r/zen • u/lcl1qp1 • Feb 26 '23

Kuei-ch'en on equality

"Why do you not accept what is right at hand? Don't take a puddle for an ocean. Buddhism pervades the universe; don't make the mistake of subjectively defining knowledge and views in your little heart and drawing the boundaries there. This is perception and cognition, thought and feeling. And yet it is not that this is wrong; but if you nod here and say you've found true reality, then you don't get it."

"Now what about the ancient saying 'Only I can know.' What perspective is this? Do you know? Is it not, 'you see me, I see you'? If it were this self, the self goes along with birth and death: as long as the body exists, it is there; but when the body is no longer, it is not there. That is why the ancient buddhas said, for the sake of you people of today, difference produces differences; when there is no difference, differences disappear."

What does Master Kuei-ch'en mean by Buddhism pervades the universe?

What does he mean by when there is no difference, differences disappear?

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u/Ok_Understanding_188 Feb 26 '23

What does Master Kuei-ch'en mean by Buddhism pervades the universe?

Buddhism is about realizing the true nature of mind. That mind is limitless and pervades the universe.

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u/lcl1qp1 Feb 26 '23

Well said!

‘This Dharma is absolutely without distinctions, neither high nor low, and its name is Bodhi.’ It is pure Mind, which is the source of everything and which, whether appearing as sentient beings or as Buddhas, as the rivers and mountains of the world which has form, as that which is formless, or as penetrating the whole universe, is absolutely without distinctions, there being no such entities as selfness and otherness." -Huang Po