Reminder: It does not matter whether one is keen or dull, in this path all are welcomed.
READERS, YOU MAY NEED TO READ THIS PIECE MORE THAN ONCE.
First, A Short Incident of Buddha’s chief disciple, Sariputra.
This is a short of Sariputra with a yaksha, a mischievious spirit of the world of nature. Sariputra, one of two chief disciples to the Buddha, did not begin as a devoted disciple. In fact, he was a follower of another teacher, Sanjaya who had a large retinue of students. Sariputra however, eventually became disenchanted with Sanjaya and was released to seek another teacher.
The Incident. Sariputra was sitting in meditation by himself when a yaksha, a nature spirit attacked him. The yaksha struck the disciple on his head with a club. The disciple did not cry out or condemn the yaksha. When the other chief disciple, Maudgalyāyana, asked him how he felt.
Sariputra answered calmly, “I have a minor headache.” His companion followed with praise for Sariputra’s psychic abilities by being able to sustain a blow with little notice. Maudgalyāyanawent on to explain that Sariputra exhibited thepower of intervention by concentration.
Keep this brief incident in mind as you read Shitou’s continuation of Merging Difference & Unity which follows below. It begins with an image of different faces.
Imagine for a moment if one of these faces struck you or you struck one of them.
What would be your response? Would you react as the yaksha? Or with the power of concentration?
Noble & Base are only manners of speaking.
Perhaps they would not strike you with a club but with words. Would you realize that whatever was said is not personal but just a manner of speaking?
Right in light there is darkness, but don’t confront it as darkness;
Right in darkness there is light, but don’t see it as light.
Are you inclined to judge the other in terms of light and darkness? Do you confront the darkness and separate the light from it?
Light & dark are relative to one another
Like forward & backward steps.
Have you forgotten that light & dark are relative? There is no separation.
We ordinary humans want to separate the light from the darkness and the darkness from the light. When we are harmed we want to strike back. We we harm we want to remain justified.
But it is just a manner of speaking and not our true reality. We need to use our power of concentration to remain unperturbed. We need to stop our tendency to take things personally.
We must learn to follow Truth and merge difference & unity with the power of concentration.
We need to remember:
Everything is the face of the sublime abiding.
Rely on it to teach you.
All spiritual work is in harmony with finding God. Call it what you will - names and forms are just a manner of speaking.
All things have their function —-
It is a matter of use in the appropriate situation.
Things exist like box & cover;
BUT the Truth accords like arrow points meeting.
We must learn to be precise…and bring together what happens like arrow points meeting.
