Nan-ch'uan said, "Ordinary mind is the Way."
The master said, "Then may I direct myself towards it or not?"
Nan-ch'uan said, "To seek [it] is to deviate [from it]."
The master said, "If I do not seek, how can I know about the Way?"
Nan-ch'uan said, "The Way does not belong to knowing or not knowing. To know is to have a concept; to not know is to be ignorant. If you truly realize the Way of no doubt, it is just like the sky: wide open vast emptiness. How can you say 'yes' or 'no' to it?"
At these words, the master had sudden enlightenment. His mind became like the clear moon.
—from The Recorded Sayings of Zen Master Joshu, translated by James Green
I'm not sure how much to say about this one... You cannot apply effort to following the Way, because that is not the Way. Yet if you do nothing, you do not find the Way. How, then? You allow the Way to open up inside of you, and around you. Suddenly, there is no following or not following. There is just that-which-is. This is the Way.
2 comments:
The way you can follow is not the way.
Further: you do not take the way - the way takes you.
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