Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Bodhidharma's Wake-Up Sermon


We only get to chant this once a year, at Bodhidharma's birthday ceremony, but it is a stirring piece of work.
Since I don't have much time to compose anything today, here is the last paragraph:
Whoever knows that the mind is a fiction and devoid of anything real knows that his own mind neither exists nor doesn’t exist. Mortals keep creating the mind, claiming it exists. And arhats keep negating the mind, claiming it doesn’t exist. But bodhisattvas and buddhas neither create nor negate the mind. This is what’s meant by the mind that neither exists nor doesn’t exist. The mind that neither exists nor doesn’t exist is called the Middle Way.

2 comments:

Joy said...

Hey Shundo, Hows it goin? I love this text. What is it? Wheres it from? Can you send me the whole thing? Thanks for the posts! Hope alls well there.
Joy

Shundo said...

I will do my best to remember this today...