Followers of the Way, if you want to become Buddha, do not follow the ten thousand things. When the heart rises, the ten thousand things arise too. When the heart is stilled, the manifold things cease. And when the heart does not rise, the ten thousand things are without blame. In the world and beyond the world, neither Buddha nor Dharma has manifested themselves, nor have they disappeared. Though things exist, they are only names, words, conceptions and sentences. They are just expedient remedies to soothe crying children and treat their diseases depending on their diseases. Although they are expressed as names and conceptions, they are not names and conceptions on their own, but the one who is clear before your eyes, feels, hears, sees and changes things, attaches names and conception to everything.
Commentary:
‘If you want to become Buddha, do not follow the ten thousand things’ means that you should not be deluded by anything if you want to attain enlightenment. ‘When the heart rises, the ten thousand things arise too. When the heart is stilled, the manifold things cease’ means that when we discriminate, things come into existence, and when we stop discriminating, all things cease to be things. ‘When the heart does not rise, the ten thousand things are without blame’ implies that when we stop discriminating, that is, when we see things as they are, everything turns into perfection itself; this is called Emptiness, the Buddha, or the true-Self. ‘Neither Buddha nor Dharma has manifested themselves, nor have they disappeared’ means that we should not be deluded by the illusions and names of Buddha and Dharma if you want to see the Buddha, because the Buddha is the state that is perfectly free of name and form. ‘They are not names and conceptions on their own, but the one who is clear before your eyes, feels, hears, sees and changes things, attaches names and conception to everything’ implies that we, instead of being deluded by names and conceptions, should realise what it is that attaches them to everything.
Student: “What is the Buddha?”
Master: “Answering is killing Him.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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