r/zen • u/[deleted] • Mar 14 '18

Huang Po: Motionless Mind

Not til your thoughts cease their branching here and there, not till you abandon all thoughts of seeking for something, not till your mind is motionless as wood or stone, will you be on the right road to the Gate.

  • Huang Po
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u/[deleted] Mar 16 '18

Yes. To your second question, that ain't easy. What if you met a great Zen teacher and he asked you, "What moves your hands and feet?" All the reading in the world will probably not help. You're not connected with what moves your hands and feet even though they are moved! Next, to help you out he asks you, "When you do zazen, who or what breathes in and out?"

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u/koalazen Mar 16 '18

Causality? Are you saying I have no control anyway? lol. That's deep :p Now I feel connected again hahaha :D

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u/[deleted] Mar 17 '18

Causality?

Not in the Buddhist sense (i.e., Buddhism does not understand causality in terms of Newtonian mechanics). Bodhidharma said:

Everyone wants to see this mind, and those who move their hands and feet by its light are as many as the grains of the sand along the Ganges, but when you ask them, they can't explain it. They're like puppets. It's theirs to use. Why do they not see it?

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u/koalazen Mar 17 '18

Yes, this mind is everything. But even though it is always everything the intuitive "clicking" in the human mind is not granted. Sometimes I know it is everything right in front of me because I have known it before (even minutes ago) but it just doesn't feel like a direct experience, the intimate feeling is not there.

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u/[deleted] Mar 17 '18

The feeling you are looking for is a thought-form appearing in the mind you are seeking.

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u/[deleted] Mar 17 '18

The big problem is the confusion between thought and Mind. The former is like the waves of the ocean. The latter is like the element of water.

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u/koalazen Mar 17 '18

I think I see that. The essence is existence. Whatever exists is what I call one mind. It doesn't change that as a human I don't always feel intimate with that. I am one mind but there are no waves of "I am one mind".

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u/[deleted] Mar 17 '18

The essence/substance (Mind) does not arise or perish. Only phenomena, like waves, arise and perish.