Bodhidharma's Discourse on the Twofold Entrance to the Tao (from The Golden Age of Zen by John C.H. Wu): There are many roads leading to the Tao, but essentially they can be subsumed under two categories. The one is 'Entrance by way of Reason,' and the other 'Entrance by the way of Conduct.' By 'Entrance by way of Reason' we mean the understanding of the fundamental doctrines through the study of the scriptures, the realization, upon the basis of a deep-rooted faith, that all sentient beings have in common the one True Nature, which does not manifest itself clearly in all cases only because it is overwrapped by external objects and false thoughts. If a man abandons the false and returns to the true, resting single-heartedly and undistractedly in pure contemplation, he will realize that there is neither self nor other, that the holy and profane are of one essence. If he holds on firmly to this belief and never swerves from it, he will never again ...
Sorry functioning in the so-called ‘real world’ is recognizing those different perceptions and opinions, the conventions that we use. Driving on the left or the right, what something’s worth: those are just society’s fictions that we use to get through a day and to function as a human group. And if we hold them lightly in that way, if we loosen our grip on the world, rather than it becoming ‘less real’, we mysteriously find ourselves more totally at home with it. If you love the world completely, you let go of it. The more tightly you hold on to it and want to keep and own it, the more alienation you create between yourself and it. That’s the principle of letting go or non-attachment; you’re not trying to nullify your life and your feelings out of a dismissal of the world. Rather, ironically and mysteriously, when you let go of the world you find yourself at home in it. That’s the human drama. You still have all your ...
Comments
Post a Comment