Fukan-zazengi | Part Two
Yet, if there is the slightest deviation, you will be as far from the Way as heaven is from earth. If adverse or favorable conditions arise to even a small degree, you will lose your mind in confusion. Even if you are proud of your understanding, are enlightened in abundance, and obtain the power of wisdom to glimpse the ground of buddhahood; even if you gain the Way, clarify the mind, and resolve to pierce heaven, that is only strolling on the border of the Buddha Way.
Whenever we are caught up in the story woven by our storehouse consciousness stirred up by the reflection in it of our lived experience rather than facing our lived experience directly and unflinchingly, we don't dwell in the Way. Likewise, when our lives fail to meet up to our expectations, we are confounded by the difference. If you believe you have penetrated the Great Enlightenment and have clarified the Great Matter of Birth and Death, the 'you' is extra. Let that go and what is left! Show me...
You are still, almost always, lacking the vivid way of emancipation. Moreover, consider Shakyamuni Buddha who was enlightened from birth; to this day you can see the traces of his sitting in the straight posture for six years. And Bodhidharma who transmitted the mind seal; even now you can hear of the fame of his facing the wall for nine years. These ancient sages practiced in this way. How can people of today refrain from practice?
We are all gems reflecting in the great net of interconnectedness - the practice we have inherited through the ages and multiple names and forms we have held is the same in this very moment: we sit, all at once, undifferentiated, and awaken. This is not a path to enlightenment - this is the very activity of enlightenment: of practice-enlightenment. It is the Way of the Original Self - present through all of space-time.
Therefore, cease studying words and following letters. Learn to step back, turning the light inwards, illuminating the Self. Doing so, your body and mind will drop off naturally, and Original Self will manifest. If you wish to attain suchness, practice suchness immediately.
All of the sutras, verses, and commentaries are intrinsically empty. Look through the colon in this proposition and penetrate where it points to: the very place the King of the Dharma stands right now! Stop and bow to the one present throughout all of the ages, present before the birth of all of the Buddhas.
