The true school of the ancient Buddhas always manifests in response to people, adapting with dignity, shedding light everywhere, even-minded in concealment as in the open, thoroughly aware of high and low.

This is why the eye of the Way is primary. Merge with the fundamental and clarify the mind, for this alone is the end.

Myriad forms are one body; from the same source: when you open up, there is no boundary—who speaks of getting stuck?

The phenomena of countless ages are all in the immediate present, but people of the time have developed opposition to the eternal essence over the course of long years. Perceiving things with confused minds, they thereby turn away from the true source, fixating on being or stuck on emptiness.

Failing to meet good friends, or companions of the Way, they only go by their own subjective interpretations; even if they hold discussions, it is all speculative.

Even when it comes to finding out the ground of principle, you do not distinguish true from false—of course, you have never found your self in everyday life.

As for ancient worthies, sages of yore, they knew their own times. Mastering themselves, pressing on with their work, they lived in mountain caves.

An ancient worthy said, “If your feelings retain a sense of holiness, you still fall into religious materialism. If your view of self hasn’t been forgotten, it turns into affliction.”

It cannot be said that you will hit the mark by fasting, discipline, constant sitting without reclining, stopping the mind, meditating on emptiness, freezing the spirit, or entering concentration—what connection is there?

Cultists in India can go into trances lasting eighty thousand eons, freezing the spirit in utter silence, closing their eyes, mortifying their bodies, and annihilating their intellects; but when that period is up, they cannot escape repeating mundane routines, all because their perception of reality is not clear, and they have not broken through the root source of birth and death.

The unattached are not like this. They cannot be the same as those cultists; all of them truly understand and have great knowledge and vision, able to penetrate like the Buddhas– silently aware, forgetting conceptual knowledge, taking in myriad forms without resistance.

Right now, where is not you? Where is not clear? Where is not evident? Why don’t you understand this way?

Without this state, what can you do about the various kinds of impulse? It all turns into falsehood—where is your everyday empowerment?

Concentrate deeply to liberate yourself—cast aside useless mental objects, stop mental discrimination, and only then will you have a little familiarity. Otherwise, one day you will be carried away by consciousness and emotion—what freedom is there in that?

Finally, there’s no comparison to the clarity of the exposition of inanimate objects. The earth, the trees, the stones—they expound the teaching with exceptional veracity; it’s just that few people can hear it.

If you truly hear this, only then can you speak of it.

Xuansha Shibei (835–908)

Excerpted from Treasure of the Eye of True Teaching – Classic Stories, Discourses, and Poems of the Chan Tradition – Dahui – trans by Thomas Cleary 2022

The phenomena of countless ages are all in the immediate present, but people of the time have developed opposition to the eternal essence over the course of long years.

Down to earth and, at the same time, a most expanded view of practice; each line is an invitation to explore. Each paragraph contains a call to experience directly, but it requires a commitment to stay with a point long enough to plumb its depths.

Some things can be seen quickly, others, like learning from Nature, might take a lifetime to hear.

Nothing extra,
Elana, Scribe for Daily Zen