Sublime

in order to encourage their aversion to the wheel of birth and death and their effort to advance, I tell them buddhas are easy to encounter, not like udumbara flowers,61 which are hard to encounter, and they are worth looking for. But other times, when I see those who are receptive to instruction, I tell them buddhas are as hard to encounter as an

“Whip, rope, person, and bull—all merge in No-Thing. This heaven is so vast no message can stain it. How may a snowflake exist in a raging fire? Mediocrity is gone. Mind is clear of limitation. I seek no state of enlightenment. Neither do I remain where no enlightenment exists. Since I linger in neither condition, eyes cannot see me. If hundreds of

Original nature is cultivated externally through virtuous acts and internally through nonattachment to forms.

HUANG YUAN-CHI says, “A person who can adjust their light to that of the crowd and merge with the dust of the world is like a magic mushroom among ordinary plants. You can’t see it, but it makes everything smell better.

If you think Zen is something lofty and esoteric, the master will give you a shout or slap for an answer. If you think it is abstract, you’ll be told it’s three pounds of flax or the oak tree in the garden. If you think it is beyond words and abstractions, the master may quote the sutras or a poem by Han Shan. If you think Zen is nothing but our ev