ONE THING

There is One Thing - It existed before the earth and skies came into being, and it will exist long after they all have disappeared. The heavens and earth could appear a thousand times and be destroyed ten thousand times, but this One Thing would not change at all.

This One Thing is incomprehensibly huge. The entire universe is 
just a spray of water in comparison to this ocean.

This One Thing is incomparably brighter than a trillion billion suns and moons, and it constantly lights up everything. This absolute Great Light is beyond light and dark, and yet it lights everything that exists.

This One Thing is beyond description, beyond discrimination, and
it is absolute. But even the term "absolute" is entirely inadequate to describe it. To call it "One Thing" is to lie, because "One Thing" is only a name, and a terribly inadequate name. All Buddhas of the universe could spend eternity describing it, but such an effort would be insignificant. If you were to become enlightened, then you yourself would know;
but you would never be able to explain it to anyone.

This One Thing is called "Buddha" by those who have become enlightened. It is beyond the agony of life and death, and those who know it become free-flowing for the rest of eternity. But those who have not become enlightened to this One Thing continue to struggle and suffer in the sea of life and death, in the everlasting cycle of the four forms of birth and the six realms of sentient existence.

Even the tiniest form of life includes this One Thing. Both an enlightened Buddha and an unenlightened ant possess it. The only difference between them is that one knows it and the other doesn't.

It is so brilliant and astounding that even the Buddha and Bodhidharma cannot look at it when they raise their eyes. They can open their mouths, but cannot describe it. They and all our other Zen patriarchs become merely blind and mute in the face of it.

All one can do is to become enlightened to it, and then become totally free-flowing in it.

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

SPARROW AND GRACE

Bhagavan sometimes told this story to characterize the mind of a true devotee:

When a sparrow was flying, holding its egg in its beak, the egg slipped and fell into the ocean. The sparrow, anxious to retrieve it, repeatedly dipped itself in the ocean, sucked some water through its beak, came to the shore, released the water and fanned its wings. The sage Narada who was passing that way saw this action of the sparrow, enquired, and came to know the reason.

‘You stupid sparrow! Is this something you can accomplish?’ said Narada.

The sparrow replied, ‘I don’t care whether it is possible or not. If I persevere tenaciously, beyond that it is in God’s hands.’

Narada, delighted with its faith, went to Garuda and told him everything.

Then he said, ‘A creature belonging to your bird tribe is exerting itself with so much faith. Is it proper for you to keep quiet? Can you not help?’

After hearing this story Garuda flew quickly to the sparrow. As soon as he flapped his wings there, all the waters of the ocean separated into two, leaving the egg of the sparrow visible. The sparrow immediately picked it up in its beak and flew away.

- Guru Vachaka Kovai

NEVER LEAVE OFF YOUR PRACTICE UNTIL THERE IS ILLUMINATION

When you wash your clothes, you have to apply soap.

It is, of course, true that the clothes will not be clean unless the soap is rinsed off again. But can dirt be removed without soap? The thought of God is the soap that in the end has to be washed away by the purifying waters of the Ganges of Supreme Knowledge.

Don't worry about results.

In business, you give and you get something in return. This is called a bargain, but it is no real gain. If you adopt this sort of mercenary attitude, you will not get anywhere. Never leave off your practice until there is Illumination. You must be adamant in your pursuit. The remembrance of God is like a flame. In whichever direction it is blown, it will burn up whatever lies in its way.

According to your actions you will reap the fruits. No effort is ever wasted. Good works and bad works will yield their harvest in great abundance - for He is extremely generous. Perhaps you will argue: "I want to be a king, but my wish is not granted." You get exactly what is due to you - nothing less and nothing more.

- Anandamayi Ma

THE WORLD BEGINS NOW

Someone asked Zen Master Seung Sahn, 
"What do you think about the beginning of this world?" 

"The beginning of this world came from your mouth. Ha ha ha ha! Do you understand?"

The student was silent.

"Then I will explain: what is this world? You must understand that point first. You make time, space, cause and effect. In three seconds, when you asked that question, you made this whole world. Physics used to teach that time and space, and cause and effect, are absolutes. But modern physics teaches that time, space, and cause and effect are subjective. So you make this whole world, and you make your time and space..."

' 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