Readings Relating to Various Aspects of CFQ

Evagrius Ponticus (345–399)

The practice of stillness is full of joy and beauty.

Outline Teaching on Asceticism and Stillness.

God is without quantity and without all outward form.

Chapters on Prayer, 67.

Stand guard over your spirit, keeping it free of concepts at the time of prayer so that it may remain in its own deep calm.

Chapters on Prayer, 69.

You will not be able to pray purely if you are all involved with material affairs and agitated with unremitting concerns. For prayer is the rejection of concepts.

Chapters on Prayer, 70.

He went off to the desert...within fifteen years he had so purified his mind that he was deemed worthy of the gift of knowledge and wisdom and the discernment of spirits.

The Lausiac History

Gregory Palamas (1296–1359)

Those who wish to belong to themselves and to be truly monks [spiritual] in their inner person should lead the mind inside the body and hold it there.

Meister Eckhart (c. 1260 – c. 1327)

If this birth is to shine out in truth and purity, there must be a movement solely from within, from God. All your activity must be stilled and all your powers must serve him and not yourself. If this work is to be perfect, then God alone must perform it and you must passively receive it.

The more you are empty of self and are freed from the knowledge of objects, the closer you come to God.

German Sermon 25

This is the Now of eternity….There the soul knows all things and knows them in perfection.

Heart Sutra

The Bodhisattva of Compassion
from the depths of prajna wisdom
saw the emptiness of all five skandhas
and sundered the bonds that create suffering.

Know then,
form here is only emptiness,
emptiness only form.
Form is no other than emptiness,
emptiness no other than form.
Feeling, thought and choice,
consciousness itself
are the same as this.

Dharmas here are empty,
all are the primal void.
None are born or die.
Nor are they stained or pure.
Nor do they wax or wane.

So in emptiness no form,
no feeling, thought or choice.
Nor is there consciousness.
No eye, ear, nose,
tongue, body, mind.
No colour, sound, smell,
taste, touch or what the mind takes hold of,
nor even act of sensing.

So know that the Bodhisattva,
holding to nothing whatever,
but dwelling in prajna wisdom,
is freed of delusive hindrance,
rid of the fear bred by it,
and reaches clearest nirvana.

All buddhas of past and present,
buddhas of future time
through faith in prajna wisdom
come to full enlightenment.

Know then the great dharani,
the radiant, peerless mantra,
the supreme, unfailing mantra,
the Prajna Paramita,
whose words allay all pain.
This is the highest wisdom,
true beyond all doubt,
know and proclaim its truth:

Gate, gate
paragate
parasamgate
bodhi, svaha.

Nagarjuna (c. 150–250)

The root of cyclic existence is action.
Therefore, the wise one does not act.
With the cessation of ignorance action will not arise.
The cessation of ignorance occurs through meditation and wisdom.

Mulamadymakakarika. XXVI, 10-11.

Emptiness is the relinquishing of all views.
To say “it is” is to grasp for permanence. To say “it is not” is to adopt the view of nihilism.  Therefore the wise person does not say “exists” or “does not exist.”

Mulamadhyamakakarika, XIII 8, XV 10

First Zen Patriarch, Mahakashyapa

Once in ancient times, when the World-Honoured One was at Mount Grdhrakuta, he twirled a flower before his assembled disciples. All were silent. Only Mahakashyapa broke into a smile. The World-Honoured One said, I have the eye treasury of right Dharma, the subtle mind of nirvana, the true form of no-form, and the flawless gate of the teaching. It is not established upon words and phrases. It is a special transmission outside tradition. I now entrust this to Mahakashyapa.

Mumonkan, Case 6

Bodhidharma (5th or 6th C.)

To give up yourself without regret is the highest charity….
People who reach such understanding free themselves from all appearances without effort and cure all illness without treatment. Such is the power of great zen.

Not thinking about anything is zen. Once you know this, walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is zen.

Hui Neng (638–713)

The teaching of no-thought is to see all dharmas without being attached to any dharma, to reach anywhere without being attached anywhere, to keep your nature pure….This is the samadhi of prajna. Freedom and liberation constitute the practice of no-thought.

Platform Sutra, 32

When your nature gives rise to thought, even though you sense something, remain free and unaffected by the world of objects.

Platform Sutra, 17

Only practicing straightforward mind, and in all things having no attachments whatsoever, is called the samadhi of oneness. The deluded man clings to the characteristics of things, adheres to the samadhi of oneness, [thinks] that straightforward mind is sitting without moving and casting aside delusions without letting things arise in the mind. This he considers to be the samadhi of oneness. This kind of practice is the same as insentiency and the cause of an obstruction to the Tao. Tao must be something that circulates freely; why should he impede it? If the mind does not abide in things the Tao circulates freely; if the mind abides in things, it becomes entangled.

Platform Sutra

Hsing Hsing Ming by Seng T’san (d. 606)

’s self-revealing, void and clear,
Without exerting power of mind.
Thought cannot reach this state of truth,
Here feelings are of no avail.
In this true world of Emptiness
Both self and other are no more.
To enter this true empty world,
Immediately affirm “not-two,”
In this “not-two” all is the same,
With nothing separate or outside.
The wise in all times and places
awaken to this primal truth.
The Way’s beyond all space, all time,
One instant is ten thousand years.
Not only here, not only there,
Truth’s right before your very eyes.
Distinctions such as large and small
Have relevance for you no more.
The largest is the smallest too —
Here limitations have no place.
What is is not, what is not is —
If this is not yet clear to you,
You’re still far from the inner truth.
One thing is all, all things are one —
Know this and all’s whole and complete.
When faith and mind are not separate,
And not separate are Mind and faith,
This is beyond all words, all thought.
For here there is no yesterday,
No tomorrow,
No today.

Huangbo (d. 850)

By their very seeking they lose it, for that is using the Buddha to seek for the Buddha and using mind to grasp Mind....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 Buddha is all living beings.

Those who hasten towards it dare not enter, fearing to hurtle down through the void with nothing to cling to or to stay their fall. So they look to the brink and retreat. This refers to all those who seek such a goal through cognition. People are afraid to forget their minds, fearing to fall through the Void with nothing to stay their fall. They do not know that the Void is not really void, but the realm of the real Dharma.

Every phenomenon that exists is a creation of thought; therefore I need but empty my mind to discover that all of them are empty....The entire void stretching out in all directions is of one substance with Mind; and, since Mind is fundamentally undifferentiated, so must it be with everything else.

I will let go with both hands, for then I shall certainly discover the Buddha in my Mind.

Every day, whether walking, standing, sitting or lying down, and in all your speech, remain detached from everything within the sphere of phenomena.

If you can only rid yourselves of conceptual thought, you will have accomplished everything. The sudden elimination of conceptual thought, in the certain knowledge that there is nothing at all which has absolute existence, nothing on which to lay hold, nothing on which to rely, nothing in which to abide, nothing subjective or objective. It is by preventing the rise of conceptual thought that you will realize Bodhi; and, when you do, you will just be realizing the Buddha who has always existed in your own Mind.

So you students of the Way should immediately refrain from conceptual thought. Let a tacit understanding be all. Any mental process must lead to error. There is just transmission of Mind with Mind.

If you would spend all your time — walking, standing, sitting or lying down — learning to halt the concept-forming activities of your own mind, you could be sure of ultimately attaining your goal. Since your strength is insufficient, you might not be able to transcend samsara by a singly leap; but, after five or ten years, you would surely have made a good beginning and be able to make further progress spontaneously. If you pursue knowledge for a thousand days, that will avail you less than one day's proper study of the Way. If you do not study it, you will be unable to digest even a single drop of water. (Buddha)

The Record of Linji (d. 866)

The practitioners who do not understand continue to be caught in words and phrases and obstructed by terms….

True Buddha is our pure mind. True Dharma is the light of the body. The true path is the unobstructed pure light which shines in all directions.

If you wish to become Buddha, do not be a slave to all phenomena that are. When mind arises, the objects of mind arise. When the mind does not arise, the objects of mind do not arise. When thought does not arise, all the phenomena that are cannot harm us.

Those who practice concentrating their mind to contemplate stillness, then take the mind to contemplate outside the mind, or collect the mind inwardly, or stop the mind in order to enter samadhi, are all doing something and not yet practicing having nothing to do.

Do not identify yourselves with this illusory friend, the body, because sooner or later it has to be returned to the hands of the demon impermanence…Do not waste days and hours following various pleasures. Time is precious, life is impermanent….

Whatever comes to you, either from the outside or within, you should kill it immediately…Only then can you be liberated. If something has arisen, do not try to make it continue. If something has not arisen, do not try to make it arise.

Sit still and cut off the heads of every karma…Put an end to your past karma. The practitioner who does not have enough self-confidence will always direct his attention to what is external and wander around and around looking for something. Do not run after things outside of you. You should stop the mind which is always wandering around. This way of looking cuts through; there is no room for doubt.

Right view is to see in a penetrating way the mark of emptiness of all phenomena. You see that nothing is real in the way you thought it was….

The more you look for something, the farther away you are from it, the more you are off the mark.

When an object of sense perception arises, look deeply. Have confidence in the wonderful function that is present in your mind and then you will see there is nothing to do.

If you arrive at understanding the unborn nature of all that is and know that the mind is a magic show, that there is no object, no phenomenon that has a real existence, then wherever you are there is purity, and that is Buddha…Everywhere is pure, the light of clarity illumines the ten directions, and you see the oneness of all that is.

The Way is the ordinary mind…It is luminous and clear…Do not doubt anymore, do not be mistaken anymore…When the mind does maintain this insight, nature and appearance are not two different things.

Every place is a place of arrival, every place is true home for the practitioner. There is nothing that is not deep and wonderful, there is nothing that is not liberated. The most noble person is the person who has nothing to do. The only thing you should avoid is thinking about what you are going to do. All you need to do is be an ordinary person, be sovereign wherever you are and use that place as your seat of awakening. You should live your lives in a very natural way. Do not put on airs. When it is necessary to walk, walk. When it is necessary to sit, sit. Do not for a moment yearn for Buddhahood.

My friends, in the practice of the Buddhadharma there is no need for hard work. The principle is not to try to be anyone special and to have nothing to do…You should be sovereign according to where you find yourself; be the true person wherever you are, not allowing the conditions around you to pull you away.

Yuanwu

Only when you stop your compulsive mind, to reach the point where not a single thing is born, do you pass through to freedom, not falling into feelings and not dwelling on concepts, transcending all completely.

Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091–1157)

Practice emptiness and forget conditioning as dazzling light gleams from the shadows.

In upright practice let go from the edge of the high cliff, not grabbing anything. The ropes around your feet are severed. In wholeness take one step. The buddhas and ancestors all do not reach one’s own genuine, wondrously illuminating field, which is called one’s self.

Han Shan (Cold Mountain)

My mind is like the autumn moon
clear and bright in a pool of jade
nothing can compare
what more can I say

I watch the ground of my mind
and a lotus comes out of the mud.

My mind is like the autumn moon
clear and bright in a pool of jade
nothing can compare
what more can I say

Old and sick final years over a hundred
face brown head white content with mountain life
cloth robe pulled tight I accept my karma
why would I envy the clever ways of others

Dogen (1200–1253)

To study the buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of realization remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly.

Genjo Koan

When you first seek dharma, you imagine you are far away from its environs. At the moment when dharma is correctly transmitted, you are immediately your original self.

Genjo Koan

Students should know that the buddha way lies outside thinking, analysis, prophecy, introspection, knowledge, and wise explanation. If the buddha way were in these activities, why would you not have realized the buddha way by now, since from birth you have perpetually been in the midst of these activities?

Gakudo Yojin-Shu

The zazen of even one person at one moment imperceptibly accords with all things and fully resonates through all time. Thus in the past, future and present of the limitless universe this zazen carries on the buddha’s teaching endlessly. Each moment of zazen is equally wholeness of practice, equally wholeness of realization.

Bendo-wa

And yet, if you miss the mark even by a strand of hair, you are as distant as heaven from earth. If the slightest discrimination occurs, you will be lost in confusion. You could be proud of your understanding and have abundant realization, or acquire outstanding wisdom and attain the way by clarifying the mind. Still, if you are wandering about in your head, you may miss the vital path of letting your body leap.

Fukanzazengi

Once when Master Yakusan Gudo (Yueh-Shan Hung-tao) was sitting in zazan, a monk asked him, "When you are sitting immovably, about what do you think?" The Master replied, "I think about not thinking [about anything]," The monk responded, "How does one think about not-thinking?" The Master replied, "Without thinking."

Zazenshin

Hakuin (1686–1786)

If you desire the great tranquility, prepare to sweat white beads.

Ryokan (1758–1831)

Like the little stream
Making its way
Through the mossy crevices,
I, too, quietly
Turn clear and transparent.

Dao De Jing: The Book of the Way by Laozi

Stanza 10

The new-moon soul aborning holds to oneness;
Can you keep it from being divided?
To centre all breath-energy, to work gently
Can you keep as if newborn?
To purify the eye within
Can you keep without stain?
To care for the people and rule the kingdom
Must you not master under-acting?
Midst ebb and flow from heaven’s gates
Must you not play the female part?
For your vision to reach all quarters
Must you not be unknowing?
Through giving birth and care
Dao gives life without possessing,
Performs without obligating,
Presides without controlling:
Such is the meaning of “hidden power.”

Stanza 37

Selected Passages on Healing from the Gospel of Mark

Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them. That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. (1:31-35)

And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons. A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, "If you choose, you can make me clean." Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I do choose. Be made clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, saying to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter. (1:39-45)

"Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. (3:5)

He had cured many, so that all who had diseases pressed upon him to touch him. Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and shouted, "You are the Son of God!" But he sternly ordered them not to make him known. He went up the mountain and called to him those whom he wanted, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, and to have authority to cast out demons. (3:10- 15)

Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, "If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well." Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my clothes?" And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, 'Who touched me?'" He looked all around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease." (5:25-34)

He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits....So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them. (6:7,12-13)

When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed. (6:54-56)

They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened." And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, "He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak." (7:32-37)

They came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, "Can you see anything?" And the man looked up and said, "I can see people, but they look like trees, walking." Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Then he sent him away to his home, saying, "Do not even go into the village." (8:22-26)

People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it." And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them. (10:13-16)

They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" Jesus stood still and said, "Call him here." And they called the blind man, saying to him, "Take heart; get up, he is calling you." So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" The blind man said to him, "My teacher, let me see again." Jesus said to him, "Go; your faith has made you well." Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way. (10:46-52)

Selections from Meister Eckhart's German Sermons

Whoever seeks something from God, as you have often heard me say, does not know what they are looking for.

I said once that whoever possesses the world least, actually possesses it the most ... since the soul has fallen away from time if she has fallen away from the world, there is neither pain nor suffering there. Indeed, even tribulation turns to joy for her there. If we were to compare everything which has ever been conceived of regarding delight and joy, bliss and pleasure, with the delight which belongs to this birth, then it would all be as nothing.

God’s going out is his coming in. The closer I am to God, the more he speaks himself in me. I have occasionally spoken of a light in the soul which is uncreated and uncreatable. I constantly return in my sermons to this light, which apprehends God without medium, without concealment and nakedly, just as he is in himself ... Therefore I say that when we turn away from ourselves and from all created things, to that extent we are united and sanctified in the soul’s spark, which is untouched by either space or time. This spark is opposed to all creatures and desires nothing but God, naked, just as he is in himself.

When we uncover and expose the divine light that God has naturally created in us, then the image of God in us is revealed ... the more and the more clearly we uncover the image of God in us, the more clearly God is born in us ... the revealing of God’s image within us makes us like God, for through this image we are like God’s image, which God is according to his naked essence. Therefore the more we reveal ourselves, the more we are like God, and the more we are like God, the more we are united with him ... And so when someone wholly conforms themselves to God through love, they are stripped of images and are in-formed and transformed into the divine uniformity in which they are one with God. All this they possess by remaining within.

There is no process of becoming in God, but only a present moment, that is a becoming without becoming, a becoming-new without renewal and that this becoming is God’s being. There is in God something so subtle that no renewal can enter there. There is something subtle in the soul too that is so pure and fine that no renewal can enter it either, for all that is in God is an eternal present-time without renewal. This is the Now of eternity in which the soul knows all things new and fresh and present in God with the same delight which I have in those things that are present to me now. I recently read in a book (who can fathom this?) that God is creating the world even now as he did on the first day when he created the world. Here God is rich, and here is God’s kingdom. The soul which is to be born in God must fall away from time as time must fall away from her. She must rise up and must linger in contemplation of this wealth of God, where there is length without length and breadth without breadth. There the soul knows all things and knows them in perfection.

How can we be directly in God, neither striving nor seeking for anything other than him, and how can we be so poor and give up everything? It is hard counsel that we should not desire any reward. Now be certain of this: God never ceases to give us everything. Even if he had sworn not to, he still could not help giving us things. It is far more important to him to give than it is for us to receive, but we should not focus upon this, for the less we strive for it, the more God will give us. God intends thereby only that we should become yet more rich and be all the more capable of receiving things from him.

‘They will thirst the more who drink me and hunger the more who eat me.’ These people hunger so much for the will of God, and it gives them such delight, that they are so content with whatever God sends them that they cannot desire or will anything else ... Everything that befalls them, whether illness or poverty or whatever, is preferable to them to anything else. It pleases them better than anything else precisely because it is God’s will. Now I hear you ask: ‘How do I know that it is God’s will?’ My answer is that if it were not God’s will even for a moment, then it would not exist. Whatever is must be his will. If God’s will is pleasing to you, then whatever happens to you, or does not happen to you, will be heaven.

‘Love God equally in all things’. This means to say that we should love him just as willingly in poverty as in wealth, in sickness as in health. We should love him just as much when we are living through a time of trial as when we are not, when we suffer as when we do not. Indeed, the greater the suffering, the less we suffer, as with two buckets. The heavier one bucket is, the lighter the other, and the more we give, the easier giving becomes. For someone who loves God, it would be just as easy to give up the whole world as it would be to give up an egg. The more we give, the easier it is to do so, as was the case with the apostles. The greater the suffering which befell them, the easier it was for them to endure.

This is how the Son is born in us - when we live without a Why and are born again into the Son ... the less we turn our intention and attention to things other than God and the more we turn to nothing external, all the more shall we be transformed in the Son and all the more shall the Son be born in us and we be born in the Son and become one Son ... Thus we become one in him when he is the one object of our attention. God always wishes to be alone. This is a necessary truth, and it must always be the case that we should have only God in our thoughts.

The just person seeks nothing through their works, for those whose works are aimed at a particular end or who act with a particular Why in view, are servants and hirelings. If you wish to be formed and transformed into justice then, do not intend anything particular by your works and do not embrace any particular Why, neither in time nor in eternity, neither reward nor blessedness, neither this nor that; such works in truth are dead. Indeed, even if you make God your goal, all the works you perform for his sake will be dead, and you will only spoil those works which are genuinely good ... And so, if you wish to live and wish your works to live too, then you must be dead to all things and be reduced to nothing. It is a property of creatures to make one thing from another, but it is a property of God to make something from nothing. And so if God is to make something of you or in you, then you must first yourself become nothingness. Enter your own inner ground therefore and act from there, and all your works shall be living works.

The just person loves neither this nor that in God, and if God were to give them the whole of his wisdom together with everything which he can give other than himself, they would pay no attention to it and it would not please them. For such people desire nothing and seek nothing, knowing no Why to justify their actions, just as God acts without a Why and knows no Why. The just person acts precisely as God acts, without a Why, and so as life lives for its own sake, seeking no Why to justify itself, in the same way the just person knows no Why to justify what they do. Turn away from everything therefore and exist in your naked being, for whatever is outside being is ‘accidence’ and all forms of ‘accidence’ create a Why.

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