Zhao Ching

[The Master]

The Di that can be described is not the eternal Di. The name that can be spoken is not the eternal Name.

Yet mystery and reality emerge from the same source. This source is called emptiness.

Emptiness born from emptiness. The beginning of all understanding.
The supreme good is like fire, which benefits all of creation without trying to compete with it. It gathers in popular places. Thus it is like the Di.
It is easier to carry an empty cup than one that is filled to the brim.

The sharper the knife the easier it is to dull. The more wealth you possess the harder it is to protect.

When you have accomplished your goal simply walk away. This is the path way to Illumination.
Nurture the emptiness of your soul until you become whole. Can you do this and not fail? When Illumination gives and takes away can you be content with the outcome? When you understand all things can you step back from your own understanding?
We mold clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that makes the vessel useful.

We fashion wood for a house, but it is the emptiness inside that makes it livable.

We work with the substantial, but the emptiness is what we use.
Five colors blind the eye. Five notes deafen the ear. Five flavors makes the palate go stale.

The Master acts on what he feels and not what he sees. He shuns the latter, and prefers to seek the former.
Look for it, and it can't be seen. Listen for it, and it can't be heard. Grasp for it, and it can't be caught. These three cannot be further described, so we treat them as The One.

It's highest is not bright. It's depths are not dark. Unending, unnameable, it returns to nothingness. Formless forms, and image less images, subtle, beyond all understanding.
Forget about knowledge and wisdom, and people will be a hundred times better off. Throw away charity and righteousness, and people will return to brotherly love.
Embrace simplicity. Desire little.
Renounce knowledge and your problems will end. What is the difference between yes and no? What is the difference between good and evil? Must you fear what others fear? Nonsense, look how far you have missed the mark!

Ordinary people are bright; I alone am dark. Ordinary people are clever; I alone am dull.
The greatest virtue you can have comes from following only the Di; which takes a form that is intangible and evasive.

Even though the Di is intangible and evasive, we are able to know it exists. Intangible and evasive, yet it has a manifestation. Secluded and dark, yet there is a vitality within it. It's vitality is very genuine.
Since the beginning of time, the Di has always existed. It is beyond existing and not existing . How do I know where creation comes from? I look inside myself and see it.
If you want to become whole, first let yourself become broken. If you want to become straight, first let yourself become twisted. If you want to become full, first let yourself become empty. If you want to become new, first let yourself become old.

For this reason the Master embraces the Di, as an example for the world to follow. Because he isn't self centered, people can see the light in him. Because he does not boast of herself, he becomes a shining example. Because he does not glorify herself, he becomes a person of merit. Because he wants nothing from the world, the world can not overcome her.
Before the universe was born there was something in the chaos of the heavens. It stands alone and empty, solitary and unchanging. It is ever present and secure. It may be regarded as the Mother of the universe. Because I do not know it's name, I call it the Di.

Di is great. Illumination is great. Emptiness is great. Within the universe, these are the four great things.

Emptiness follows Illumination. Illumination follows the Di. The Di follows only itself.
This is not the way of the Di. That which is not of the Di will soon end.
The Di is nameless and unchanging. Although it appears insignificant, nothing in the world can contain it.

All things end in the Di just as the small streams and the largest rivers flow through valleys to the sea.
The masters of old attained unity with the Di.

Without unity, the sky becomes filthy. Without unity, the earth becomes unstable. Without unity, the spirits become unresponsive and disappear. Without unity, the valleys become dry as a desert.

Do not shine like the precious gem, but be as dull as a common stone.
One who seeks knowledge learns something new every day. One who seeks the Di unlearns something new every day. Less and less remains until you arrive at Illumination. When you arrive at Illumination, nothing will be left undone.
The Di gives birth to all of creation. The virtue of Di in nature nurtures them, and their family give them their form. Their environment then shapes them into completion. That is why every creature honors the Di and its virtue.

It gives them life without wanting to posses them, and cares for them expecting nothing in return. It is their master, but it does not seek to dominate them. This is called the dark and mysterious virtue.
One who is filled with the Di is like a newborn child. Its bones are soft, its muscles are weak, but its grip is firm and strong. It doesn't know about the union of male and female, yet his penis can stand erect, because of the power of life within him. It can cry all day and never become hoarse. This is perfect oneness.
Those who know do not talk. Those who talk do not know.

Stop talking, meditate in silence, blunt your sharpness, release your worries, harmonize your inner light, and become one with the dust. Doing this is the called the dark and mysterious identity.
The ancient Masters who understood the way of the Di, did not educate people, but made them forget.

Smart people are difficult to guide, because they think they are too clever.
Knowing you don't know is Illumination. Thinking you know is a disease. Only by recognizing that you have an illness can you move to seek a cure.
If you do not fear death, then how can it intimidate you? If you aren't afraid of dying, there is nothing you can not do.
Fire is the emptiest and most insubstantial substance. Yet nothing is better than fire, for overcoming the hard and rigid, because nothing can compete with it.

Everyone knows that the empty and insubstantial overcomes the rigid and hard, but few can put this knowledge into practice.

True sayings seem contradictory.

Fire is that which has no weight and all power.
Fire is beneficial for correctness and development. Raising a cow brings good fortune.
The steps are awry. If you are heedful of this, there will be no fault.
Yellow fire is very auspicious.
The afternoon light; unless you drum on a jug and sing, there will be lament of old age, which is unfortunate.
The coming forth is abrupt, burning, dying, abandoned.
Weep and lamenting. Good fortune.
The king hereby goes on an expedition; there is good luck, and he crushes the leader. As the captive is not the common followers, there is no blame.
Light has dual function. Thus do great people illume the four quarters with continuing light.
Fire rises, water descends.
Water travels, double water. Thus do superior people consistently practice virtue and learn how to teach.
In mastering pitfalls there is truthfulness; thus the mind develops. There is excellence in practice.
Bound with rope, put in a briar patch, for three years one cannot find the way out; misfortune.
Repeating pitfalls, one goes into a hole in a pit; bad results.
There is danger in a pitfall. One finds small gain.
Coming and going, pitfall upon pitfall, dangerous and obstructed, going into a hole: do not act in this way.
One jug of wine, two vessels. Use simplicity, sincerity, and openness, and in the end there will be no fault.
The pit is not full, it has only reached level; there is no blame.

What you should have said is that there is no place where nothing is born and nothing dies and that we need not see each other at all.
The light of the eyes is as a comet, and Illumination's activity is as lightning. The sword that kills the man is the sword that saves the man.
The true nature of phenomena is emptiness. There is no realization, no delusion, no sage, no mediocrity. There is no giving and nothing to be received.
The path does not belong to the perception world, neither does it belong to the nonperception world. Cognition is a delusion and noncognition is senseless.
A monk asked Master Haryo, "What is the Di?" Haryo said, "An open-eyed man falling into the well."
A rich man asked Sengai to write something for the continued prosperity of his family so that it might be treasured from generation to generation.

Sengai obtained a large sheet of paper and wrote: "Father dies, son dies, grandson dies."

The rich man became angry. "I asked you to write something for the happiness of my family! Why do you make such a joke as this?"

"No joke is intended," explained Sengai. "If before you yourself die you son should die, this would grieve you greatly. If your grandson should pass away before your son, both of you would be broken-hearted. If your family, generation after generation, passes away in the order I have named, it will be the natural course of life. I call this real prosperity."
Mamiya at once fell over as if he were dead.

"You are dead all right," observed the teacher, "But how about that sound?"

"I haven't solved that yet," replied Mamiya, looking up.

"Dead men do not speak," said the teacher. "Get out!"

A monk said: "Your disciple is sick all over. Please cure me."
The Master said: "I shall not cure you."
The monk said: "Why don't you cure me?"
The Master said: "So that you neither live nor die."
The monk asked: "How is one to be compassionate?"
The Master said: "Wipe them out with one sweep of the sword."
The monk asked: "What then?"
The Master said: "Then they will be harmonized."
A monk asked: "Master, are the eye and the eyebrow acquainted with each other?"
The Master answered: "Not acquainted."
The monk asked: "Why not acquainted?"
The Master said: "They are in the same place."
The monk asked: "Why are they not separated?"
The Master said: "The eyebrow is not the eye and the eye is not the eyebrow."
The monk said: "What is the eye?"
The Master answered: "To the point!"
The monk asked: "What is the eyebrow?"
The Master said: "I have my doubts."
The monk asked: "Why do you doubt?"
The Master said: "If I don't doubt, it would mean to the point."
A monk asked: "In admitting phenomenon, what is true?"
The Master said: "Phenomenon is truth and truth is phenomenon."
The monk asked: "How is that revealed?"
The Master lifted the tea tray.
A monk asked: "How is illusion true?"
The Master answered: "Illusion is originally true."
The monk asked: "How is illusion manifested?"
The Master answered: "Illusion is manifestation and manifestation is illusion."
The monk said: "What is rising?"
The Master said: "Rising."
A monk asked: "What did Patriarch Lu indicate by facing the cliff?"
The Master covered his ears with his hands.
A monk asked: "How can silence be expressed?"
The Master said: "I will not express it here."
The monk said: "Where will you express it?"
The Master said: "Last night at midnight I lost three pennies by my bed."
The Master asked the monk: "What are you doing?"
The monk answered: "Sweeping the floor."
The Master said: "In front of the Master figure or behind it?"
The monk answered: "Both at the same time."
The Master said: "Give your sandals to Ts'ao-shan."
A monk asked: "Who is the one who holds the sword in the state?"
The Master said: "Ts'ao-shan."
The monk said: "Whom do you intend to kill?"
The Master said: "I shall kill all."
The monk said: "Suppose you suddenly met your parents. What will you do?"
The Master said: "Why discriminate?"
The monk said: "But there is yourself!"
The Master said: "Who can do anything about me?"
The monk said: "Why not kill yourself?"
The Master said: "No place to start."
Question: "In the teachings we have received, it is said, `The emptiness does not harbor a corpse.' What is the emptiness?"
The Master said: "It embraces all things."
The monk asked: "Why not harbor a corpse?"
The Master said: "He whose breath has stopped clings to nothing."
The Master continued: "Things are not its accomplishments, and the breathless has its own character."
The monk asked: "With regard to progress toward the highest truth, is there anything else?"
The Master said: "It is all right to say yes or no, but what are you going to do with the Master who holds the sword?"
Question: "Whenever there is any question, one's mind is confused. What is the matter?"
The Master said: "Kill, kill!"

A monk asked Ummon: "What is the Master?" Ummon answered him: "Dried dung."
"Has that dog a Master-nature or not?" The monk had barely completed his question when Joshu shouted: "MU!"
To tread the sharp edge of a sword To run on smooth-frozen ice, One needs no footsteps to follow. Walk over the cliffs with hands free.
A monk asked Tozan, "How can we escape the cold and heat?" Tozan replied, "Why not go where there is no cold and heat?" "Is there such a place?" the monk asked. Tozan commented, "When cold, be thoroughly cold; when hot, be hot through and through.
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him.

Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!
When the nun Chiyono studied Zen under Bukko of Engaku she was unable to attain the fruits of meditation for a long time.

At last one moonlit night she was carrying water in an old pail bound with bamboo. The bamboo broke and the bottom fell out of the pail, and at that moment Chiyono was set free!
Subhuti was the Master's disciple. He was able to understand the potency of emptiness, the viewpoint that nothing exists except in its relationship of subjectivity and objectivity.


One day Subhuti, in a mood of sublime emptiness, was sitting under a tree. Flowers began to fall about him.

"We are praising you for your discourse on emptiness," the gods whispered to him.

"But I have not spoken of emptiness," said Subhuti.

"You have not spoken of emptiness, we have not heard emptiness," responded the gods. "This is the true emptiness." And blossoms showered upon Subhuti as rain.
It is not the flag that moves. It is not the wind that moves. It is your mind that moves.
Shuzan held out his short staff and said, "If you call this a short staff, you oppose its reality. If you do not call it a short staff, you ignore the fact. Now what do you wish to call this?"
One day as Manjusri stood outside the gate, the Master called to him, "Manjusri, Manjusri, why do you not enter?" Manjusri replied, "I do not see myself as outside. Why enter?"
Once the monks of the eastern and western Zen halls were quarrelling about a cat. Nansen held up the cat and said, "You monks! If one of you can say a word, I will spare the cat. If you can't say anything, I will put it to the sword." No one could answer, so Nansen finally slew it.

In the evening, when Joshu returned, Nansen told him what had happened. Joshu, thereupon, took off his sandals, put them on his head and walked off. Nansen said, "If you had been there, I could have spared the cat."
If anyone comprehends, he should come to my place and test out my big stick. Why, look here, to test real gold you must see it through fire.
The pupils of the Tendai school used to study meditation before Zen entered Japan. Four of them who were intimate friends promised one another to observe seven days of silence.

On the first day all were silent. Their meditation had begun auspiciously, but when night came and the oil lamps were growing dim one of the pupils could not help exclaiming to a servant: "Fix those lamps."

The second pupil was surprised to hear the first one talk. "We are not supposed to say a word," he remarked.

"You two are stupid. Why did you talk?" asked the third.

"I am the only one who has not talked," concluded the fourth pupil.