loss of Self
The gain of such large life as matched with ours
Were sun to spark—unshadowable in words,
Themselves but shadows of a shadow-world ..."

A kind of walking trance I have frequently had, quite up from boyhood, when I have been all alone. This has often come upon me through repeating my own name to myself silently till, all at once, as it were, out of the intensity of the consciousness of individuality, the individuality itself seemed to dissolve and fade away into boundless being; and this not a confused state, but the clearest of the clearest, the surest of the surest, the weirdest of the weirdest, utterly beyond words, where death was an almost laughable impossibility, the loss of personality (if so it were) seeming no extinction, but the only true life.."

"Yes, it is true there are moments when the flesh is nothing to me, when I feel and know the flesh to be the vision, God and the spiritual—the only real and true. Depend upon it, the spiritual is the real; it belongs to one more than the hand and the foot. You may tell me that my hand and my foot are only imaginary symbols of my existence. I could believe you, but you never, never can convince me that the I is not an eternal reality, and that the spiritual is not the true and real part of me.' These words he spoke with such passionate earnestness that a solemn silence fell on us as he left the room."

From 'Cosmic Consciousness'

ENLIGHTENMENT BEYOND DEEP SLEEP- THE ZEN MASTER SEONGCHEOL

Removing the clouds that are blocking our pure light of wisdom, we can become liberated from the chains of karma, thereby becoming truly free. But how do you do this? There are many methods, but the fastest is meditation and the fastest of those is the hwadu, or gong-an (enquiry). By going beyond the level of being able to meditate in deep sleep, you will reach a place of perfect serenity, your original, bright, shining mirror devoid of all dust that had sat on it. You will see your original face, your true nature, the nature of the entire universe, and realize that you had always and originally been a Buddha. This is nirvana. ”

“ No one can help you with this endeavor. No books, no teachers, not even the Buddha. You must walk this road yourself.
Do not sleep more than four hours.
Do not talk more than necessary.
Do not read books.
Do not snack.
Do not wander or travel frequently."

Seongcheol also set a clear benchmark that the practitioner could apply to gauge his level of practice. Throughout his life, many followers came to him to obtain acknowledgment of their enlightenment. He felt dismayed at the number of people who thought they had attained perfect enlightenment by experiencing some mental phenomenon during their practice. He therefore reiterated that every enlightened person from the Buddha and on had given the same definition of enlightenment. True attainment, he quoted, came only after going beyond the level of being able to meditate in deep sleep. Only after being able to meditate on a gong'an continuously, without interruption, throughout the waking state, then the dreaming state, and finally in deep sleep, one reaches the state where enlightenment can become possible. Before any of this, one should never claim to have become enlightened, even though there may be many instances of weird mental phenomena that happens during one's practice: 


“ Many practitioners believe that they have attained enlightenment. Some say they have attained it multiple times. This is a big delusion. There is only one true enlightenment, such that the attained state never disappears and then reappears, but is constantly present even through the deepest sleep. As Ma Tzu said, 'attained once, attained forever.' Any enlightenment that comes and goes or has gradations is nothing more than delusion. ”

SELF-ENQUIRY IN THE MIDST OF EVERYDAY LIFE

One Venkatarama lyer questioned Ramana, in Skandasramam days, whether combining activities and Self-attention is possible.

Q: Whichever way one turns, one finds that the mind has to be subdued. We are told it has to be controlled. Can this really be done when on the one hand the mind is an entity not easily grasped and on the other one continues to have worldly worries?

Bhagavan: "A person who has never seen an ocean must take a trip to it to know about it. Standing there before the huge expanse of water, this person may wish to bathe in the sea. Of what use is it if, seeing the roaring and rolling of the waves, he were to just stand there thinking, 'I shall wait for all this to subside. When it does, I shall enter it for a quiet bath just inthe pond back home?’ He has to realize either by himself or by being told that the ocean is restless and that
it has been so from the moment of creation and will continue likewise till pralaya (destruction). He will then resolve to learn to bathe in it, as it is.

"He may wade into it and learn to duck under a wave and let it pass over him. He would naturally hold his breath while doing so. Soon he would be g skilled enough to duck at a stretch,wave after wave and thus achieve the purpose of bathing without coming to grief. The ocean may go on with its waves and though in it, he is free from
its grip. So too here."

Paul Brunton has also plied Sri Ramana with questions on this point.

Q: How is it possible to become selfless while leading a life of worldly activities?

A: "There is no conflict between work and wisdom."

Q: Do you mean to say that one can continue all old activities, in one’s profession for instance, and at the same time get enlightenment?

Bhagavan: “Why not? But in that case one will be centered on That, which is beyond the little self.”


The busiest hours will not be different from those earmarked for
meditation. The current generated by association with the energy source in the heart would be the continuous substratum with its overflowing peace and joy.

The habit of externalization of the mind is long ingrained. Till the experience of an inward way of life with its beauty and bliss grows upon one there is need tor steadfast practice. To use Ramana's words "Long cultivated tendencies can indeed be eradicated by long continued meditation". He asks, "Can a man become a high officer by merely seeing such an officer once?... Can a beggar become a king by merely visiting a king and declaring himself one?.... Gradually one should. by all possible means, try always to be aware of the Self. Everything is achieved if one succeeds in this." (S.E.)

During the practice of the Ramana Way one would be in and out of the experience of the natural state and its bliss. Knowledge and ignorance would be intermittent, and co-exist at this transition stage. But as the experience of the power of the Self grows, the mind's capacity to lure one away would weaken. Ramana's purpose would have been
done when all straying ceases, when the mind is merged in its source firmly, without a break, who can describe the joy of such a life?

A traveller on the spiritual journey may wander around on indirect paths, may take detours, but in the end he has to come to self-enquiry and the way of the heart. The individual separated from his roots, from his moorings, from his source, must inevitably get back to this
true home as surely as the restless rain drops rejoin their source, the wean, or the birds return to earth from which they have risen and for a while in the sky.

(Timeless in Time, A.R. Natarajan)

TAKE A GOOD LOOK AT YOURSELF ...

"Take a good look at yourself. 
You are already saved. You are originally Buddha. 
You are overflowing with happiness and glory. To talk of paradise or heaven is to be talking in your sleep. 

Take a good look at yourself. 
Transcend time and space, and you'll see that you are eternal, you are infinite. Should the universe collapse and disappear, you would still be immovable. You are all forms and all formlessness in the universe, the universe itself. You are the twinkling stars and the dancing butterflies－you are everything.

Take a good look at yourself.
All truths are within you. To look for truth outside yourself is to search for water outside of the ocean.

Take a good look at yourself.
There is no death in eternity, but those who don't know themselves worry about death. They fret about it, and they dread it.

Take a good look at yourself.
You are originally pure gold. But because you are blinded by personal profit and greed, you mistake this gold for alloy. Forget your selfishness and use all your energies to help others. If you remove all traces of greed and desire, the Eye of the Heart will open up and you'll see yourself as you really are, as pure gold.

Take a good look at yourself.
Poverty and starvation are superficial realities; the poor and the starving are fundamentally noble and sublime. To feel sorry for people based on superficialities is a grave insult to them. We must learn to respect and serve everyone.

Take a good look at yourself.
This age of rampant materialism is harming you. You are the ocean itself, yet you are paying attention only to the spray from the waves. Dwell on the ocean, not on the spray.

Take a good look at yourself.
The Buddha did not appear in this world to save us. He came to teach us that we are already saved, originally saved. What a tremendous joy it is for us to live with this Truth－so let's all bless everything together!"

Seongcheol (April 6, 1912 – November 4, 1993) is the dharma name of a Korean Seon (Zen) Master. He was a key figure in modern Korean Buddhism, being responsible for significant changes to it from the 1950s to 1990s.

Seongcheol was widely recognized in Korea as having been a living Buddha, due to his extremely ascetic lifestyle, the duration and manner of his meditation training, his central role in reforming Korean Buddhism in the post-World War II era, and the quality of his oral and written teachings.[1]

Seongcheol also set a clear benchmark that the practitioner could apply to gauge his level of practice. Throughout his life, many followers came to him to obtain acknowledgement of their enlightenment. He was dismayed at the number of people who thought they had attained perfect enlightenment by experiencing some mental phenomenon during their practice.

He therefore reiterated that every enlightened person from the Buddha and on had asserted the same definition of what enlightenment is. True attainment, he quoted, came only after going beyond the level of being able to meditate in deep sleep. Only after being able to meditate on a gong'an 

(jap. koan) continuously, without interruption, throughout the waking state, then the dreaming state, and finally in deep sleep, one reaches the state where enlightenment can become possible.

Before any of this, one should never claim to have become enlightened, even though there may be many instances of weird mental phenomena that happens during one's practice. The levels he identified were:

In the waking state, one mind: the state where the practitioner can meditate on a gong'an continuously throughout the day without interruption, even through talking and thinking.

In the dreaming state, one mind : the state where the practitioner can meditate on a gong'an continuously in the dreaming state.

In deep sleep, one mind): the state described above, where the practitioner can meditate on a gong'an continuously through even the deepest sleep.

In death, attain life: from the previous state where all thoughts are overtaken by the gong'an (therefore, the practitioner is considered mentally "dead"), the moment of attaining enlightenment, that is, "life."

Great, round, mirror-like wisdom: the state of perfect enlightenment, using the analogy of the bright mirror for the great internal wisdom that comes forth during enlightenment. The final state where the practitioner loses the sense of self, is liberated from his karma, and therefore, all future rebirths.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seongcheol

THE MOON IN A DEWDROP

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on the grass, or even in one drop of water. Enlightenment does not divide you, just as the moon does not break the water. You cannot hinder enlightenment, just as a drop of water does not hinder the moon in the sky. The depth of the drop is the height of the moon. Each reflection, however long or short its duration, manifests the vastness of the dewdrop, and realizes the limitlessness of the moonlight in the sky.

Dogen Zenji (1200 - 1253)