Why Indo-Asian religions must support each other (another great quote)

[Guest guest]

Namaste!

 

Here is another great excerpt, this time from famous Chan (Zen)

master Han Shan. See if this does not sound a lot like Advaita.

Just substitute Atman/Brahman for Buddha Nature. The quote was

obtained from:

 

http://hjem.get2net.dk/civet-cat/zen-writings/essentials-of-practise-and-enlight\

enment.htm

 

By the way, many Buddhists can also be quite dogmatic and stubborn

regarding Vedantins, unfortunately! It goes both ways.

 

 

Here is the excerpt:

 

Concerning the causes and condition of this Great Matter, [this

Buddha-nature] is intrinsically within everyone; as such, it is

already complete within you, lacking nothing. The difficulty is that,

since time without beginning, seeds of passion, deluded thinking,

emotional conceptualizations, and deep-rooted habitual tendencies

[viz. Vasanas] have obscured this marvelous luminosity. You cannot

genuinely realize it because you have being wallowing in remnant

deluded thoughts of body, mind, and the world, discriminating and

musing [about this and that]. For these reason you have been roaming

in the cycle of birth and death [endlessly]. Yet, all Buddhas and

ancestral masters have appeared in the world using countless words

and expedient means to expound on Chan [Zen] and to clarify the

doctrine. Following and meeting different dispositions [of sentient

beings], all of these expedient means are like tools to crush our

mind of clinging and realize that originally there is no real

substantiality to "dharmas" [upadhis] or [to the sense of] "self"

[Ahamkara]

 

What is commonly known as practice means simply to accord with

[whatever state] of mind you're in so as to purify and relinquish the

deluded thoughts and traces of your habit tendencies. Exerting your

efforts here is called practice. If within a single moment deluded

thinking suddenly ceases, [you will] thoroughly perceive your own

mind and realize that it is vast and open, bright and

luminous-intrinsically perfect and complete [i.e. the jnana

approach]. This state, being originally pure, devoid of a single

thing, is called enlightenment [Moksha]. Apart from this mind, there

is no such thing as cultivation or enlightenment [jnana again]. The

essence of your mind is like a mirror and all the traces of deluded

thoughts and clinging to conditions are defiling dust of the mind.

Your conception of appearances is this dust and your emotional

consciousness is the defilement [more jnana]. If all the deluded

thoughts melt away, the intrinsic essence [self] will reveal in its

own accord. It's like when the defilement is polished away, the

mirror regains its clarity. It is the same with Dharma.

 

However, our habit, defilement, and self-clinging accumulated

throughout eons have become solid and deep-rooted. Fortunately,

through the condition of having the guidance of a good spiritual

friend [guru], our internal prajna [wisdom or viveka] as a cause can

influence our being so this inherent prajna can be augmented. Having

realized that [prajna] is inherent in us, we will be able to arouse

the [bodhi-] mind and steer our direction toward the aspiration of

relinquishing [the cyclic existence of] birth and death. This task of

uprooting the roots of birth and death accumulated through

innumerable eons all at once is a subtle matter. If you are not

someone with great strength and ability brave enough to shoulder such

a burden and to cut through directly [to this matter] without the

slightest hesitation, then [this task] will be extremely difficult.

An ancient one has said, "This matter is like one person confronting

ten thousand enemies." These are not false words.

 

Om!

Benjamin