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When we have no thought of achievement, no thought of self, we are true beginners. Then we can really learn something.
If you think your body and mind are two, that is wrong; if you think that they are one, that is also wrong. Our body and mind are both two and one.
Doing something is expressing our own nature. We do not exist for the sake of something else. We exist for the sake of ourselves.
Do not be too interested in Zen.
“To have some deep feeling about Buddhism is not the point; we just do what we should do, like eating supper and going to bed. This is Buddhism.”
And we should not hoard knowledge; we should be free from our knowledge. If you collect various pieces of knowledge, as a collection it may be very good, but this is not our way. We should not try to surprise people by our wonderful treasures. We should not be interested in something special. If you want to appreciate something fully, you should forget yourself. You should accept it like lightning flashing in the utter darkness of the sky.
There is always a possibility of understanding as long as we exist in the utter darkness of the sky, as long as we live in emptiness.
“Everything comes out of emptiness.”
When we have no idea of ego, we have Buddha’s view of life. Our egoistic ideas are delusion, covering our Buddha nature. We are always creating and following them, and in repeating this process over and over again, our life becomes completely occupied by ego-centered ideas.
More important than any stage which you will attain is your sincerity, your right effort.
Because you think you have body or mind, you have lonely feelings, but when you realize that everything is just a flashing into the vast universe, you become very strong, and your existence becomes very meaningful.
Each one of us must make his own true way, and when we do, that way will express the universal way.
If you seek for freedom, you cannot find it.
If you understand yourself as a temporal embodiment of the truth, you will have no difficulty whatsoever.
By enlightenment I mean believing in nothing, believing in something which has no form or no color, which is ready to take form or color. This enlightenment is the immutable truth. It is on this original truth that our activity, our thinking, and our practice should be based.
If you want to understand it, you cannot understand it. When you give up trying to understand it, true understanding is always there.
