Spontaneous writing, in response to a letter from a Buddhist teacher friend, 4am, 20 March 2016.
—
Dearest friend,
Drop all that you know. Including the knower. The one who knows is unreal.
What remains?
Three gathas for you:
1.
nothing obscured
moon behind the clouds
you are the sky
2.
the sun wanted to know what darkness is.
she could never find it.
3.
nothing ever began.
what could ever end?
(what foolishness seeks an end?)
There is no false or real self. There is only the Self, Buddha.
A Buddha is one who has dropped all games of comparison, all ideas of ceasing, all ideas of becoming.
Already perfect, the Buddha Self seeks nothing, believes nothing.
Only Buddha mind remains, when we point our attention to the source.
No attainment, no attainer.
Let this mind chatter away, it will barely cease, it is yours, it is not you.
No point trying to polish a tile to make a mirror. No mirror is needed, no dust can settle or obscure that which we Truly are. Where could it land?
Pure, formless, nameless, this One is pure, reflects back at us, wherever we go.
No practice will help. No discovery will be made. This is the end of all practice, all discovery, all searching. This is the resting place of the one who has searched for countless lifetimes.
How many times must we meet like this? How many thousands of lives caught in this search, this belief, wearing a mask of disbelief?
It doesn't matter.
You are before all this began, after all this ends. Eternal.
Don't take my word or anyone's word for it. Not even the greatest sage can give you anything.
The final seeing must be your own. Self recognising itself.
Can the seer be seen?
Look, without belief in a single arising thought. Look for where this one searching for Truth arises. The Source of all arising. Look, and say nothing.
Simply turn your Awareness eye of attention in on itself. Look where no eye can see, no ear can hear.
Rebirths, sutras, prayers, pujas, purifications, meditations and other practices were the road here. But they cannot serve this seeing.
Once your True Nature is seen, they can continue, or discontinue. It doesn't matter. If they are needed, they will remain. If not, they will leave. Enjoyment of such things can still happen.
If there is a trace of attachment to these things, turn your Dharma eye and look to see who is attached.
Because attachment isn't the problem. The one who is attached is.
This is the same one, the impostor. This one believes, imagines, dreams.
In a heartbeat, you can be free of this one. This one who seeks Freedom and Truth will never find it.
Because Freedom is the absence of this one.
Life. What a play!
What teacher can teach even a single thing?
I surrendered the one so desperate to help and teach, in order to be able to help and teach. Because, like you, I had a virtuous mind. A Bodhisattva wish.
For the one who is free, if they are destined to be a Bodhisattva, the Bodhisattva vow arises naturally, effortlessly.
There is no teacher, no disciple, no teaching.
No True word has ever been spoken. Or heard.
Only Silence can truly hear Silence.