| Chant
of the Heart's Impression
This is an exquisite truth:
Saints and ordinary folks
are the same from the start.
Eventually there's a difference between them.
You don't
borrow string when you've got a good strong rope.
Every Dharma is known in the heart.
After the rain, the
mountain color intensifies.
Once you become familiar with the design of fate's
illusions
Your ink slab will contain all of life and death.
Clearing Your Heart of Obstacles
Since there's no such thing as form
There can't be
image, either.
How then can obstacles arise?
Safe within this principle
Bodhidharma was secure.
Describing the Glorious Layman Lin
Guangqian
From reciting Buddhist chants
He became a complete
Buddha.
Whether moving or still, busy or resting,
There's never the
slightest variation.
He chants to the point where his heart is not
scattered.
He is the Dharma King.
This means he presides over every
creature on earth!
(Do you realize that this makes us all members of
his family?)
Floating on West Lake with the Truly
Venerable Xi Tian Mu
Through this impenetrable fog
His mind surges
confidently.
Who steers this boat?
His heart - clear as the Autumn
water
His body - pure and undefiled as the white clouds.
Being with
him is just like being immersed in the True Emptiness;
Why in my breast
do I cling to the dross of worldly problems?
This trusted master has
the Three Secret Powers.
Can I not, with him, roam the oceans and the
heavens?
On Living at Yun Yi Shi
(a place name which
means "the stone moved by the clouds")
I like it best when I'm living out in the open,
As in
the old days when I'd forget the years were passing,
When I'd follow
where fate led me.
I thought nothing could change me.
But the Pearl of the Heart works in such an exquisitely
subtle way.
It fills you. .. makes you feel complete with Heaven's
Nature.
There's no need to move.
Before the beginning of this senseless world
The
clouds moved this fist of a stone right here
To this very place.
|
Mountain Living
Mountain living! There's deep meaning here!
A place
where your spirits open up without limit.
Lean on a pine trunk for your
pillow.
Wake from your nap and make yourself some tea.
Mountain living! No guests arriving!
The path through
the bamboo grove is locked in smoke and mist.
Near the front door a
clear brook flows
The wind carries small flowers on the water.
Mountain living! Spring comes so early.
Plum blossoms
are everywhere you look.
Their subtle fragrance captures the attention
of your nose.
See or smell the slanting branch just outside the window.
Song of Walking Standing Sitting
Lying
Walking in the mountains
You step through clouds at the
tip of the ridge
And seen in the reflected light
The earth has not a
speck of dust.
Standing in the mountains
You avoid the road of life
and death
You can open your eyes and see a thousand saints
But they
don't turn to look at you.
Sitting in the mountains
You spend the whole long day
like this
Sitting till you wear through the mat
No word of any
teaching drops into your lap.
Lying in the mountains
You imagine you've a mule or
horse beneath you.
You'll get through. Master is an old man.
He
knows the way by heart.
Traveling Mount Jun
... (a mountain in
Hunan) which is in central China
and no where near the Indian border
...
That year, the Indian border was opened...
That day, I
was able to climb Mount Jun.
The clouds were clear and all the peaks
exquisite
The forests, high and nestled in the shadows.
I called out
and the echo of my voice startled a bird from its dreams.
The soughing
of the pines became a song of Chan.
I came to a cave; and in the water
floor of its hall
My heart became clear, reflecting both its
heaven
And its earth.
On Living in a Cave of Stone
A stone cave. That's the ultimate in cleanliness and
refinement. But live alone. Don't concern yourself with the business of
life. Get a round mat made of rushes. Take a meditation pose and sit.
Then, the body will become like just so many bubbles. The
wheels of life will roll into timelessness. When you enter deepest
meditation Your Inner Being will be wrapped in Being, Itself.
The great material world will vanish. How could those
grains of sand remain? |