Develop a mind that functions freely depending on nothing whatsoever….

The Moon Calling 

The Practice of True Reality

1. The practice of true reality is…to sit serenely in silent study of the self (all the afflictions, desires, attachments, tendencies and obscurations of the ego).
2. When you have fathomed, plumbed and probed this practice, you cannot be turned around by external causes and conditions.
3. This empty, wide-open mind (Self) is subtly and correctly illuminating. (Beyond mind, beyond mentall formations)
4. Spacious and content, without confusion from inner thoughts of grasping, effectively overcome habitual behavior and realize the self that is not possessed by emotions.
5. You must be broad-minded, whole without relying on others.
6. Such upright independent spirit can begin not to pursue degrading situations. (Requires conviction, determination, discrimination etc.)
7. Here you can rest and become clean, pure, and lucid. (Abiding in the clear, circle of brightness)
8. Bright and penetrating, you can immediately return, accord, and respond to deal with events. Resonse vs reaction)
9. Everything is unhindered, clouds gracefully floating up to the peaks, the moonlight glitteringly flowing down mountain streams.
10. The entire place is brightly illumined and spiritually transformed, totally unobstructed and clearly manifesting responsive interaction like box and lid or arrowpoints [meeting)?
11. Continuing, cultivate and nourish yourself to enact maturity and achieve stability.
12. If you accord everywhere with thorough clarity and cut off sharp corners without dependence on doctrines, like the white bull or wildcat [helping to arouse wonder], you can be called a complete person.
13. So, we hear that this is how one on the way of non-mind acts, but before realizing non-mind we still have great hardship.

Cultivating the Empty Field; Leighton, Taigen D.

Author: Fashi Lao Yue

A Single Thread is not a blog.

 If for some reason you need elucidation on the teaching,

please contact editor at: yao.xiang.editor@gmail.com

Once there was a kingdom that was ruled by a man who thought he was a great philosopher. He had studied all the great minds and he had come to the conclusion that religion was nonsense…unacceptable nonsense. There was, he said, no such thing as heaven or hell.

This king held so tight to it that he made it his doctrine: the law of the land. From that day on, he decreed that it was against the law to speak of heaven and hell. It was a crime punishable by death. No one could ever speak of these things again in his kingdom.

One day it happened that a holy man traveled to the domain of the king. He stood on a street corner and preached about heaven and hell. Someone shouted to him, “Friend! Keep calm! If the palace guard hears you talking like that, you will be dragged to court and punished!”But the holy man just smiled and kept talking about heaven and hell.

And as soon as the guards heard about it, the holy man was dragged before the king. “How dare you preach about heaven and hell, a subject I have banned?” the king asked the holy man, “Do you think I am discussing philosophy with a jester like you?” the holy man replied. No one has ever dared to speak to the king in such a way. Immediately the king arose, shouting to his guards, “Seize him! And kill him!”

The holy man raised his hand and said, “Sire! Please! Listen to me for a moment. You are furious. Your mind burns with hate. Your face is red and the blood traces the race of anger. Your heart burns with fury… with the fury to kill. Right now you are in hell!”

The king stopped and remained motionless, struck by what the holy man had said. And yes, it was true…he was furious…his face was red and his blood raced…and his mind and heart were furious…burning with hate.

And suddenly he put his hands on his face and was sitting on his throne again. He realized that hell was not a place where the body burns, but where the spirit is burned. And then, with tears in his eyes, he looked at the holy man and said, “To think that you risked your life to teach me this great truth…. Oh, Master. Can you forgive me? And the holy man said, “And, Sire, there is also a paradise… and now you are there.”