Index
Stopping and Seeing: A Comprehensive Course in Buddhist Meditation
the determination for enlightenment is contemplation;
four mental torrents [opinions, desires, objects, becoming]. The Way consists of curative measures to avert and remove these.
When one realizes that in suffering and its cause there is no suffering or cause, then one understands the nature of things
To seek the character of reality outside of ordinary things is like running from the space in one place to look for space elsewhere. The ordinary is the true; there is no need to abandon the ordinary and strive for the holy. Scripture says, “Life and death is nirvana; each form, each scent, is all the Middle Way.” This is called arousing the aspiration for enlightenment by thinking of the uncreate four truths, seeking above and teaching below.
statements, they could easily be understood. If one construes shallow and deep, light and heavy, this is the sense of gradual contemplation. If one construes four truths of one reality without discriminating, this is the sense of complete contemplation.
If one construes shallow and deep, light and heavy, this is the sense of gradual contemplation. If one construes four truths of one reality without discriminating, this is the sense of complete contemplation. If one construes interchanging light and heavy, this is the sense of unfixed contemplation.
do not stick to words at the expense of completeness, misconstruing the intent of the sage.
once one has heard, the clinging, searching mind stops; this is called stopping. Just trusting in the nature of reality and not in so many names is called seeing.
There are many methods of practice, but in general we speak of four: constant sitting, constant walking, half walking and half sitting, and neither walking nor sitting.
The general term concentration means tuning, aligning, and stabilizing.
“When the eye is involved with forms, how can it be controlled and stabilized? When the mind is involved in clinging to objects, how can it be controlled and stabilized?” The Great Collection says, “Mindfulness of thusness is stable.” Thusness is emptiness. These scriptures go into reality analytically; this is just a different way of referring to emptiness.
“What the Buddhas teach is not nihilism, in spite of emptiness; not permanence, in spite of continuity. Sin and virtue do not disappear either. If you are nihilistic, you are like a blind man facing colors; you do not have the eye of right seeing, and you gain nothing.”
Whatever you do, the effort is not wasted, and yet you do not hope for reward. Persisting in giving in this way, you accomplish all the innumerable teachings of Buddha, fulfill the Great Vehicle, and reach the Other Shore.
where does anger come from? If you cannot grasp its origin, you cannot grasp its passing away either. Who is angry? Who is the object of anger? When you see in this way, you cannot grasp anger; the traces of its coming and going, and its appearances, are empty and quiescent.
“The mind always one, whether in action or repose”
each state of mind passes silently away, flowing into the ocean of all-knowledge.
someone drilling on a high plateau, only seeing dry earth; if he keeps on working, he will see moist earth, eventually reach mud, and after that get water. The dry earth represents the first contemplation, the moist earth represents the second contemplation, the mud represents the third contemplation, and water represents complete seeing all at once.
If you know that the teachings of the wise are boundless, you will not affirm one while denying another,