Behind My Hand

Who knows  Speaks not Who speaks  Knows not.  - Lao Tzu George Harrison

D.: Can we not get realisation instantaneously? M.: Realisation is nothing new. It is eternal. There is no question of instantaneous or gradual realisation. - Ramana Maharshi,   Talk 164

Once on a journey Tzu-ch'i saw a huge tree with strange knots, big enough to shelter a thousand chariots in its shade.  Tzu-ch'i said, "What kind of tree is this?  It must have unusual potential." Looking up at its branches, he saw they were too crooked to be used as beams. Looking down at its roots, he saw it was not solid enough to be used for coffins. When he tasted the leaves, his mouth became inflamed; and they had a smell that would madden a person for days. Tzu-ch'i said, "This is in fact a useless tree.  That's how it got to be this big." Yes, this is why sages cannot be exploited. --- --- --- The Essential Tao, Thomas Cleary (1993; 93)

Brahman is other than the universe. Brahman is not other than the universe. Note: bhedābheda - a seeming contradiction which serves as an interesting koan. “Different and the same.”

Ancient pool,  A frog jumps in, [the sound of splashing water] - Basho —- —- —- Ego sinks,  into the Self. Who hears the sound? - MWright

svabhāva (self nature) is revealed, having resolved all opposites by means of vicāra (self enquiry), a sudden understanding, with reliance on neither name nor form, unattached to a single thing. - MWright

To make Buddha seek after himself, or to make Mind take hold of itself-- this is an impossibility to the end of eternity. We do not realize that as soon as our thoughts cease and all attempts at forming ideas are forgotten the Buddha reveals himself before us. - MANUAL OF ZEN BUDDHISM,  DAISETZ TEITARO SUZUKI ( 1935), from Huang Po’s Sermon —- —- —- Engage in Self-investigation, then the non-self will disappear. The Self will be left over. This is self-investigation of the Self. The one word Self is equivalent to the mind, body, man, individual. the Supreme and all else. - Ramana Maharshi in Talk 238

A saying of Laotze from Tao Teh Ch’ing was read out in the hall: “By his non-action the sage governs all.” Sri Bhagavan remarked: Non-action is unceasing activity. The sage is characterised by eternal and intense activity. His stillness is like the apparent stillness of a fast rotating top (gyroscope). Its very speed cannot be followed by the eye and so it appears to be still. Yet it is rotating. So is the apparent inaction of the sage. This must be explained because the people generally mistake stillness to be inertness. It is not so. - Ramana Maharshi in Talk 599

“What are you doing?" asked the master—a question that never got a straight answer from an enlightened Ch'an monk. "I am herding an ox," the man replied, a metaphorical way of saying he was trying to discipline himself. "And how," shot back Ma-tsu, "do you go about tending it?" The monk replied, "Whenever it starts to go to grass [i.e., self-indulgence], I yank it back by the nostrils [the tender part of the great animal]." To which Ma-tsu admiringly replied, "If you really can do that by yourself, then I may as well retire.” (From The Zen Experience; Thomas Hoover,  https://amzn.to/2JRbO4H ) --- --- ---  D.: Is it enough if I spend some time in the mornings and some time in the evenings for this atma-vichara? Or should I do it always - say, even when I am writing or walking? M.: Now what is your real nature? Is it writing, walking, or being? The one unalterable reality is Being. Until you realise that state of p...

Nāmarūpa An old Zen monk wrote the word “mind” on the gate, on the window, and on the wall of his retreat. A visiting monk commented, "Surely the gate should have the word “gate” written on it, the window should have the word “window” on it, and the wall should have the word “wall” on it.” A third monk, however, said, "Ha! Surely, all three, gate, window and wall, appear without recourse to labelling.” —- —- —- "A visitor said: “The Supreme Spirit (Brahman) is Real. The world (jagat) is illusion,” is the stock phrase of Sri Sankaracharya. Yet others say, “The world is reality”. Which is true? Ramana Maharshi: Both statements are true. They refer to different stages of development and are spoken from different points of view. The aspirant (abhyasi) starts with the definition, that which is real exists always; then he eliminates the world as unreal because it is changing. It cannot be real; ‘not this, not this!’ The seeker ultimately reaches the Self and there find...

Master Bashō said to his disciples, "If you have the staff, I will give it to you. If you have no staff, I will take it away from you!" Ramana Maharshi said, “There is no gaining of anything new. All that is required is to rid the Self of ignorance. This ignorance is the identification of the Self with the non-Self.” (Talk 125)

When asked, “What is Buddha?” Bashō replied, “This mind is not Buddha.” When asked again, “What is Buddha?” This time, Bashō replied, “This mind is Buddha.” What mind? “The sea is not aware of its wave. Similarly the Self is not aware of its ego.” (Ramana Maharshi in Talk 47) “If the enquiry is made whether mind exists, it will be found that mind does not exist. That is control of mind. Otherwise, if the mind is taken to exist and one seeks to control it, it amounts to mind controlling the mind, just like a thief turning out to be a policeman to catch the thief, i.e., himself. Mind persists in that way alone, but eludes itself.””(Talk 43)

One night an opportunist thief wandered into Ryōkan's secluded but unlocked hut. Ryokan, while appearing to be sound asleep, watched the thief from his bed. Having searched and found nothing of value, the thief removed the single blanket which Ryokan used to fend off the autumn cold. Ryokan lay motionless. The thief took flight with the old blanket. Ryokan shivered and rose from his bed. At this very moment the light of the full moon broke through the clouds. Ryokan said, “Oh! He left it behind. What a shame! If only he could have seen this enchanting moon. Ramana Maharshi tells a story about King Janaka, in Talk 328: “”I have now found the robber (namely the mind) who has been robbing me of my ‘I’-ness. I will instantly kill this thief.” The perturbation owing to thoughts appears to rob the Self of its peace. The perturbation is the mind. When that ceases the mind is said to take flight. The Self remains as the undisturbed substratum .”

Huineng, the sixth patriarch, overheard two monks arguing about a flag in the courtyard. The first declared, “The flag is moving.” The other disagreed and said, “No, it is the wind that is moving.” Huineng immediately countered, “Neither wind nor flag is moving. It is mind that is moving.” “Elimination of drisya [the seen] means elimination of separate identities of the subject and object. The object is unreal. All drisya (including ego) is the object. Eliminating the unreal, the Reality survives.” (Ramana Maharshi in Talk 25)

A monk approached Zen Master Yakusan with a problem. Master Yakusan told him to wait until the evening session. At the end of the evening session, Master Yakusan said, "will the monk who approached me, earlier today, regarding a problem with practice, come forward.” As soon as the monk came forward Yakusan barged past him, without a word, and retired to his room. Zen like Vichara deals in immediacy. Eagerness to practice... “must be equal to that of a man kept under water trying to rise up to the surface for his life.” (Ramana Maharshi in Talk 28) Waiting is not a valid option.

There is no posture like Siddha asana "Of the different postures, eighty-four are the main ones. Of these, again, four, viz., simha, bhadra, padma, and siddha are said to be excellent. Of these too, it is only siddha, that is the most excellent. Thus the yoga texts declare." (from Ramana's "Self Enquiry") When a Muslim visitor asked Bhagavan about asana, he replied that "abidance in God is the only true posture." (Talk 234) On another occasion, he said "nididhyasana (one-pointedness of the mind) is the best." (Talk 557) The one-pointed mind focussed by vichara (Self-enquiry) is indeed pure abidance in the Self. When the ego rises up, confusion ensues and the world of differentiated objects is taken to be real, ego goes off searching for the best asana. In truth, only one is the centre (heart) of all and forms the basis for all - the seat upon which all else abides, including the multitude of asanas. This is siddhāsana.

Talk 38. When one of the present attendants came the first time to Bhagavan, he asked: “What is the way for liberation?” Maharshi replied: “The way already taken leads to liberation.”

To attain Zen enlightenment, it is not necessary to give up family life, quit your job, become a vegetarian, practice asceticism, and flee to a quiet place, then go into a ghost cave of dead Zen to entertain subjective imaginings. - Zen Essence, The Science of Freedom, Thomas Cleary, 1989; p. 56

It is as though you have an eye that sees all forms but does not see itself––this is how your mind is. Its light penetrates everywhere and engulfs everything, so why does it not know itself? from Zen Essence - The Science of Freedom

Dogen instructed: Nothing can be gained by extensive study and wide reading. Give them up immediately. Just focus your mind on one thing, absorb the old examples, study the actions of former Zen Masters, and penetrate deeply into a single form of practice. Do not think of yourself as someone's teacher or as someone's predecessor. Dogen's " A Primer of Soto Zen ", 1978, 8