Shōji (生死) — Birth and Death | PART THREE

“However, do not use your mind to measure this and do not use your voice just to mouth it. When we simply let go of and forget all about ‘my body’ and ‘my mind’, relinquishing them to the Life of Buddha and letting them be put into operation from the vantage point of Buddha, then, when we rely on this—following where It leads—without forcing the body or laboring the mind, we free ourselves from life and death, and become Buddha.

And who would want to become stuck in their own mind? There is an extremely easy way to become Buddha. Simply, do not adhere to any evil whatsoever; do not become attached to life or death; have compassion for all sentient beings; respect those who are spiritually above you and have pity on those who are spiritually less advanced than you; rid yourself of the mental attitude that deplores the ten thousand things as they sprout up and the mental attitude that craves them; let your mind be free of judgmentalism and free of worry, for to do so is what we call being a Buddha. And do not seek after anything else.”

“Do not use your mind to measure this and do not use your voice just to mouth it.” The reflex is immediate. We hear something like this and begin to organize it, interpret it, turn it into something we can explain or repeat. But that movement is the same movement that created the division in the first place. We are trying to stand outside of what is already functioning and somehow get a hold of it. When we 'mouth it,' we treat the dharma like a song we’ve memorized but can’t yet dance to. We may use the words 'liberation' and 'Buddha', but they are still ornaments for the ego. The menu is not the meal; you cannot satisfy your hunger by reciting the names of the dishes.

This is not pointing us toward a better understanding. It is pointing us to let go of the entire position of standing apart. It is pointing beyond understanding to wonder. To forget “my body” and “my mind” is not to deny them or get rid of them. It is to release the claim over them, the sense that they belong to a separate self that must manage and direct what is happening. When that claim drops, what remains is not absence, but activity. Life is already functioning, already moving, already expressing itself through this body and this mind.

To rely on this is not to trust in something outside of ourselves. It is to finally realize there is nothing outside. It is to stop interfering. It is to allow what is already functioning to function, without inserting “ourselves” as the one who must control it, shape it, or improve it. When we are no longer forcing the body or laboring the mind, practice is no longer something we are doing. It is what is doing us.

This is why it is called an extremely easy way. Not easy because nothing is required, but easy because nothing needs to be added. The difficulty has always been in what we bring in, in the ways we divide, judge, prefer, and resist. So it is laid out plainly. Do not adhere to what is harmful. Do not attach to life or death. Have compassion. Respect what is greater than what you conceive as you. Care for what is still unfolding. Let go of the habits of grasping and rejecting.

This is not a list of instructions to follow in order to become something later. It is a description of how life functions when it is no longer filtered through preference and self-reference.

When judgment falls away, when worry falls away, when nothing extra is being imposed on what is already here, this is what it means to be Buddha.

And then it ends it completely. But do not think this collapses into oblivion. It opens to this very life merged with the present-infinite. There is nothing left to seek.