The master Huangbo said to [Pei] Xiu:
“All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind, beside which nothing exists.
This Mind, which IS without beginning, is unborn and indestructible.
It is not green nor yellow, and has neither form nor appearance.
It does not belong to the categories of things which exist or do not exist nor can it be thought of in terms of new or old.
It is neither long nor short, big nor small, for it transcends all limits, measures, names, traces, and comparisons.
It IS that which you see before you — begin to reason about it and you at once fall into error.
It is like the boundless void which cannot be fathomed or measured.
The One Mind alone is the Buddha, and there is no distinction between the Buddha and sentient beings, but that sentient beings are attached to forms and so seek externally for Buddhahood.
By their very seeking they lose it, for that is using the Buddha to seek for the Buddha and using mind to grasp Mind. Even though they do their utmost for a full aeon, they will not be able to attain to it.
They do not know that, if they put a stop to conceptual thought and forget their anxiety, the Buddha will appear before them, for this Mind is the Buddha and the Buddha is all living beings.
It is not the less for being manifested in ordinary beings, nor is it greater for being manifested in the Buddhas.“
Zen master e’s comment
Huangpo gives us a lot of pointers to help us get a clearer idea on the innate empty clarity that is the fundamental nature of mind.
He says, “It is that which you see before you.”
What did he mean by that?
What is before us always? If you’re not caught in concepts or have fallen into the grasping at forms we notice that there is an empty clarity of which all is reflected.
That which is before us always is empty clear awareness.
This innate empty clear awareness has been there your whole life.
The arrow hits its mark now.
So now that we see awareness – put all else down and rest freely in empty radiance.
Now while looking at this clarity Huangpo says,
“This Mind, which IS without beginning, is unborn and indestructible.
It is not green nor yellow, and has neither form nor appearance.
It does not belong to the categories of things which exist or do not exist nor can it be thought of in terms of new or old.
It is neither long nor short, big nor small, for it transcends all limits, measures, names, traces, and comparisons.
It IS that which you see before you — begin to reason about it and you at once fall into error.
Try to use the small mind to grasp the ungraspable and it will never make sense.
But if you put it all down, rest in the radiance and become unbound from thoughts, concepts and ideas you dissolve into an ocean of pure presence and innate wisdom which permeates every fibre of your being and is manifest in every moment of your experience.
Now can you see more clearly the gift that Huangpo has given you?
Stay there in the empty radiance and see the beauty of your original face.
Free of thoughts, concepts and conundrums. No ideas, no thoughts, no referent clinging to the energies that you believe to be a self.
Just clear, bright and ever present awareness.
This Mind, this thought-free awareness is without beginning, unborn and indestructible.
Think a single thought about it and you fall off a cliff into a raging river that carries you away to samsara and binds you in the shackles of greed, hatred and delusion.
Cut off all thinking and you are unbound and free.
Stay here in this empty clarity and melt your face off so that you can see your true beauty.
All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind, beside which nothing exists.
So beautiful!
