‘If intense cold strikes not to the bone, how can plum blossom be fragrant?’
Huang Po
Chan / Seon / Zen
Morning meditation — For those who do not know their own mind.
‘When you hear me talk about the Void, do not at once fall into the idea of vacuity. It is of the utmost importance that we should not fall into this idea, because when a man sits quietly and keeps his mind blank he will abide in a state of ‘‘Voidness of Indifference’’.’
Hui Neng
Morning meditation — What’s worrying you now?
‘Everyone has a natural koan. What’s worrying you now? A seemingly intractable problem. Illness, old age, death?’
Everyday Buddhism
Morning meditation — The enlightenment in which you see your true mind and realise your true nature.
‘The enlightenment in which you see your true mind and realise your true nature is transmitted outside of the scriptures; it is not based on names and words.’
Bassui Tokushō
Morning meditation — When you awaken to the unique and wonderful dharma.
‘Those who seek the Buddha and dharma outside of mind are all children of rich men who have forgotten where their homes are. When you awaken to the unique and wonderful dharma of your true nature, it is as if the lost child had come home.’
Bassui Tokushō
Morning meditation — It is simply that when ordinary people hear a true discourse.
‘It is simply that when ordinary people hear a true discourse, because of their ignorance, there are a thousand variations and ten thousand distinctions. It’s like squinting your eyes to make one moon appear as two.’
Bassui Tokushō
Morning meditation — If the mind abides in no-circumstances.
‘If the mind abides in no-circumstances, then the circumstances abide in no-mind.’
Shen Hui
Morning meditation — If in the mind there is nothing different from mind.
‘If in the mind there is nothing different from mind, one does not have to stop desire.’
Shen Hui
Buddhism now 