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Although the ch’iang-hsing (striving hard) of line six seems at odds with Lao-tzu’s dictum of wu-wei, “doing nothing/effortlessness,” commentators are agreed that here it refers to inner cultivation and not to the pursuit of worldly goals.
Red Pine • Lao-tzu's Taoteching
Hui-neng says, “If people can hear this sutra and realize its truth, both self and other suddenly vanish, and they at once become buddhas. Renouncing the body has limited merit and cannot compare with the unlimited wisdom of upholding this sutra.”
Red Pine • The Diamond Sutra: The Perfection of Wisdom
five dharmas: appearance, name, projection, correct knowledge, and suchness; the three modes of reality: imagined, dependent, and perfected; the eight forms of consciousness: one
Red Pine • The Lankavatara Sutra: Translation and Commentary (NONE)
Note: According to the biography of the ninth-century poet-recluse Lu Kuei-meng , as recorded in the Hsintangshu (New History of the T’ang Dynasty),
Stonehouse Red Pine • The Mountain Poems of Stonehouse
his draft fell to Mi-t’uo-shan, a monk from the Silk Road kingdom of Tokhara, who was assisted by the Chinese monks Fu-li and Fa-tsang.
Red Pine • The Lankavatara Sutra: Translation and Commentary (NONE)
WU CH’ENG says, “The sage seeks without seeking and studies without studying. For the truth of all things lies not in acting but in doing what is natural. By not acting, the sage shares in the naturalness of all things.
Red Pine • Lao-tzu's Taoteching
Hung-jan was apparently the first of the Patriarchs to have any large following, for it is said that he presided over a group of some five hundred monks in a monastery on the Yellow Plum Mountain (Wang-mei Shan) at the eastern end of modern Hupeh, He is, however, much overshadowed by his immediate successor, Hui-neng (637–713), whose life and teach
... See moreAlan W. Watts • The Way of Zen
LI HSI-CHAI says, “The ancient masters of the Way had no ambition. Hence, they dulled their edges and did not insist on anything. They had no fear. Hence, they untied every tangle and avoided nothing. They did not care about beauty. Hence, they softened their light and forgot about themselves. They did not hate ugliness. Hence, they merged with the
... See moreRed Pine • Lao-tzu's Taoteching
Mu is the thorny Zen concept not of nonexistence, as the translation of “nothingness” suggests, but rather the passing through to that which lies beyond the dualism of existence and nonexistence.