Rinzai 103

When the attitude of your heart does not change from moment to moment, this is called the living patriarch. For if it changes, then your essential nature and your actions fall apart. But when your heart does not differ, there is also not any difference between your essential nature and your actions.

Commentary:

‘The attitude of your heart does not change from moment to moment’ implies that you are not swayed, or deluded from moment to moment by what you see and hear, since you see everything as empty. ‘If it changes, then your essential nature and your actions fall apart’ means that if you are deluded by illusions, that is, if you cling to words and forms, you cannot see your essential nature, the true-Self and your actions as one. In other words, if your heart does not differ, that is, if you don’t differentiate things by attaching different names, imaginary lines, you come to realisation that the true-Self is one with your actions as its functions.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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