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

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