The Pure Mountain Path

Each moment, seek out virtue. Seek out simplicity. Do not overcomplicate what can be done easily. Great truths are lost in the unnecessary layers of the complex. Aim to keep things pure and easy. It is the soft that overcomes the hard as the water erodes the stone. Take the high road and maintain virtue. Be above it all by remaining below the radar and maintaining your poise and dignity.

——-

A Zen master named Gisan asked a young student to bring him a pail of water to cool his bath.

The student brought the water and, after cooling the bath, threw on to the ground the little that was left over.

“You dunce!” the master scolded him. “Why didn’t you give the rest of the water to the plants? What right have you to waste even one drop of water in this temple?”

The young student attained Zen in that instant. He changed his name to Tekisui, which means a drop of water.

Where there is balance, the Tao is present, the universe always in perfect alignment. Yin and yang in perfect harmony. All can see beauty as beauty, only because there is ugliness to compare it to. We can know good as good, only because there is evil. Therefore, light and dark, difficult and easy, soft and hard, compliment each other. Seek out this balance in your ways, aim for harmony in all that you do but know that disharmony is only a misstep away. Align yourself with the Tao and take each breath in step with the master.

———

There’s no point in translating all of the old Chinese texts – not if you’re serious about understanding real Zen. The sound of the rain needs no translation.

Morimoto Roshi

Learn to tell the difference between water and poison. Often, they look quite similar. The roots of the innocent tree can absorb both; that which nurtures it and that which can kill it. The teeth smile, but does the heart? Trust everyone, but make sure to cut the cards. Know where you are standing at all times and maintain mindfulness. It is better to walk the path alone, than risk walking it with fools.

———-

Unfettered at last, a traveling monk,
I pass the old Zen barrier.
Mine is a traceless stream-and-cloud life,
Of these mountains, which shall be my home?

                   –    Manan   (1591-1654)

If you know decay, you should also know renewal. To be aware of this demonstrates wisdom. To be unaware of or to turn your head away from what displeases you shows foolishness. From where everything came, it returns. It is to that one source that everything is. All rivers return to the ocean. The rays of the sun fall to the earth and then disappear. The moonbeams liberate the darkness to give way later to the sunlight. Cry not for this cycle, but rejoice for it.

———

Kitano Gempo, abbot of Eihei temple, was ninety-two years old when he passed away in the year 1933. He endeavored his whole life not to be attached to anything. As a wandering mendicant when he was twenty he happened to meet a traveler who smoked tobacco. As they walked together down a mountain road, they stopped under a tree to rest. The traveler offered Kitano a smoke, which he accepted, as he was very hungry at the time.

“How pleasant this smoking is,” he commented. The other gave him an extra pipe and tobacco and they parted.

Kitano felt: “Such pleasant things may disturb meditation. Before this goes too far, I will stop now.” So he threw the smoking outfit away.

When he was twenty-three years old he studied I-King, the profoundest doctrine of the universe. It was winter at the time and he needed some heavy clothes. He wrote his teacher, who lived a hundred miles away, telling him of his need, and gave the letter to a traveler to deliver. Almost the whole winter passed and neither answer nor clothes arrived. So Kitano resorted to the prescience of I-King, which also teaches the art of divination, to determine whether or not his letter had miscarried. He found that this had been the case. A letter afterwards from his teacher made no mention of clothes.

“If I perform such accurate determinative work with I-King, I may neglect my meditation,” felt Kitano. So he gave up this marvelous teaching and never resorted to its powers again.

When he was twenty-eight he studied Chinese calligraphy and poetry. He grew so skillful in these arts that his teacher praised him. Kitano mused: “If I don’t stop now, I’ll be a poet, not a Zen teacher.” So he never wrote another poem.

From a talk July 27, 2009 Spartanburg, South Carolina

Understand that the enlightened are rarely understood and often thought of as being quite insane. Not understanding someone does not make that person the confused. What do you know? Truly, what do you know? Trying to judge someone is like trying to judge a star millions of miles away. You see only the light that emanates, nothing else. Know that if you are the star, you will be seen using only the same point of reference. Expect nothing, walk in peace.

——

Do not recite sutras. Do not make portraits of me. Just bury my body in the back mountains. It is enough that you cover me with earth.

Takuan speaking of his, final wishes to his students

The Tao when reached for cannot be grasped, when listened for cannot be heard, if looked for cannot be seen. Although it shines brightly, it gives no light. When it does not shine, there is no darkness. Its form has none, its image blank. It walks without leaving footprints. Attend to the present to placate the past and the future. Seek the essence of it without doing anything but being.

——-

The wind has settled, the blossoms have fallen;
Birds sing, the mountains grow dark –
This is the wondrous power of Buddhism.

When you stop trying to know all the answers, you have found the answer. When you can let go because you know you will not go anywhere, you shall make progress. Does the mountain try to stand, the sun try to shine? It is not natural to know all nor should it be natural to try to seek all. Those who desire more than what may occur shall decay but not renew.

——-

Shoichi was a one-eyed teacher of Zen, sparkling with enlightenment. He taught his disciples in Tofuku temple. Day and night the whole temple stood in silence. There was no sound at all. Even the reciting of sutras was abolished by the teacher. His pupils had nothing to do but meditate.

When the master passed away, an old neighbor heard the ringing of bells and the recitation of sutras. Then she knew Shoichi had gone.

————

Wealthy patrons invited Ikkyu to a banquet. Ikkyu arrived dressed in his beggar’s robes. The host, not recognizing him, chased him away. Ikkyu went home, changed into his ceremonial robe of purple brocade, and returned. With great respect, he was received into the banquet room. There, he put his robe on the cushion, saying, “I expect you invited the robe since you showed me away a little while ago, and left.”

If you want to judge someone, judge the reflection you see in the water before you. The ancients have said that all is the Tao and all is not the Tao. The sun and moon cross the sky, the river flows. To walk with the Tao is to walk without the borders and prisons we make for ourselves. Is that not what our judgments are?

———

 My daily activities are not unusual,
  I’m just naturally in harmony with them.
  Grasping nothing, discarding nothing…
  Supernatural power and marvelous activity -
  Drawing water and carrying firewood.
                                                                           
    Layman Pang-yun (740-808)