Seeing with Naked Awareness

[Guest guest]

Originally submitted by "Gill Eardley" <gilleardley

 

*A Lone Lamp*

 

Sonome was a well-known poetess and a profound student of Buddhism. She

once wrote to Zen master Unko: "To seek neither reality nor falsehood is the

root source of the Great Way. Everyone knows this, so even if I seem

immodest for saying so, I do not think this is anything special. As

goings-on in the source of one mind, the willows are green, the flowers are

red. Just being as it is, I pass the time reciting verse and composing

poetry. If this is useless chatter, then the scriptures are also useless

chatter. I dislike anything that stinks of religion, and my daily practice

is invocation, poetry, and song. If I go to paradise, that's fine; if I

fall into hell, that's auspicious."

 

 

*By myself I remember

not to seek mind;

the green lamp has already illumined

my lone lamp heart.

Whether in clamor or silence,

I have a clear mirror:

it thoroughly discerns

pure hearts among humans.

 

It is not something existing,

that anyone can see and know,

nor does it not exist:

such is the lamp of truth.*

 

When Sonome was about to pass on, she bade farewell to the world with

this poem:

 

*The sky of the autumn moon

and the warmth of spring:

Is it a dream? Is it real?

Hail to the Buddha of Infinite Light!*

 

 

from "Zen Antics," Thomas Cleary

from "Multiple Reflections: Talks on the Yoga Vasistha by Swami

Venkatesananda"

 

//

 

All paths go somewhere. No path goes nowhere. Paths, places, sights,

perceptions, and indeed all experiences arise from and exist in and subside

back into the Space of Awareness. Like waves rising are not different than

the ocean, all things arising from Awareness are of the nature of Awareness.

Awareness does not come and go but is always Present. It is Home. Home is

where the Heart Is. Jnanis know the Heart to be the Finality of Eternal

Being. A true devotee relishes in the Truth of Self-Knowledge, spontaneously

arising from within into It Self. Welcome all to a.