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#4033 - Monday, October 4, 2010 - Editor: Gloria Lee

The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights    

"Remaining free from clinging to everything that arises in the mind,
represents the highest path, leaving nothing higher to aspire to.
When the mind does not cling to every emerging appearance, the
stream of this mind becomes free from any stain of deluded discrimination."
- Gampopa
 
From the book, "Mahamudra, The Quintessence of Mind and Meditation," published by Shambhala   posted by Dainen Kelly to Daily Dharma  


 

Autumn Day

 

Lord: it is time. The summer was immense.

Stretch out your shadow on the sundial's face,

and on the meadows let the winds go loose.

 

Command the last fruits to be full in time,

grant them even two more southerly days,

press them toward fulfillment soon, and chase

the last sweetness into the heavy wine.

 

Whoever has no house now, will build none.

Who is alone now, will stay long alone,

will lie awake, read, get long letters written,

and through the streets that follow up and down

will wander restless, when the leaves are driven.

 

_ Rainer Maria Rilke

 

Rilke composed Autumn Day in September 1902, just at the autumn equinox.

Montage of Wild Pond Iris Leaves and Reflections, Halcyon Gardens, Pennsylvania

posted by Peter Shefler to Facebook

 


 

The Chun Chou Record of Zen Master Huang Po

 

Q : From all you have said, Mind is Buddha, but it is not clear as to what sort of mind is meant by this "Mind which is Buddha."

 

A: How many minds have you got ?

 

Q: But is the Buddha the ordinary mind or the Enlightened mind ?

 

A: Where on earth do you keep your "ordinary mind" and your "Enlightened mind" ?

 

Q: In the teaching of the Three Vehicles it is stated that there are both. Why do you deny it ?

 

A: In the teaching of the Three Vehicles it is clearly explained that the ordinary mind and the Enlightened minds are illusions. You don't understand. All this clinging to the idea of things existing is to mistake vacuity for the truth. How can such conceptions not be illusory? Being illusory, they hide Mind from you. If you would only rid yourselves of the concept of ordinary and Enlightened, you would find that there is no other Buddha than the Buddha in your own Mind. When Bodhidharma came from the West, he just pointed out that the substance of which all men are composed is Buddha. You people go on misunderstanding; you hold concepts such as "ordinary" and "Enlightened", distracting your thoughts outwards where they gallop like horses! All this amounts to declouding your own minds. So I tell you Mind is the Buddha. As soon as thought or sensation arises, you fall into dualism. Beginningless time and the present moment are the same. There is no this and no that. To understand this truth is called complete and unexcelled Enlightenment.

 

Q: Upon what Doctrine do you base these words?

 

A: Why seek a doctrine? As soon as you have a doctrine, you again fall into dualistic thought.

 

Q: Just now you said that beginningless past and the present are the same. What do you mean by that ?

 

A: It is just because of your seeking that you make a difference between them. If you were to stop seeking, how could there be any difference between them?

 

Q: If they are not different, why do you employ separate terms for them?

 

A: If you hadn't mentioned ordinary and Enlightened, who would have bothered to say such things? Just as those categories have no real existence, no Mind is not really "mind". And, as both Mind and those categories are really illusions, wherever can you hope to find anything?

 

Q: Illusion can hide from us our own mind, but up to now you have not taught up how to get rid of illusion.

 

A: The arising and elimination of illusion are both illusory. Illusion is not something rooted in Reality, it exists because of your dualistic thinking. If you would only cease to indulge in opposed concepts such as "ordinary" and "Enlightened", illusion will cease of itself. And then if you still want to destroy it wherever it may be, you will find that there is not a hairsbreadth left of anything on which to lay hold. This is the meaning of: "I wil let go with both hands, for then I shall certainly discover the Buddha in my mind."

 

Q: If there is nothing on which to lay hold, how is the Dharma to be transmitted?

 

A: It is a transmission of Mind with Mind.

 

Q: If Mind is used for transmission, why do you say that Mind does not exist?

 

A: Obtaining no Dharma whatever is called Mind transmission. The understanding of this implies no Mind and no Dharma.

 

Q: If there is no Mind and No Dharma, what is meant by transmission?

 

A: You hear people speak of Mind transmission and then you talk of something to be received. So Bodhidharma said :

 

The nature of Mind when understood

No human speech can compass or disclose.

Enlightenment is naught to be attained,

And he that gains it does not say he knows.

 

If I were to make this clear to you, I doubt if you could stand it.

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