ZEN



TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u ZEN PAGEREF _Toc380046418 \h 2I. Scripture & Practice PAGEREF _Toc380046419 \h 2II. Knowledge & Learning PAGEREF _Toc380046420 \h 15III. Zen as Everyday Life PAGEREF _Toc380046421 \h 24THE DESERT FATHERS PAGEREF _Toc380046422 \h 35I. Sayings of the Early Christian Monks PAGEREF _Toc380046423 \h 35II. The Alphabetical Collection PAGEREF _Toc380046424 \h 47III. The Lives of the Desert Fathers PAGEREF _Toc380046425 \h 57IV. Palladius – The Lausiac History PAGEREF _Toc380046426 \h 59Ramakrishna PAGEREF _Toc380046427 \h 62Ritual, Faith, Practice & Experience PAGEREF _Toc380046428 \h 62Other Religions PAGEREF _Toc380046429 \h 71Effort PAGEREF _Toc380046430 \h 78The Varieties of Worldly Life PAGEREF _Toc380046431 \h 79The Limitations of Knowledge and Reason PAGEREF _Toc380046432 \h 85Beyond Knowledge and Reason PAGEREF _Toc380046433 \h 91Sources PAGEREF _Toc380046434 \h 94ZENI. Scripture & PracticeMazu: If you understand mind and objects, then false conceptions do not arise; when false conceptions do not arise, this is acceptance of the beginninglessness of things. You have always had it, and you have it now—there is no need to cultivate the Way and sit in meditation. (I, 134)Foyan: Search back into your own vision—think back to the mind that thinks. Who is it? (I, 171)Foyan: You must know how to check yourself before you can attain Zen. It is because of confused minds that people strive on the Way; they go to mountains and forests to see teachers, on the false assumption that there is a particular path that can given people peace or comfort. (I, 179)Dahui: “Don’t draw another’s bow, don’t ride another’s horse, don’t mind another’s business.”Although this is a common saying, it can also help you penetrate Zen.Just examine yourself constantly—from morning to night, what have you done that is beneficial to others and to yourself? If you notice any partiality, you should alert yourself and not overlook it. (I, 182)Dahui: If you think there are any verbal formulations that are special mysterious secrets to be transmitted, this is not real Zen.Real Zen has no transmission. It is just a matter of people experiencing it, resulting in their ability to see each other’s vision and communicate tacitly. (I, 183)Dahui: In Zen, there are no sectarian differences, but when students lack a broad, stable will, and teachers lack a broad, comprehensive teaching, then what they enter into differs. The ultimate point of Zen, however, has no such differences. (I, 187)Hongzhi: When Zen practice is completely developed, there is no center, no extremes; there are no edges or corners. It is perfectly round and frictionless. (I, 189)Hongzhi: The time when you “see the sun in daytime and see the moon at night,” when you are not deceived, is the normal behavior of a Zen practitioner, naturally without edges or seams. If you want to attain this kind of normalcy, you have to put an end to the subtle pounding and weaving that goes on in your mind. (I, 191)Ying-an: If people want to learn Zen, let them learn the Zen of a lone lamp shining in a death ward. (I, 195)Ying-an: If you have a single thought of eagerness to attain Zen mastery, this burns out your potential, so you cannot grow anymore. (I, 197)Ying-an: Another classical master said, “I don’t like to hear the word ‘Buddha.’” (I, 198)Yuansou: Those who meditate in silent stillness regard silent stillness as final, but it is not something to finalize in stillness. Those who assert mastery in the midst of busyness are satisfied with busyness, but it is not something to be satisfied with in the midst of busyness. Those who learn from the scriptures consider the scriptures basic, but it is not learned from the scriptures. Those who work with teachers and colleagues regard this as a profound source, but it is not attained from working with teachers and colleagues.It is a formless, indestructible being that has always been like a fish hidden in a spring, that drums up waves and dances by itself. When you look for it in the east, it goes west; when you look for it in the south, it goes north. It can give names to everyone, but no one can give it a name. In all places and all times it is the master of myriad forms, the teacher of myriad phenomena. (I, 205)Yuansou: There is no real doctrine at all for you to chew on or squat over. If you will not believe in yourself, you pick up your baggage and go around to other people’s houses, looking for Zen, looking for Tao, looking for mysteries, looking for marvels, looking for buddhas, looking for Zen masters, looking for teachers.You think this is searching for the ultimate, and you make it into your religion, but this is like running blindly to the east to get something that is in the west. The more you run, the further away you are, and the more you hurry the later you become. You just tire yourself, to what benefit in the end? (I, 206-7) Wuzu: The ancients were glad to hear of their own errors, delighted in doing good, were great in magnanimity, generous in concealing others’ wrongs, humble in association with companions, and diligent in helping and saving the people. They did not defile their minds, therefore their light was great, shining through present and past. (I, 26)Baiyun said to the layman Yang Wuwei:What can be said but not practiced is better not said. What can be practiced but not spoken of it better not done.When you utter words, you should always consider their end. When you establish a practice, you must always consider what it covers.In this, ancient sages were careful about their words and chose their acts.When they spoke they did not just demonstrate the principle of Chan, they used it to open the minds of students who were not yet enlightened. When they established their practices, they did not just take care of themselves, they used them to educate students who were undeveloped.Therefore, when they spoke their words had standards, and when they acted it was with proper manners. So ultimately they were able to speak without trouble and act without disgrace. Their words thus became scriptures, their acts became standards. So it is said, “Speech and action are the pivot of ideal people, the basis of governing one’s person.” They can move heaven and earth, touch even ghosts and spirits, so they should be respected. (I, 28-9)Huanglong said to the great statesmen Wang Anshi:Whatever you set your mind to do, you always should make the road before you wide open, so that all people may traverse it. This is the concern of a great man.If the way is narrow and perilous, so that others cannot go on it, then you yourself will not have any place to set foot either. (I, 35)Zhenjing: The rule for Chan practitioners is that their lifestyle should not be luxurious and filling, for if it is there will be excess. Pleasing things should not be striven for much, because much striving ends in failure. When you try to succeed in something, something will surely be ruined.I saw my late teacher Huanglong deal with the world for forty years, and in his speech and silence, action and inaction, he never tried to captivate students with expressions, manners, or literary skills. Only those who certainly had insight and were truly acting on reality, he would carefully develop in every way. (I, 40)A scripture says, “Do not fear the arising of thoughts, just beware of being slow to become aware of it.” How fitting this is—for who since the sages has ever been free from error? (I, 48)Yuanwu: Who has no faults? To err and yet be able to correct it is best of all. Since time immemorial, all have lauded the ability to correct faults as being wise, rather than considering having no faults to be beautiful. Thus human actions have many faults and errors—this is something that neither the wise nor the foolish can avoid—yet it is only the wise who can correct their faults and change to good, whereas the foolish mostly conceal their faults and cover up their wrongs. (I, 54)I hope you will forget about the outer expression of the words. (I, 54)The small is a step of the great, the subtle is the sprout of the obvious. This is why the wise are careful of the beginning, sages are mindful of warnings. Even dripping water, if it does not stop, can ultimately turn a mulberry orchard into a lake. A flame, if not removed, will ultimately burn a meadow.When the water is streaming and the fire is raging, the disaster is already happening—even if you want to help, there is no way. Of old it has been said, “If you are not careful about minor actions, ultimately they will encumber great virtue.” This is what is meant here. (I, 56)Foijan said to Assembly Leader Ping:Anyone called a chief elder should not crave anything at all, for as soon as one craves anything one is plundered by outside objects. When you indulge in likes and desires, then an avaricious mind arises. When you like getting offerings, then thoughts of striving and contention arise. If you like obedient followers, then petty flatterers will join you. If you like to score victories, then there is a gigantic rift between yourself and others. If you like to exploit people, then voices of resentment will be heard.When you get to the bottom of all this, it is not apart from one mind. If the mind is not aroused, myriad things spontaneously disappear. Nothing I have ever realized in my life goes beyond this. You should be diligent and set an example for future students. (I, 58)It seems that when the task is difficult the will is sharp; hardship makes the thoughts deep. Eventually one can turn calamity into fortune, turn things into the Way. (I, 60)It has gotten to the point where there is nowhere that the ugliness of opportunism does not exist. How can we ever have the flourishing of ways to truth and the full vigor of spiritual teaching that we look for? (I, 65)Gaoan: My late teacher once said, “When I set out on my pilgrimage, at many of the small temples I came to there were things that were not as I thought they should be. Then when I recalled that some of the greatest of the ancient masters met their teachers unexpectedly in the informal environment of a local temple, I no longer felt vexed.” (I, 69)Xuetang: An iron dyke a thousand miles long leaks through anthills. The beauty of white jade is lost in a flaw. The supremely subtle Way is beyond iron dykes and white jade, yet greed and resentment are greater than anthills and flaws.The essence of the matter lies in the will being true and sober, the practice being progressively refined, the perseverance being firm and sure, the cultivation being completely purified. After that it is possible to benefit oneself and benefit others. (I, 71)Xuetang: When I was the leader of the community at Longmen, Iron Face Bing was leader of the community at Taiping. Someone told me that when Bing was first going on study travels, before he had been gone from his native place for long he suddenly took the notes of what he had heard from the teacher who had instructed him and burned them all to ashes one night. During that time, whenever he received a letter, he would throw it to the ground and say it was just uselessly disturbing people’s minds. (I, 71)Sixin said to the lay student Chen Rongzhong:If you want to seek the Great Way, first rectify the mind. If you have any anger you will not be able to rectify the mind, and if you have any craving you will not be able to rectify the mind.However, who but saints and sages are able to be free from like and dislike, joy and anger? You just should not put these in the forefront, lest they harm rectitude—that is considered attainment. (I, 77)Caotang Qing: The fire that burns a meadow starts from a little flame, the river that erodes a mountain starts drop by drop. A little bit of water can be blocked by a load of earth, but when there is a lot of water it can uproot trees, dislodge boulders, and wash away hills. A little bit of fire can be extinguished by a cup of water, but when there is a lot of fire it burns cities, towns, and mountain forests.Is it ever different with the water of affection and attachment and the fire of malice and resentment? (I, 79)People of wisdom and understanding know that trouble cannot be escaped, so they are careful in the beginning to guard themselves against it.So when human life has some worry and toil, it may turn into happiness for a whole lifetime. After all, calamity and trouble, slander and disgrace, could not be avoided even by the ancient sage-kings, much less by others. (I, 92)The sages are ever more distant, while those convinced of their own school of thought are ever more ubiquitous, causing the teaching of the sages of yore to go into submergence day by day. As Confucius lamented, “I would like to say nothing, but can I?” (I, 92)In the beginning of the Shaoxing era (1131-1163), Yanwu’s enlightened successor Miaoxi went into eastern China and saw that the Chan students there were recalcitrant, pursuit the study of this book to such an extent that their involvement became an evil. So he broke up the woodblocks of The Blue Cliff Record and analyzed its explanations, thus to get rid of illusions and rescue those who were floundering, stripping away excess and setting aside exaggeration, demolishing the false and revealing the true, dealing with the text in a special way. Students gradually began to realize their error, and did not idolize anymore. (I, 108 )Mian: The rise and decline of Chan communities is in their conduct and principles; the refinement or badness of students is in their customs and habits. Even if the ancients lived in nests and caves, drinking from streams and eating from the trees, to practice this in the present would not be suitable. Even if people of the present dress and eat richly, to practice this in ancient times would not have been suitable. Is it anything else but a matter of habituation? (I, 113-4)Mian: In leadership there are three don’ts: when there is much to do, don’t be afraid; where there is nothing to do, don’t be hasty; and don’t talk about opinions of right and wrong. A leader who succeeds in these three things won’t be confused or deluded by external objects. (I, 114-5)Ta-mei: You should each individually clarify your own mind, getting to the root without pursuing the branches. Just get the root, and the branches come of themselves. (II, 14)Pai-chang: Because disease is unreal, there is only unreal medicine to cure it. (II, 14)A buddha is one who does not seek. In seeking this, you turn away from it. The principle is the principle of nonseeking; when you see it, you lose it.If you cling to nonseeking, this is the same as seeking. If you cling to nonstriving, this is the same as striving. (II, 15)Don’t seek a buddha, don’t seek a teaching, don’t see a community. Don’t seek virtue, knowledge, intellectual understanding, and so on. When feelings of defilement and purity are ended, still don’t hold to this nonseeking and consider it right. Don’t dwell at the point of ending, and don’t long for heavens or fear hells. When you are unhindered by bondage or freedom, then this is called liberation of mind and body in all places. (II, 15)Te-shan: If there were any object, any doctrine, that could be given to you to hold on to or understand, it would reduce you to bewilderment and externalism. It’s just a spiritual openness, with nothing that can be grasped; it is pure everywhere, its light clearly penetrating, outwardly and inwardly luminous through and through. (II, 18)T’ou-tzu: You come here looking for sayings and talks, novel expressions and elegant lines, uselessly taking to verbalization. I am old and my energy is not up to par; I’m a dull speaker and have no idle talk for you. If you ask me questions, I answer in accord with your questions, but I have no mysterious marvel that can be conveyed to you, and I won’t have you get fixated.I never assert the existence of Buddha and Dharma, of ordinary person and sage, either in the beyond or the here and now; and I have no intention of sitting here tying you people down. You go through a thousand changes, but all of it is you people conceiving interpretations, carrying them with you, experiencing the results of your own doings. I have nothing here for you, and nothing exoteric or esoteric to explain to you, no appearance and intention to represent to you. (II, 21)Ku-shan: Those who accept words perish; those who linger over sayings get lost. When you have caught the fish, you forget the trap; when you have gotten the meaning, you forget the words. We use a net to catch fish; the fish are not the net. (II, 24)Chen-ching: I have no Buddhism to give anyone. I just have a sword—whoever comes, I cut down, so their lives cannot go on and their seeing and hearing disappear: then I meet them before their parents gave birth to them. If I see them go forward, I cut them off. (II, 32)Chen-ching: There is no Zen to study, no Tao to learn. Abandoning the fundamental to pursue trivia, busily working on externals, is not as good as coming back to get to know your own citadel. (II, 33)Fu-an: If we are to discuss this matter, the simple fact is that there is nothing whatsoever to point out to people. If there were anything at all to indicate to people, Buddhism would not have reached the present day. For this reason the successions of buddhas extending a hand and the successions of Zen masters passing on transmission have done so for lack of practical choice; there has never been an actual doctrine. (II, 42)Ch’ih-chueh: When a master craftsman instructs people, he can give them compass and ruler but cannot give them skill. The function of Zen teachers is otherwise: first they take away your compass and ruler, then wait until you can cut squares and circles freehand, spontaneously conforming to compass and ruler; thus the skill is therein. Even so, this too is a temporary byroad, a little resting place. (II, 45)Wu-chun: Once the mind is clear, this very word clarity doesn’t stick anywhere anymore; it is like a snowflake on a red-hot fireplace. (II, 48)Wu-chun: The path cannot be sought—the important thing is just to stop the mind. However, this stopping is not to be forced. You need to search morning and night until you reach the point where the road of conception comes to an end, whereupon you’ll suddenly spontaneously stop. After this stopping, the racing and seeking mind stops.It is like a traveler stopping at an inn. In his desire to get where he’s going, he puts his effort into travelling, for if he doesn’t travel he won’t get there. Once he’s arrived, all the toils and pains of the road come to an end and he goes running off no more. (II, 48)Kao-feng: It is a pity that deluded people do not understand; they arbitrarily cling to doctrines and turn them into sicknesses, using sickness to attack sickness. They make it so they get further estranged from buddha nature the more they seek it. The more they hurry, the more they’re delayed. (II, 54)Hai-yin: Clearly, clearly, there is no enlightenment; if there is any dogma, it is delusion. (II, 57)Wu-chien: Every word uttered by sages of yore as expedient methods were medicines given in accordance with particular ailments—when was there ever any actual dogma to bind people?If you are confused, there are a thousand differentiations, ten thousand distinctions. If you are enlightened, everything is the same one family. (II, 58)Yuan-hsien: So if these are not the true mind, what is the true mind? Try to see what your mind is, twenty-four hours a day. Don’t try to figure it out, don’t try to interpret it intellectually, don’t try to get someone to explain it to you, don’t seek some other technique, don’t calculate how long it may take, don’t calculate the degree of your own strength—just silently pursue this inner investigation on your own: “Ultimately what is my own mind?” (II, 75)Pao-chih: Seekers who disdain clamor to seek quietude are as it were throwing away flour but seeking cake. (II, 94)Chao-chou: Since it is not gotten from outside, what is there to get wrapped up in or hung up on any more? Why go on being like goats, picking up things at random and putting them in your mouth? (II, 99)Chien-ju: Do not just memorize sayings, recite words, and discuss Zen and the way based on books. The Zen way is not in books. (II, 122)Ta-tu: Since it depends on one’s own self, how hard could it be? Attaining Buddhahood shouldn’t take even a finger snap. (II, 125)Wei-tse: The Pure Land is only mind; there is no land outside of mind. In this land that is only mind, there is no east in the east, no west in the west—all directions are contained in it. (II, 144)Wu-chien: Of old it has been said, “There are basically no words for the way, but we use words to illustrate the way.” It is also said, “If speech does not avoid cliché, how can it get you out of bondage?” (II, 144)Pao-chih: If you do not understand that mind itself is Buddha, you are as if riding a donkey in search of a donkey. (II, 145)Pao-chih: It is laughable how slovenly people are, each holding onto a different view. They just want to stand by the pan, expecting a pancake; they do not know how to go back to the root and see the flour. The flour is the root of right and wrong; it changes in a hundred ways, depending on how people prepare it.What is needed is to free the intellect in all ways, not to become partial or obsessed. Freedom from attachment is itself liberation; if you seek anything, you will again meet a snare. With a loving heart, be evenhanded to all, and the enlightenment of reality as such will spontaneously appear; if you keep a dualistic consciousness of others and self, you will not see the face of Buddha right in front of you. (II, 145-6)Dogen: If you think you can become enlightened just by worshipping images and relics, this is a mistaken view. This is actually possession by the poisonous serpent of temptation. (II, 148)Dogen: If you insist upon disciplinary regulations and vegetarianism as fundamental, make them established practices, and think you can attain enlightenment that way, you are wrong. (II, 148) Tung-shan: How could it be permissible to form a cult, gather followers and cronies, dash off writings, and toil in pursuit of objects for love of honor and advantage? (II, 152)Shoitsu: After having killed all, you see that the mountains are mountains, rivers are rivers. (II, 154)Shoitsu: Let go over a mile-high precipice, and appear with your whole body throughout the universe. (II, 154)Torei: When you’re busy and easily distracted, question what it is that gets distracted. (II, 155)Flowing water doesn’t go stale. (II, 156)The hungry will eat anything; the thirsty will drink anything. (II, 156)Just do good; don’t ask about the road ahead. (II, 156)It seems that this clergyman had heard of the wealthy man’s selfless benevolence, unusual among the rich of his time, and had come to ask him for money to build a temple gate.The philanthropist laughed in the friar’s face and said, “I help people because I cannot bear to see them suffer. What’s so bad about a temple without a gate?” (III, 637)Zen master Taigu lived for a time deep in the mountains in the provincial countryside north of Kyoto. He wrote a pair of verses commemorating this abode:No more troubles,No contests in judgment:in autumn I sweepThe leaves by the stream,In spring I hearthe birds in the trees. Spring comes to the human worldwith vast and great kindness;Every flower blossom holds forth a Buddha.Unawares, remaining snowhas melted all away—Myriad forms unfurl their browsin concert, all as one. (III, 646-7)Sonome was a well-known poetess and a profound student of Buddhism. She once wrote to Zen master Unkō: “To seek neither reality nor falsehood is the root source of the Great Way. Everyone knows this, so even though I may seem immodest for saying so, I do not think this is anything special. As goings-on in the source of one mind, the willows are green, the flowers are red. Just being as is, I pass the time reciting verse and composing poetry. If this is useless chatter, then the scriptures are also useless chatter. I dislike anything that stinks of religion, and my daily practice is invocation, poetry, and song. If I go to paradise, that’s fine; if I fall into hell, that’s auspicious.” (III, 648)Gettan used to say to his companions, “When you have a talking mouth, you have no listening ears. When you have listening ears, you have no talking mouth. Think about this carefully.” (III, 679)As Kokan was nearing death, his foremost disciple asked him for a final verse. He hollered, “My final verse fills the universe! Why bother with pen and paper!” (III, 695)Though I’ve nothing to askfor the self I’ve abandoned,let me pray to the spiritsfor the path of the heart. (III, 705)Looking in through the gaps in the blind, Hakuin saw Hakuyūshi sitting there with his eyes closed. He had dark hair reaching to his knees and a healthy ruddy complexion. On a desk were three books: a Confucian classic, a Taoist text, and a Buddhist scripture. There were no utensils or bedding anywhere in sight. The whole atmosphere was one of purity and transcendence, beyond the human realm. (III, 706)Just because disciplined behavior and vegetarian diet is to be maintained, yet if you therefore insist upon these as fundamental, establishing them as practice, and think that you can thereby attain the Way, this is also wrong. It is just that this is the conduct of the patchrobed monks, the tradition of the sons of Buddha; and therefore we follow and practice it. Do not take this to be fundamental just because it is a good thing. (III, 722)Even worldly people, rather than study many things at once without really becoming accomplished in any of them, should just do one thing well and study enough to be able to do it even in the presence of others…. Even concentrating solely on one thing, those whose faculties and capacity are dull by nature will have difficulty in thoroughly mastering it. Strive, students, to concentrate on one thing only. (III, 731-2)Even in a grass hut or under a tree, pondering even a single phrase of the Teaching, practicing a single period of sitting meditation, this is indeed the true flourishing of Buddhism. (III, 755)Returning to it again and again, without forgetting this principle in the mind, just thinking for this day, this time only, without losing a moment, you should put your mind into the study of the Way. After that it is really and truly easy. As for natural superiority or inferiority, or the sharpness or dullness of faculties, they are not to be discussed at all.” (III, 763)When I speak of Buddha, you think that it must have auspicious features and a radiant halo; when I explain the Buddha is tiles and pebbles, it startles your ears. (III, 796)Only when one has cast body and mind into the Buddhist Teaching and practices it with no further hope of anything—even that he awaken to the Path and grasp the truth—such is called an Undefiled Wayfarer. This is the meaning of the saying, “Do not stay where there is Buddha; run quickly by where there is no Buddha.” (III, 826)Students of the Way, whenever you are about to speak, you should reflect thrice as to whether it would be of benefit for self and others; if it would be beneficial, then say it. Words with no benefit should be left unsaid. Even something like this is difficult to attain all at once. Keeping it mind, you should practice it gradually. (III, 837)The essential point in studying the Way is just to cast off your original attachments. If you first reform the comportment of your body, the mind also will reform along with it. If first you maintain the prescribed dignity and disciplined behavior, your mind too should accordingly reform. (III, 839)Students of the Way, do not think of waiting for a later day to practice the Way. Without letting this day and this moment pass by, just work hard from day to day, moment to moment. (III, 840)People practicing the Way should not think they will practice the Way only after having prepared a dwelling place and gotten together their robes and bowls and such. While someone in the extreme of poverty is waiting to get together the robes, bowls, and implements which he lacks, what about the gradual approach of death? Therefore, if you wait for a place to stay and wish to practice the Way after having gotten together robes and bowl, you would pass your whole life in vain. Though you may not have robes and bowl, just think that even in the household life, the Buddha-Way may be carried out and so you should practice it. (III, 841)We die from moment to moment, ultimately not abiding even for a while. As long as you are alive for the time being, do not pass the time in vain. (III, 842)Thomas Cleary: The underlying idea here is that ordinarily people readily fear harm from others without giving equal consideration to how much they harm themselves…. Similarly, the underlying idea here is that ordinarily people readily depend on others for their well-being without giving equal consideration to what they need to do, or should be doing, for themselves. Compassion for others is useless if you cannot first master your own life…. This chapter outlines the consciousness of the responsible individual, one who is fully aware of the consequences of action and thus is intelligently self-controlled. The need to master oneself before helping others, usually not expected or emphasized in altruistic teachings as ordinarily known or conceived, is introduced here. Unless the compassionate individual is already independent of personal needs by virtue of self-work, compassion degenerates into ineffective sentimentality. This may be seen on very level of human endeavor, from local interactions to international relations. (IV, 14, 38)Pang Yun asked a Zen master: “Who is the one that does not keep company with myriad things?” “I’ll tell you when you swallow the water of the West River in one gulp.” (IV, 45)Thomas Cleary: “Name and form mean ideas and objects in general. Clinging to ideas and objects as real or sacred in themselves, rather than as functional or dysfunctional in their place, is a form of idolatry.” (IV, 54)Thomas Cleary: “‘One should arrange oneself such that wisdom increases.’ (Dhammapada 20:10) This is one of the simplest yet most sophisticated exercises; how to arrange the items of one’s life, including one’s thoughts and feelings, conversations and activities, such that they yield the maximum insight and understanding of life itself and the minimum unnecessary distraction and vexation. Among the problems people seem to experience in the process of self-renewal is to imagine they need to remove or replace what they only need rearrange, and imagine they need only rearrange what they need to remove or replace.” (IV, 63)Thomas Cleary: “To pass beyond virtue does not mean to be inactive, but to pass beyond the state of expecting and demanding to be rewarded for virtue. This passing beyond is one of the entrances, or transition points, into the Greater Journey. The Taoist Huiana Masters say, “Making a big deal out of doing good is like making a big deal out of doing wrong, insofar as it is not near the Way.” (IV, 90)Pai-chang: You should study in this way as attentively as you would save your head from burning. Only then will you be capable of finding a road already prepared to go upon when you come to the end of your life. (V, 44-5)Someone asked T’ou-tzu, “How is it when there is no mistake moment to moment?”T’ou-tzu said, “Bragging.” (V, 147)Dogen: One need not necessarily depend on the words of the ancients, but must only think of what is really true. (V, 233)Dogen: If you want to travel the Way of Buddhas and Zen masters, then expect nothing, seek nothing, and grasp nothing. (V, 233)II. Knowledge & LearningYing-an: Zen has nothing to grab on to. When people who study Zen don’t see it, it’s because they approach too eagerly. (I, 128)Yuanwu: Set aside all the slogans you have learned and all the intellectual views that stick to your flesh. (I, 129)Linji: Professional Buddhist clergy who cannot tell obsession from enlightenment have just left one social group and entered another social group. They cannot really be said to be independent.Now there is an obsession with Buddhism that is mixed in with the real thing. Those with clear eyes cut through both obsession and Buddhism. If you love the sacred and despise the ordinary, you are still bobbing in the ocean of delusion. (I, 138)Linji: Because you grasp labels and slogans, you are hindered by those labels and slogans, both those used in ordinary life and those considered sacred. Thus they obstruct your perception of objective truth, and you cannot understand clearly. (I, 138)Linji: If you want to perceive and understand objectively, just don’t allow yourself to be confused by people. Detach from whatever you find inside or outside yourself—detach from religion, tradition, and society, and only then will you attain liberation. When you are not entangled in things, you pass through freely to autonomy. (I, 139-40)Fayan: Zen is not founded or sustained on the premise that there is a doctrine to be transmitted. It is just a matter of direct guidance to the human mind, perception of its essence, and achievement of awakening. How could there be any sectarian styles to be valued?There were differences in the modes of teaching set up by later Zen teachers, and there were both tradition and change. The methods employed by a number of famous Zen masters came to be continued as traditions, to the point where their descendants became sectarians and did not get to the original reality. Eventually they made many digressions, contradicting and attacking each other. They do not distinguish the profound from the superficial, and do not know that the Great Way has no sides and the streams of truth have the same flavor. (I, 144)Huanglong: As for the pure knowledge that has no teacher, how can it be attained by thought or study? (I, 150)Huanglong: Zen cannot be discussed by means of the knowledge or intelligence of the merely learned. (I, 150)Huanglong: The Way does not need cultivation—just don’t defile it. Zen does not need study—the important thing is stopping the mind.When the mind is stopped, there is no rumination. Because it is not cultivated, you walk on the Way with every step.When there is no rumination, there is no world to transcend. Because it is not cultivated, there is no Way to seek. (I, 150)Huanglong: Can anyone discern? If you can, you will recognize the disease of “Buddhism” and the disease of “Zen.” (I, 151)Yuanwu: Many worldly intellectuals just study Zen for something to talk about, something that will enhance their reputation. The consider this a lofty interest, and try to use it to assert superiority over others. This just increases egotism. (I, 157)Yuanwu: How could anyone show off and claim to have attained Zen? (I, 160)Yuanwu: Cut through resolutely, and then your state will be peaceful. When you cannot be included in any stage, whether of sages or of ordinary people, then you are like a bird freed from its cage. (I, 162)Yuanwu: Although the great Zen teachers did not establish clichés and slogans, eventually seekers misapprehended this and turned this itself into a cliché and a slogan—they made a cliché of no cliché, and a slogan of no slogan. They should not cling to the means as an end. (I, 166)Yuanwu: If you have the idea of superiority and are proud of your ability, this is a disaster. (I, 167)Yuanwu: To study Zen conceptually is like drilling in ice for fire, like digging a hole to look for the sky. It just increases mental fatigue. To study Zen by training is adding mud to dirt, scattering sand in the eyes, impeding you more and more. (I, 167)Yuanwu: As soon as you try to chase and grab Zen, you’ve already stumbled past it. (I, 168)Yuanwu: Set aside all the slogans you have learned and all the intellectual views that stick to your skin and cling to your flesh. Make your mind empty, not manifesting any thoughts on your own, not doing anything at all. (I, 168)Foyan: As soon as you rationalize, it is hard to understand Zen. You will have to stop rationalizing before you will get it.Some people hear this kind of talk and say there is nothing to say and no reason—they do not realize they are already rationalizing when they do this. (I, 171)Dahui: In ancient times, Zen teaching was sometimes abstract, sometimes concrete, sometimes based on a particular time, sometimes transcendental. There was no fixed standard at all. (I, 183)Hongzhi: The mind originally is detached from objects, reality basically has no explanation. This is why a classical Zen master said, “Our school has no slogans, and no doctrine to give people.” Hongzhi: Fundamentally it is a matter of people arriving on their own and finding out for themselves; only then can they talk about it. (I, 188)Ying-an: A classical Zen master said, “Zen has no sayings, nothing at all to give people.” (I, 198)Ying-an: [A]s the saying goes, “Although gold dust is precious, when it gets in your eye is obstructs vision.” Although buddhahood is wonderful, if you are obsessed with it it becomes a sickness. (I, 202)Yuansou: If you rely on the differences in teachers and see the differences in persons, you are misled by blind teachers into reifying Buddha, Dharma, Zen, Tao, mysteries, marvels, functions, and states. One way and another this glues your tongue down, nails your eyes shut, and constricts your heart. (I, 205)Huitang said, “Acknowledged accomplishment and excellent capacity are begrudged by Creation, and not given fully to humankind. What people strongly want, Heaven will surely take away.” (I, 30)Foyan said to Gaoan:One who can see the tip of a down hair cannot see his own eyebrow, one who can lift thirty thousand pounds cannot life his own body. This is like the student who is bright when it comes to criticizing others but ignorant when it comes to self-knowledge. (I, 63)Shuian: In the old days when I was traveling in search of the Way, I saw Gaoan at an evening assembly. He said, “The ultimate Way is a direct shortcut not akin to human sentiments. Essentially you must make your heart sincere and your mind true. Do not be a servant of ostentation or partiality. Ostentation is near to deception, and when you are partial you are imbalanced—neither of these is meet for the ultimate Way.” (I, 101)Jiantang: It is the ordinary condition of human beings that few are able to be free from delusion. Usually they are enshrouded by their beliefs, obstructed by their doubts, slighted by their contempt, drowned by their likes. (I, 123)Bankei: As soon as a single thought gets fixated on something, you become ordinary mortals. All delusion is like this. You pick up on something confronting you, turn the buddha mind into a monster because of your own self-importance, and go astray on account of your own ego.Whatever it is confronting you, let it be. As long as you do not pick up on it and react with bias, just remaining in the buddha mind and not transforming it into something else, then delusion cannot occur. This is constant abiding in the unconceived buddha mind. (II, 5)Bankei: As I listen to the people who come to me, all of them make the mistake of turning the buddha mind into thoughts, unable to stop, piling thoughts upon thoughts, resulting in the development of ingrained mental habits, which they then believe are inborn and unalterable. (II, 5)Ku-shan: Concepts act as robbers, consciousness becomes waves. (II, 23)Fa-yen: What is disturbing you and making you uneasy is that there are things outside and mind inside. Therefore even when the ordinary and the holy are one reality, there still remains a barrier of view. So it is said that as long as views remain you are ordinary; when feelings are forgotten you’re a buddha. I advise you, don’t seek reality, just stop views. (II, 24)Chih-men: If you want to seek too much, it may hinder the way. For your part, can you say your work is done? If not, then a thousand kinds of clever talk do not enhance your mind; what is the reason for ten thousand kinds of thought? (II, 25)Ch’eng-ku: Even if you immediately have a great insight and a great awakening, and can talk like clouds and rain, all you have gained is a slippery tongue—you are further and further from the way. That’s what is called being a whore for appearances. (II, 28)Ch’eng-ku: It is essential for you to cease and desist from your previously held knowledge, opinions, interpretations, and understandings. It is not accomplished by stopping the mind; temporary relinquishment is not the way—it fools you into wasting body and mind, without accomplishing anything at all in the end.I suggest to you that nothing compares to ceasing and desisting. There is nowhere for you to apply your mind. Just be like an imbecile twenty-four hours a day. You have to be spontaneous and buoyant, your mind like space, yet without any measurement of space. You have to be beyond light and dark, no Buddhism, body, or mind, year in and year out. If anything is not forgotten, you’ve spent your life in vain. (II, 28)Ch’eng-ku: Our eyes were originally right, but when wrong because of teachers. (II, 29)Chen-ching: This cannot be learned, cannot be taught, cannot be transmitted; it can only be attained by individual realization. Once you’ve attained realization, you are content, unpreoccupied, thoroughly lucid, clear and at ease. All spiritual capacities and miracle working are inherent endowments and need not be sought elsewhere. (II, 31-2)Yun-feng: If you can stop right now, then stop; if you seek a time of completion, there is no time of completion. If you make up intellectual understanding of this matter based on words, or try to figure out conceptually, you are as far from it as the sky is from earth. (II, 34)I-ch’ing: Zen is not conceptual understanding; how can the way be sought by emotion? (II, 34)Yueh-lin: What is true speech? Ninety percent accuracy is not as good as silence. (II, 42)Wu-men: Once three scholars on the way to the civil service examination stopped to buy refreshments from a woman who sold pastries by the wayside. One man was calm and quiet, while the other two argued over literature. The woman asked where they were going. The latter two told her they were going to take the civil service examination. She said, “You two scholars won’t pass the exam; that other man will.” The two men swore at her and left.When the results of the examination turned out as the woman had predicted, the two scholars who had failed went back to find out how she had known they would not pass, while the third man would. They asked her if she knew physiognomy. “No,” she said, “all I know is that when a pastry is thoroughly cooked, it sits there quietly, but before it’s finished it keeps on making noise.” (II, 50-1)Hsueh-yen: If you want your mind to be clear, it is important to put opinions to rest. (II, 52)Shu-chung: The way is the path of fundamental purity: for immense aeons, and even up to the present day, it has no gain or loss, no new or old, no light or dark, no form or name. It is not more in the buddhas and not less in ordinary people. To insist on calling it the way is already defiling; to say something is accomplished by methods of learning the way is what I have called mistakes. It was for lack of choice that the ancient referred to people heading for transcendence as students of the way. The study is that there is nothing to study; the way is that there is nothing to be a way. Since there is nothing to study, there is no clinging; since there is nothing to be a way, there is no following. If one idly slips and says the word Buddha, one must simply wash out one’s mouth for three years—only thus can one be called a real student of the way. (II, 68)Pao-Chih: If you seek to gain by forming illusion and grasping awakening, how is that different from involvement in commerce? When movement and stillness are both forgotten, and you are ever serene, then you spontaneously merge with reality as it is. (II, 93)Pao-Chih: The nature of things is empty and has no verbal explanation; there is nothing at all in interdependent occurrence. The hundred-year-old without knowledge is a child; the child with knowledge is a hundred years old. (II, 96)Pao-Chih: How many ignorant people in the world try to seek the Way by means of the Way! Searching widely amongst a profusion of doctrines, they cannot even save themselves. Only pursuing the confused explanation of others’ writings, they claim to have arrived at the subtlety of noumeon. (II, 97)I-ch’ing: Remain silent, and you sink into a realm of shadows; speak, and you fall into a deep pit.Try, and you’re as far away as sky from earth; give up, and you’ll never attain.Enormous waves go on and on, foaming breakers flood the skies: who’s got the bright pearl that calms the oceans? (II, 108)Pai-chang: If you can attain now and forever the single moment of present awareness, and this one moment of awareness is not governed by anything at all, whether existent or nonexistent, then from the past and the present the Buddha is just human, and humans are just Buddhas.This is, furthermore, meditation concentration. Don’t use concentration to enter concentration, don’t use meditation to think of meditation, don’t use Buddha to search for Buddhahood. As it is said, “Reality does not seek reality, reality does not obtain reality, reality does not practice reality, reality does not see reality; it finds its way naturally.” It is not attained by attainment.That is why awakening people should thus be properly mindful, subsisting along in the midst of things, composed, yet without knowledge of the fact of subsisting alone.The nature of wisdom is such as it is of itself; it is not disposed by causes. It is also called the knot of essence, or the cluster of essence. It is not known by knowledge, not discerned by consciousness. It is entirely beyond mental calculation. Still and silent, essence totally realized, thought and judgment are forever ended. Just as if the flow of the ocean had stopped, waves do not rise again. (II, 103)Ying-an: Those of superior faculties and great wisdom get the point right off the bat—guidance doesn’t mean gumbeating and lip-flapping. Truly awakened people with clear eyes would just laugh.The great masters of India and China only met mind to mind—from the first there was never any “mind” to attain. But if you make a rationale of mindlessness, that is the same as having a certain mentality. (II, 110)P’u-an: Primordially there is just a single energy, temporally expressed by means of provisional terms. It contains all things, and pervades all times. Beyond all natures and characterizations. It is a solitary light, the source of completeness, spiritual knowledge. From the eon of the void right up to now it has never perished and never been born, never increased and never decreased. (II, 110)Huai-t’ang: Zen is not thought, the path has no achievement; yet if not thought it is not Zen, and without achievement it is not the path.At this point, where do you arrive?When you have cut through your conceptual faculty, how do you discriminate?When you do not fall into consciousness, how do you approach?As soon as you get into the clusters and elements, you’re already a lifetime away.What you must do is cover the whole universe, with no opinion about Buddha or doctrine, bringing it up in the midst of sharp edges, putting it to use in heated situations. (II, 115)Pai-chang: It is just because people themselves give rise to vain and arbitrary attachments that they create so many kinds of understanding, produce so many kinds of opinion, and give rise to many various likes and fears. (II, 116)Ta-sui: As soon as you get some sense of contact, you want to be teachers of others. This is a big mistake. (II, 126)Ying-an: To know by thinking is secondary; to know without thinking is tertiary. It is essential for the individual to directly bear responsibility and put down the two extremes of clarity and unclarity from your learning hitherto; when you reach the state of cleanness and nakedness, then you must go on over to the Beyond, where you kill Buddhas when you see Buddhas, kill Zen masters when you see Zen masters. (II, 129)Hui-chung: It is not that knowledge is deep—things are deeper than knowledge. (II, 148)Dogen: If the mentality that seeks honor and advantage does not cease, you will be ill at ease all your life. (152)Shoitsu: Zen is not a conception—if you set up an idea of it, you turn away from the source. (II, 154)Shoitsu: The Way is beyond cultivated effects; if you set up accomplishment, you lose the essence. (II, 154)You are too intellectual to study Zen. (III, 662)If you really want to practice Zen, then cast off everything you have studied and realized up until now and seek enlightenment single-mindedly. (III, 688)The master used to tell people, “There are three things I very much dislike: the poetry of poets, the writing of writers, and the cuisine of cooks.” (III, 691) Extensive study and broad learning is something that cannot succeed. You should firmly resolve to give it up altogether. Only in respect to one task should you learn the ancient standards of mental discipline. Seek out the footsteps of past masters, wholeheartedly apply effort to one practice, and avoid any pretense of being a teacher of others or a past master. (III, 724)Even in studying the Buddhist Teaching and practicing the Buddha Way, still you should not study many things at once. So much the more should the Exoteric and Esoteric holy doctrines of the Scholastic schools be completely put aside. You should not fondly study many of the words of even Buddhas and Patriarchs. Even when concentrating solely on one thing, people who are of inferior capacity with dull faculties cannot succeed. So how much the more is it unsuitable to try to do many things at once and have the tone of our mind out of harmony. (III, 729-30)Students now should consider this well. If you are determined to work at studying the Way, you should value time to study the Way: what leisure time is there to engage in disputation? After all it is of no benefit to oneself or others. (III, 814)Ch’eng-t’ien was asked, “How should I apply my mind twenty-four hours a day?”He replied, “When chickens are cold, they roost in trees; when ducks are cold, they plunge into water.”The questioner said, “Then I don’t need cultivated realization, and won’t pursue Buddhahood or Zen mastery.”Ch’eng-t’ien responded, “You’ve save half my effort.” (V, 61)Wu-chien: How could it be possible to suppose that discoursing on mind and nature and lecturing on Zen and the path are effective vehicles to the source? (V, 174)Han-shan: Just refrain from wanting or seeking spiritual experiences. (V, 190)Ming-pen: Ever since there have been Zen schools, although they speak of simply pointing to the human mind, they have employed countless different methods. Relying on the one principle of simple pointing, the teachers have guided differently in accord with people’s dispositions as well as their own personal experience of enlightenment; yet in every case the supreme principle and the ultimate end were the same, the great matter of understanding and shedding birth and death, nothing else. (V, 202-3)Wu-chien: If you understand by thinking and know by pondering, you’re a thousand miles away. (V, 208)Pao-chih: It is laughable how slovenly people are, each holding onto a different view. They just want to stand by the pan, expecting a pancake; they do not know how to go back to the root and see the flour. The flour is the root of right and wrong; it changes in a hundred ways, depending on how people prepare it.What is needed is to free the intellect in all ways, not to become partial or obsessed. Freedom from attachment is itself liberation; if you seek anything, you will again meet a snare. With a loving heart, be evenhanded to all, and the enlightenment of reality as such will spontaneously appear; if you keep a dualistic consciousness of others and self, you will not see the face of Buddha right in front of you. (V, 213-4)III. Zen as Everyday LifeBunan: People think it is hard to perceive the essential human nature, but in reality it is neither difficult nor easy. Nothing at all can adhere to this essential nature. It is a matter of responding to right and wrong while remaining detached from right and wrong, living in the midst of passions yet being detached from passions, seeing without seeing, hearing without hearing, acting without acting, seeking without seeking. (I, 128)Mazu: The Way does not require cultivation—just don’t pollute it.What is pollution? As long as you have a fluctuating mind fabricating artificialities, all of this is pollution. If you want to understand the Way directly, the normal mind is the Way.What I mean by the normal mind is the mind without artificiality, without subjective judgments, without grasping or rejection. (I, 133)Dazhu: My teacher said to me, “The treasure house within you contains everything, and you are free to use it. You don’t need to seek outside.” (I, 135)Linji: There is no stability in the world; it is like a house on fire. This is not a place where you can stay for a long time. The murderous demon of impermanence is instantaneous, and it does not chose between the upper and lower classes, or between the old and the young.If you want to be no different from the buddhas and Zen masters, just don’t seek externally.The pure light in a moment of awareness in your mind is the Buddha’s essence within you. The nondiscriminating light in a moment of awareness in your mind is the Buddha’s wisdom within you. The undifferentiated light in a moment of awareness in your mind is the Buddha’s manifestation within you. (I, 136)Linji: If you try to grasp Zen in movement, it goes into stillness. If you try to grasp Zen in stillness, it goes into movement. It is like a fish hidden in a spring, drumming up waves and dancing independently.Movement and stillness are two states. The Zen master, who does not depend on anything, makes deliberate use of both movement and stillness. (I, 140)Fayan: If you memorize slogans, you are unable to make subtle adaptations according to the situation. It is not that there is no way to teach insight to learners, but once you have learned a way, it is essential that you get it to work completely. If you just stick to your teacher’s school and memorize slogans, this is not enlightenment, it is a part of intellectual knowledge.This is why it is said, “When your perception only equals that of your teacher, you lessen the teacher’s virtue by half. When your perception goes beyond the teacher, only then can you express the teacher’s teaching.”The sixth ancestor of Zen said to someone who had just been awakened, “What I tell you is not a secret. The secret is in you.”Another Zen master said to a companion, “Everything flows from your own heart.” (I, 145)Xuedou: The river of Zen is quiet, even in the waves; the water of stability is clear, even in the waves. (I, 149)Huanglong: To travel around to various schools looking for teachers is outward seeking. To take the inherent nature of awareness as the ocean and the silent knowledge of transcendent wisdom as Zen, is called inward seeking.To seek outwardly busies you fatally; to seek inwardly while dwelling on mind and body binds you fatally. Therefore Zen is neither inward nor outward, nor being or nonbeing, not real or false. As it is said, “Inner and outer views are both wrong.” (I, 151)Wuzu: Talking about Zen all the time is like looking for fish tracks in a dry riverbed. (I, 156)Yuanwu: Human lives go along with circumstances. It is not necessary to reject activity and seek quiet; just make yourself inwardly empty while outwardly harmonious. Then you will be at peace in the midst of frenetic activity in the world. (I, 158)Yuanwu: If you have great perceptions and capacities, you need not necessarily contemplate the sayings and stories of ancient Zen masters. Just correct your attention and quiet your mind from the time you arise in the morning, and whatever you say or do, review it carefully and see where it comes from and what makes all this happen.Once you can pass through right in the midst of present worldly conditions, the same applies to all conditions—what need is there to remove them?Then you can go beyond “Zen,” transcend all parameters, and magically produce a sanctuary of purity, effortlessness, and coolness, right in the midst of the turmoil of the world. (I, 168)Yuanwu: You do not have to abandon worldly activities in order to attain effortless unconcern. You should know that worldly activities and effortless unconcern are not two different things—but if you keep thinking about rejection and grasping, you make them into two. (I, 168)Foyan: Why do you not understand your nature, when it is inherently there? There is not much to Buddhism—it just requires getting to the essential.We do not teach you to annihilate random thoughts, suppress body and mind, shut your eyes, and say this is Zen. Zen is not like this.You should observe your present state—what is the reason for it? Why do you become confused? (I, 170)Foyan: An ancient said, “The Way is always with people, but people themselves chase after things.” (I, 175)Foyan: My teacher said, “When you are asleep, study Zen as you sleep. When you are eating, study Zen as you eat.” (I, 178)Dahui: The realm of the enlightened is not an external realm with manifest characteristics; buddhahood is the realm of the sacred knowledge found in oneself. You do not need paraphernalia, practices, or realizations to attain it. What you need is to clean out the influences of the psychological afflictions connected with the external world that have been accumulating in your psyche since beginningless time.” (I, 181)Dahui: The Flower Ornament Scripture says, “Do not see Buddha in one phenomenon, one event, one body, one land, one being—see Buddha everywhere.” (I, 181)Dahui: Zen is not in quietude, nor is it in clamor. It is not in thought and discrimination, nor is it in dealing with daily affairs. But even so, it is most important that you not abandon quiet and clamor, dealing with daily affairs, or thought and discrimination, in order to study Zen. When your eyes open, you will find all these are your own business. (I, 184)Dahui: People are backwards—ignorant of the true self, they pursue things, willingly suffering immeasurable pains in their greed for a little bit of pleasure. In the mornings, before they’ve opened their eyes and gotten out of bed, when they’re still only half awake, their minds are already flying about in confusion, flowing along with random thoughts. Although good and bad deeds have not yet appeared, heaven and hell are already formed in their hearts before they even get out bed. By the time they go into action, the seeds of heaven and hell are already implanted in their minds….If you really see through this, you understand the meaning of impersonality. You now that heaven and hell are nowhere else but in the heart of the half awake individual about to get out of bed—they do not come from outside.While in the process of waking up, you should really pay attention. While you are paying attention, you should not make any effort to struggle with whatever is going on in your mind. While struggling you waste energy. As the third ancestor of Zen said, “If you try to stop movement and return to stillness, the attempt to be still will increase movement.” (I, 185) Dahui: To attain Zen enlightenment it is not necessary to give up family life, quit your job, become a vegetarian, practice asceticism, or flee to a quiet place. (I, 127)Hongzhi: The original light is everywhere, and you then adapt to the potential at hand; everything you meet is Zen. (I, 190)Ying-an: The beginning of cultivating yourself is right in yourself; on a thousand mile journey, the first step is the most important. If you can do both of these well, the infinite sublime meanings of hundreds of thousands of teachings will be fulfilled. (I, 193)Ying-an: If you want to see the subtle mind of Zen, that is very easy. Just step back and pick it up with intense strength during all of your activities, whatever you are doing, even as you eat, drink, and talk, even as you experience the stress of attending to the world. (I, 199)Ying-an: It covers form and sound, pervades sky and earth, penetrates above and below. There is no second view, no second person, no second thought. It is everywhere, in everything, not something external. (I, 202)Yuansou: In Buddhism there is no place to apply effort. Everything in it is normal—you put on clothes to keep warm and eat food to stop hunger—that’s all. If you consciously try to think about it, it is not what you think of. If you consciously try to arrange it, it is not what you arrange. (I, 206)Yuansou: An ancient philosopher had a saying, "It is hard to live long with a great name." I carry out the plan of contentment in everyday life, and do not trouble myself for fame or gain. If such concerns press on your mind, when would you ever be satisfied? (I, 15)And now, every move I make is also the living meaning of Buddhism. (I, 32)My late teacher Ciming once said, “One who preserves the Way though old age to death in mountains and valleys is not as good as one who practiced the Way leading a group of people in a commune.” (I, 36)Niu-T’ou Hui-Chung: It has been asked, “How should those who enter the path apply their minds?” All things are originally uncreated and presently undying. Just let your mind be free; you don’t have to restrain it. See directly and hear directly; come directly and go directly. When you must go, then go; when you must stay, then stay.This is the true path. A scripture says, “Conditional existence is the site of enlightenment, insofar as you know it as it really is.” (II, 10-11)Ma-tsu: The way does not require cultivation; just don’t defile it. What is defilement? As long as you have a fluctuating mind, artificiality, or compulsive tendencies, all of this is defilement.If you want to understand the way directly, the normal mind is the way. What I call the normal mind is free from artificiality: in it there is no right or wrong, no grasping or rejection, no extinction or permanence, no banality or sanctity. A scripture says, “Neither the conduct of ordinary people nor the conduct of saints, it is the conduct of enlightening beings.”Right now, as you walk, stand, sit, and recline, responding to situations and dealing with people, all is the way. The way is the realm of reality. No matter how many the countless inconceivable functions, they are not beyond the realm of reality. If it were not so, how could we speak of the teaching ground of mind, how could we speak of the inexhaustible lamp? (II, 11)Ma-tsu: All things are Buddhist teachings; all things are liberating. Liberation is true suchness, and nothing is apart from true suchness. Walking, standing, sitting, and reclining are all inconceivable acts.This does not depend on time: scripture says, “Everywhere, everyplace, is Buddha considered to be.” (II, 12)Ma-tsu: What is fundamentally there is there now; you don’t need to cultivate the path and sit meditating. Not cultivating and not sitting is the pure meditation of those who realize suchness.Now, if you see this principle truly and accurately and do not fabricate any actions but pass your life according to your lot, fulfilling your minimal needs wherever you are, disciplined conduct increasingly taking effect, accumulating pure actions—as long as you can be like this, why worry about not attaining mastery? (II, 13)Tan-hsia: You guard a spiritual thing: it isn’t something you could make, and it isn’t something you can describe. In this ground of ours, there is no Buddha, no nirvana, and no path to practice, no doctrine to actualize. The way is not within existence or nonexistence—what method would one then practice? This abundant light, wherever you are, in every situation, is itself the great way. (II, 16)Mu-chou: Productive labor as a means of livelihood is not contrary to the truth. (II, 19)Hsuan-sha: If you have a great root of faith, the buddhas are just states of your own experience; whether you are walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, never is it not this. (II, 22)Ying-an: When you get to the point where there is neither delusion nor enlightenment, you simply dress and eat as normal, without a bunch of arcane interpretations and lines of doctrine jamming your chest, so you’re clear and uncluttered. (II, 38)Sung-yuan: Just manage to pay attention twenty-four hours a day, whatever you may be doing, stepping back into yourself and silently bringing up over and over again the contemplation “What is this?” Keep contemplating throughout your comings and goings, contemplating until you reach the point where there is no flavor, and no place to get a grip or a foothold, and your body and mind are like space, yet do not seem like space. Suddenly you lose your footing and stomp over the scenery of the original ground, breaking out in a sweat. This makes our life joyful!Then you can respond to people according to potential, picking up what comes to hand, saying what comes to mind, putting to use what is right there, having a way out in every expression. Buddhism and things of the world become one. (II, 43)Ch’ih-chueh: What is the realm of buddhahood? Basically it is the normal course of one’s own mind in everyday life; it’s just that one daily buries one’s head in things and events and is swept along under the influence of objects. If you want to harmonize with the realm of buddhahood, if you can just keep mindful twenty-four hours a day, not giving up through every state of mind, one day it will be like meeting an old friend in a busy city: “Oh! So here you are!” (II, 45)Ch’ih-chueh: If you can get rid of the veils over the mind, restore the root of nature, and clearly see the mind in the midst of everyday life, then emotions, thoughts, and desires; creation, subsistence, change, and extinction; earth, water, fire, and air, are all your own subtle functions. (II, 46)Wu-chun: The path is in daily activities, but if you linger in daily activities, then you are taking a thief for your son. If you seek some special life outside of daily activities, that is like brushing aside waves to look for water. (II, 48)Wei-tse: The subtle path of buddhas and Zen masters is not an irrational creation of knotty problems, nor is it eccentricity or weirdery. And it is not something that is very lofty and hard to practice: it is just what you presently use all the time in your everyday activities. If we have to give it a name, we might call it the natural real Buddha in your own nature, or the master within your own self…. In ultimate terms, the individual lives of all the buddhas and Zen masters of the ten directions are all in your grip—whether to gather them together or let them disperse is up to you. (II, 66)Pao-Chih: Buddhahood and ordinary life are of one kind; ordinary beings are themselves Buddhas. The common man creates arbitrary distinctions, clinging to the existence of what has none, rushing in confusion. When you realize desire and wrath are void, what place is not a door to reality? (95)If you really want to deal with birth and death, just avoid drifting off under any circumstances, whether you are dressing or eating, attending the calls of nature, walking, standing, sitting, or lying down.Be like someone who sees a ferocious tiger, totally engrossed in getting away and escaping with his life. (II, 122)Pao-chih: The Great Way is always present, but though it’s present, it’s hard to see. If you want to understand the true essence of the way, do not get rid of sound and form, words and speech; words and speech are themselves the Great Way. (II, 144)Pao-chih: The ignorant fear hell, but the wise consider it no different from heaven. If the mind is never aroused toward objects, then wherever you walk is the site of enlightenment. Buddhas are not separate from people, but people create disparity themselves. If you want to get rid of the three poisons, you will never leave the conflagration; the wise know that mind is Buddha, while the ignorant wish for paradise. (II, 146)Daio: The great cause of the Buddhas is not apart from your daily affairs. (II, 153)Daio: The sphere of perfect communion is clear everywhere—why are people in such a hurry? (II, 153)Emyo: If you wish to understand yourself, you must succeed in doing so in the midst of all kinds of confusions and upsets. Don’t make the mistake of sitting dead in the cold ashes of a withered tree. (II, 153)Torei: When you walk, practice while walking. When you rest, practice while resting. When you speak, practice while speaking. (II, 155)The Zen master said, “Buddhism is not a matter of using your discursive intellect to govern your body. It is a matter of using the moment of the immediate present purely, not wasting it, without thinking about past or future.“This is why the ancients exhorted people first of all to be careful of time: this means guarding the mind strictly, sweeping away all things, whether good or bad, and detaching from the ego.” (III, 640)National Teacher Daitō Kokushi, whose honorific name means “Great Lamp, Teacher of the Nation,” was one of the founders of the renowned ?-Tō -Kan school of Rinzai Zen. He died in the fourteenth century.According to the custom of ancient Zen schools, Daitō disappeared from the monastery after his enlightenment, to mature his realization hidden in the midst of the world.It was not until years later that he was discovered living under a bridge in Kyoto, in the society of homeless beggars. From there he became a teacher of the emperor.Daitō once wrote a poem about his life as an outcast:When one sits in meditation,one sees the peoplecoming and goingover the avenue bridgeas trees growing deep in the mountains. (III, 641)To manage a household and to govern a state are also religious practices. (III, 642)Zen master Tenkei used to admonish his followers, “You should be genuine in all things. Nothing that is genuine in the world is not genuine in Buddhism, and nothing that is not genuine in Buddhism is genuine in the world.”He would also say, “See with your eyes, hear with your ears. Nothing in the world is hidden; what would you have me say?” (III, 650)Zen master Man-an wrote to a lay student of Zen, “If you want to quickly attain mastery of all truths and be independent in all events, there is nothing better than concentration in activity. That is why it is said that students of mysticism working on the Way should sit in the midst of the material world.“The Third Patriarch of Zen said, ‘If you want to head for the Way of Unity, do not be averse to the objects of the six senses.’ This does not mean that you should indulge in the objects of the six senses; it means that you should keep right mindfulness continuous, neither grasping nor rejecting the objects of the six senses in the course of everyday life, like a duck going into the water without its feathers getting wet.“If, in contrast, you despise the objects of the six senses and try to avoid them, you fall into escapist tendencies and never fulfill the Way of Buddhahood. If you clearly see the essence, then the objects of the six senses are themselves meditation, sensual desires are themselves the Way of Unity, and all things are manifestations of Reality. Entering into the great Zen stability undivided by movement and stillness, body and mind are both freed and eased.” (III, 651-2)The sun my eyes,the sky my face,my breath the wind,mountains and riversturn out to be me. (III, 702)When you’re headed for good fortune,don’t forget to rememberthat the world is inconstant. (III, 705)As an ancient said, if people today were eager for enlightenment as they are to embrace their lovers, then no matter how busy their professional lives might be, and no matter how luxurious their dwellings, they would not fail to attain continuous concentration leading to appearance of the Great Wonder.Many people of both ancient and modern times have awakened to the Way and seen essential nature in the midst of activity. All beings in all times and places are manifestations of one mind. When the mind is aroused, all sorts of things arise; when the mind is quiet, all things are quiet. When the one mind is unborn, all things are blameless. For this reason, even if you stay in quiet and serene places deep in the mountains and sit silently in quiet contemplation, as long as the road of the mind-monkey’s horse of conceptualization is not cut off, you will only be wasting time. (III, 708-9) Torio Tokuan said, “Do not consider yourself elevated in comparison to ordinary people. Those who are commonplace just rise and fall on the road of fame and profit, without practicing the Way or following the Way.“They are only to be pitied, not despised or resented. Do not give rise to judgmental thoughts by comparing yourself to them; do not give rise to ideas of higher and lower.“This is the attitude needed to enter the Way of the sages and saints, buddhas and bodhisattvas. Therefore we place ourselves in the state of ordinary people, assimilating to the ordinary, while our will is on the Way, and we investigate its wonders.” (III, 710)When one is poor and covets nothing, he has already avoided these problems and is free and at ease. The proof is right before your eyes; don’t wait to find it in the scriptures. (III, 778)An ancient saying has it, “The rat in the storehouse hungers for food; the ox pulling the plough hasn’t his fill of grass.” What this means is that one is hungry though in the midst of food, one lacks for grass while being in the middle of grass. People are also like this: though they are in the midst of the Buddha-Way, they do not merge with the Way. If the mind which seeks fame and profit does not come to rest, one will be ill at ease all his life long. (III, 843)The Buddhas and Patriarchs were all originally ordinary men. While they were ordinary men, they could not but have done bad things, had bad thoughts, been stupid, been foolish. Nevertheless, because they all changed, followed wise teachers, and cultivated practice, they all became Buddhas and Patriarchs.You people now should be likewise. Do not demean ourselves, saying that you are stupid and dull. If you do not arouse your minds in this life, when will you ever practice the Way? If you now practice insistently, you should not fail to attain the Way. (III, 847)The Third Chinese Patriarch: “Do not despise the six senses, for the six senses are not bad; after all, they are the same as true awakening.” (IV, 16)Thomas Cleary: “It is not that the senses are bad, as explained earlier, but compulsively following sense experience makes one vulnerable to external influences, even external control. That is why liberative nirvana is not destruction or obliteration of sense and perception, but freedom of mind and thought in the very midst of sense and perception.” (IV, 75)P’u-an: There were some who went frantically seeking, clinging to forms; they took up walking sticks and traveled over a thousand mountains and ten thousand rivers, not knowing for themselves that the body is the site of enlightenment.” (V, 79-80)Pai-chang: Things have never declared themselves empty, nor do they declare themselves form; and they do not declare themselves right, wrong, defiled, or pure. Nor is there a mind that binds and fetters people.It is just because people themselves give rise to vain and arbitrary attachments that they create so many kinds of understanding, produce so many kinds of opinion, and give rise to many various likes and fears.Just understand that all things do not originate of themselves. All of them come into existence from your own single mental impulse of imagination mistakenly clinging to appearances. If you know that mind and objects fundamentally do not contact each other, you will be set free on the spot. Everything is in a state of quiescence right where it is; this very place is the site of enlightenment. (V, 99-100)THE DESERT FATHERSI. Sayings of the Early Christian MonksHe [Evagrius] also said, ‘A monk was told that his father had died. He said to the messenger, “Do not blaspheme. My Father cannot die.”’ (3)They used to say about Theodore of Pherme that he kept these three rules before all others: poverty, abstinence, and avoiding the company of other people. (4)Antony said, “Fish die if they stay on dry land, and in the same way monks who stay outside their cell or remain with secular people fall away from their vow of quiet. As a fish must return to the sea, so we must to our cell, in case by staying outside, we forget to watch inside.” (8)Antony said, “He who sits alone and is quiet has escaped from three wars: hearing, speaking, seeing: but there is one thing against which he must continually fight: that is, his own heart.” (8)Moses said, ‘One who avoids others is like a ripe grape. One who stays in company is like a sour grape.’ (10)Matrona said, ‘Many solitaries living in the desert have been lost because they lived like people in the world. It is better to live in a crowd and want to live a solitary life than to live in solitude and be longing all the time for company.’ (11)Another time, he [Poemen] went with Anub to the country of Diolcos. Walking past the tombs they saw a woman beating her breast and weeping bitterly. They paused to see her. When they had gone a little further, they met a man and Poemen asked him, ‘What is the matter with the woman over there, that she weeps so bitterly?’ He said, ‘Her husband is dead, and her son, and her brother.’ Poemen said to Anub, ‘I tell you that unless a man mortifies all his self-will and has this kind of grief, he cannot be a monk. The whole life and attention of that woman is wrapped up in grief.’ (14)A hermit saw someone laughing, and said to him, ‘We have to render an account of our whole life before heaven and earth, and you can laugh?’ (17)He [Daniel] also said that when Arsenius heard that all the apples were ripe, he said, ‘Bring them to me.’ He took one small bite of each kind, giving thanks to God. (20)They said of Agatho that for three years he kept a stone in his mouth in order to teach himself silence. (20)They said of Helladius that he lived twenty years in his cell, and did not once raise his eyes to look at the roof. (22)Macarius the Great said to the brothers in Scetis after a service in church, ‘Flee, my brothers.’ One of the brothers said to him, ‘Abba, where can we flee when we are already in the desert?’ He put his finger upon his lips and said: ‘I tell you, you must flee this.’ Then he went into his cell, shut the door, and remained alone. (24)Sisois said, ‘Our form of pilgrimage is keeping the mouth closed.’ (27)A brother felt hungry at dawn, and struggled not to eat till nine o’clock. When nine o’clock came, he made himself wait till noon. At noon he dipped his bread and sat down to eat, but then got up again, saying, ‘I will wait till three.’ At three o’clock he prayed, and saw the devil’s work going out of him like smoke; and his hunger ceased. (29)A brother brought some new bread to Cellia and invited the monks to taste it. When they had each eaten two rolls of bread, they stopped. But the brother knew how austere was their abstinence, and humbly began to beg them, ‘For God’s sake eat today until you are filled.’ So they ate another two rolls each. See how these true and self-disciplined monks ate much more than they needed, for God’s sake. (30-1)When Cyrus of Alexandria was asked about the temptation of lust, he said, ‘If you are not tempted, you have no hope; if you are not tempted, it is because you are sinning. The man who does not fight sin at the stage of temptation is sinning already in his body. The man who is sinning in his flesh has no trouble from temptation.’ (35)We cannot make temptations vanish, but we can struggle against them. (38)A brother was leaving the world, and though he gave his goods to the poor he kept some for his own use. He went to Antony, and when Antony knew what he had done, he said, ‘If you want to be a monk, go to the village over there, buy some meat, hang it on your naked body and come back here.’ The brother went, and dogs and birds tore at his body. He came back to Antony, who asked him if he had done what he was told. He showed him his torn body. Then Antony said, ‘Those who renounce the world but want to keep their money are attacked in that way by demons and torn in pieces.’ (53)A great man came from a distance to Scetis carrying gold, and he asked the presbyter of the desert to distribute it among the brothers. But the presbyter said, ‘The brothers do not need it.’ But he was very pressing, and would not give way, and put a basket of money in the church porch. So the presbyter said, ‘Whoever is in need may take money from here.’ No one touched it, some did not even look at it. The presbyter said, ‘God has accepted your offering to him. Go away and give it to the poor.’ He went away very much edified. (58)A hermit who was anxious went to Theodore of Pherme and told him all about it. Theodore said to him, ‘Humble yourself, put yourself in subjection, go live with others.’ So the hermit went to a mountain, and there lived with a community. Later, he returned to Theodore and said, ‘Not even when I lived with other men did I find rest.’ Theodore replied, ‘If you’re not at rest as a hermit, nor when you’re in a community, why did you want to be a monk? Wasn’t it in order to suffer? Tell me, how many years have you been a monk?’ He said, ‘Eight.’ Theodore said, ‘Believe me, I’ve been a monk for seventy years, and I’ve not been able to get a single day’s peace. Do you expect to have peace after only eight years?’ (60-1)They said of Sarah of blessed memory that for sixty years she lived on the bank of a river, and never looked at the water. (65)The brother got up, said goodbye to the brothers and followed the eagle, which flew a little way and then alighted; on his approach it flew a little further; this went on for three hours. Then the eagle flew off to the right of the pursuing monk, and did not reappear. Nevertheless the monk went in that direction, and saw three palm-trees, a spring, and a little cave. He said, ‘Here is the place God has made ready for me.’ He went into the cave and stayed there, eating the dates and drinking the water from the spring; for six years he lived there alone and saw no one. (67)A hermit lived in the desert twelve miles from the nearest water. Once, on his way to draw water, he was tired out. So he said, ‘Why suffer this? I will come and live by the spring.’ As soon as he said this, he turned round and saw a man following him and counting his steps. He asked him, ‘Who are you?’ He said, ‘I am an angel of the Lord, sent to count your steps and reward you.’ When the hermit heard this, his resolve was strengthened, and he moved his cell five miles further from the spring. (70)A hermit was fasting and not eating bread, and he went to visit another hermit. By chance some other pilgrims came there and the hermit made them a little vegetable soup. When they sat down to eat, the fasting hermit took a single pea which he dipped in the soup and chewed it. When they got up from the table, the hermit took him to one side and said, ‘Brother, if you visit someone, don’t make a display there of your way of life. If you want to keep your own rule, stay in your cell and never go out.’ The brother accepted the advice, and thenceforth behaved like other people and ate what was put before him. (82-3)A hermit said, ‘If a man prepares for the next day, it cuts away the fruit of his spirit and leaves him dry.’ (83)A hermit said, ‘When you flee from the company of other people, or when you despise the world and worldlings, take care to do so as if it were you who was being idiotic.’ (83)A brother sinned and the presbyter ordered him to go out of church. But Bessarion got up and went out with him, saying, ‘I, too, and a sinner.’ (84)A hermit said, ‘Do not judge an adulterer if you are chaste or you will break the law of God just as much as he does. For he who said “Do not commit adultery” also said “Do not judge.”’ (86)Mark asked Arsenius, ‘It is right, isn’t it, to have nothing unnecessary in one’s cell? I saw a brother who had a few cabbages, and he was rooting them out.’ Arsenius said, ‘It is right, but each should do what is right for his own way of life. If he is not strong enough to endure without the cabbages, he will plant them again.’ (89)Agatho said, ‘If any angry man were to raise the dead, God would still be displeased with his anger.’ (91)They said of one hermit that for fifty years he ate no bread and drank very little water. He said, ‘I have destroyed lust and greed and vanity.’ When Abraham heard that he had said this, he came to him and said, ‘Was it you who said this?’ He answered, ‘Yes.’ Abraham said to him, ‘Supposing you go into your cell and find a woman on your mat, could you think she was not a woman?’ He said, ‘No. But I would fight against my thoughts, so as not to touch her.’ Abraham said, ‘Then you have not killed lust, the passion is still alive; you have only imprisoned it. Suppose you were walking alone along a road and saw stones on one side and gold in jars on the other, could you think the gold and the stones were of the same value?’ He answered, ‘No, but I would resist my desire and not let myself pick it up.’ Abraham said to him, ‘Then the passion still lives, you have only imprisoned it.’ He went on, ‘If you heard that one brother loved you and spoke well of you, and another brother hated you and slandered you, and they both came to visit you, would they both be equally welcome to you?’ He said, ‘No: but I would force myself to treat him who hates me just as well as him who loves me.’ So Abraham said to him, ‘Then your passions are alive, only in some measure holy men have got them chained.’ (91-2)Ammon questioned Poemen on the subject of the impure thoughts within his heart, and on the subject of vain desire. Poemen said, ‘Can the axe do harm unless the woodman is using it? Do not reach out your hands to use those things, and they will do you no harm.’ (99)He also said, ‘Suppose there are three men living together. One lives a good life in stillness, the second is ill but gives thanks to God, the third serves the needs of others with sincerity. These three men are alike, it is as if they were all doing the same work.’ (101)A brother came to Poemen and said to him, ‘Many thoughts come into my mind and put me in danger.’ He sent him out into the open air, and said, ‘Open your lungs and do not breathe.’ He replied, ‘I can’t do that.’ Then he said to him: ‘Just as you can’t stop air coming into your lungs, so you can’t stop thoughts coming into your mind. Your part is to resist them.’ (101)Palladius said, ‘The soul which is being trained according to the will of Christ should either be earnest in learning what is does not know, or should publicly teach what it does know. If it wants to do neither, though it could, it is mad. The first step on the road away from God is contempt for teaching, that is, not to want to give food to the soul that truly wants it.’ (104)Everything which is extreme is destructive. (106)Hyperichius said, ‘He who teaches others by his life and not his speech is truly wise.’ (106)A brother asked some of the monks whether evil thoughts defiled a man. When they were asked this question, some said, ‘Yes,’ but some said, ‘No, for if that were so, we ordinary people could not be saved. If we think of vile actions but do not do them, it is this which brings salvation.’ The questioner was discontented with the monks’ diverse answers, and he went to an experienced hermit and asked him about it. He replied, ‘Everyone is required to act according to his capacity.’ Then the brother asked him, ‘For the Lord’s sake, explain this saying to me.’ So he said, ‘Look here, suppose there was a valuable jug and two monks came in, one of whom had a great capacity for a disciplined life, and the other a small capacity. Suppose that the mind of the more disciplined man is moved at the sight of the jug and says inwardly, “I’d like to have that jug,” but the idea leaves him at once, and he puts away any thought of it, then he would not be defiled. But if the less disciplined man covets the jug and is strongly moved by an impulse to take it, and yet after a struggle does not take it, he would not be defiled either.’ (108-9)A hermit was asked by a brother, ‘How do I find God? With fasts, or labour, or vigils, or works of mercy?’ He replied, ‘You will find Him in all those, and also in discretion. I tell you many have been very stern with their bodies, but have gained nothing by it because they did it without discretion. Even if our mouths stink from fasting, and we have learnt all the Scriptures, and memorized the whole Psalter, we may still lack what God wants, humility and love.’ (111)Three brothers once came to a hermit in Scetis. One of them said to him, ‘Abba, I have memorized the Old and New Testaments.’ But the hermit answered, ‘And you have filled the air with words.’ The second said to him, ‘I have written out the Old and New Testaments with my own hand.’ But the hermit said, ‘And you have filled the window-ledge with manuscripts.’ The third said, ‘The grass is growing up my chimney.’ But the hermit answered, ‘And you have driven away hospitality.’ (112)A hermit said, ‘The prophets wrote books. Our predecessors came after them, and worked hard at them, and then their successors memorized them. But this generation copies them onto papyrus and parchment and leaves them unused on the window-ledge.’ (117)Allois said, ‘Until you can say in your heart, “Only I and God are in the world,” you will not be at peace.’ (119)They said of this John that he once made enough rope for two baskets, and twisted it all into one basket, but he did not see what he was doing until he tried to hang it up, for his mind was occupied in the contemplation of God. (120)He [Poemen] also said, ‘Do not stay with anyone who is always scornful when they speak.’ (123)True wisdom is always sorrowful. (123)Silvanus was one living on Mount Sinai. His disciple, who was about to go out on some necessary task, said to him, ‘Go and get some water, and water the garden.’ Silvanus went to draw the water and he covered his face with his cowl, so that he could see only his feet. By chance a visitor arrived to see him at that moment: and looked at him from a distance, was amazed at the sight. He went up to him and said, ‘Tell me, abba, why do you cover your face with your hood when you are watering the garden?’ He answered, ‘So that my eyes should not see the trees, lest my mind should be distracted by the sight.’ (123-4)They told a story of a hermit who was dying in Scetis. The brothers stood round his bed, and clothed him, and began to weep. But he opened his eyes and began to laugh; this happened three times. So the brothers asked him, ‘Abba, why are you laughing when we are weeping?’ He told them, ‘I laughed the first time because you fear death; I laughed the second time because you are not ready for death; I laughed the third time because I am passing from labour to rest, and yet you weep.’ As he said this, he closed his eyes and died. (128)All the other efforts in a religious life, whether they are made vehemently or gently, have room for a measure of rest. But we need to pray till our dying breath. That is the great struggle. (130)Lot went to Joseph and said, ‘Abba, as far as I can, I keep a moderate rule, with a little fasting, and prayer, and meditation, and quiet: and as far as I can I try to cleanse my heart of evil thoughts. What else should I do?’ Then the hermit stood up and spread out his hands to heaven, and his fingers shone like ten flames of fire, and he said, ‘If you will, you an become all flame.’ (131)Antony said to Poemen, ‘Our great work is to lay the blame for our sins upon ourselves before God, and to expect to be tempted to our last breath.’ (148)[Arsenius] rebuked her but she said, ‘If you are a monk, go to the mountain.’ (150)Evagrius said, ‘To go against self is the beginning of salvation.’ (153)You thing of dust and ashes, they have done you a good turn. You are not a man, how dare you remain in the company of men? (157)He also said, ‘A brother asked Alonius, “What is humility?” The hermit said, “To be lower than brute beasts and to know that they are not condemned.”’ (158)Once Theophilus of holy memory, the archbishop of Alexandria, came to Scetis. The brothers gathered together and said to Pambo, ‘Speak to the bishop, that he may be edified.’ Pambo replied, ‘If he is not edified by my silence, my speech certainly will not edify him.’ (159)Hyperichius said, ‘The tree of life is high, and humility climbs it.’ (161)A hermit was asked, ‘What is humility?’ He said, ‘It is if you forgive a brother who has wronged you before he is sorry.’ (163)An Egyptian monk was living in the suburbs of Constantinople: and when the Emperor Theodosius II passed that way he left his train of courtiers and came unattended to the cell. The monk opened the door to his knock, and at once recognized that he was the Emperor, but he received him as though he was only one of the imperial guards. When he had come in, they prayed together and sat down. The Emperor began to ask him, `How are the hermits in Egypt?’ He answered, ‘They are all praying for your salvation.’ The Emperor looked round the cell to see if he had any food, and saw nothing except a basket with a little bread, and a flagon of water. The monk said to him, ‘Will you take a little to eat?’ He put the bread in front of him, and mixed oil and salt, and gave him that to eat and drink. The Emperor said to him, ‘Do you know who I am?’ He said, ‘God knows who you are.’ The Emperor said, ‘I am the Emperor Theodosius.’ The monk at once fell down before him and did humble obeisance. The Emperor said, ‘Blessed are you, for you have an untroubled life, without thought of the world. I tell you truly, I was born an emperor and I have never enjoyed bread and water as I have today: I have eaten with real pleasure.’ He began to do honour to the monk, so the hermit went out, and fled back to Egypt. (164-5)Paesius, the brother of Poemen, loved one of the monks and Poemen did not like it. So he went and visited Ammonas, and said to him, ‘My brother Paesius loves someone else and I don’t like it.’ Ammonas said to him, ‘Poemen, are you still alive? Go and sit in your cell, and think to yourself that you have been in your grave a year already.’ (173)Hilarion once came from Palestine to Antony on the mountain: and Antony said to him, ‘Welcome, morning star, for you rise at break of day.’ Hilarion said, ‘Peace be to you, pillar of light, for you sustain the world.’ (176)Two hermits lived together for many years without a quarrel. One said to the other, ‘Let’s have a quarrel with each other, as other men do.’ The other answered, I don’t know how a quarrel happens.’ The first said, ‘Look her, I put a brick between us, and I say, “That’s mine.” Then you say, “No, it’s mine.” That is how you begin a quarrel.’ So they put a brick between them, and one of them said, ‘That’s mine.’ The other said, ‘No; it’s mine.’ He answered, ‘Yes, it’s yours. Take it away.’ They were unable to argue with each other. (182)In that place when Ephraim of holy memory was a boy, he saw in sleep, or by revelation, that a vine was planted on his tongue and it grew and filled the whole earth with very great fruitfulness and so all the birds of the air came and ate the fruits of that vine and spread the fruit further. (187)There is no town or village in Egypt and the Thebaid which is not surrounded by hermitages as if by walls. (viii)Somebody asked Antony, “What shall I do in order to please God?’ He replied, ‘Do what I tell you, which is this: wherever you go, keep God in mind; whatever you do, follow the example of holy Scripture; wherever you are, stay there and do not move away in a hurry. If you keep to these guide-lines, you will be saved.’ (3)Pambo said to Antony, ‘What shall I do?’ Antony said, ‘Do not trust in your own righteousness. Do not go on sorrowing over a deed that is past. Keep your tongue and your belly under control.’ (3)Macarius said to Zacharias, ‘Tell me, what makes a monk?’ He said, ‘Isn’t it wrong for you to be asking me?’ Macarius said to him, ‘I am sure I should ask you, Zacharias my son. There is something that urges me to ask you.’ Zacharias said to him, ‘As far as I can tell, abba, I think anyone who controls himself and makes himself content with just what he needs and no more, is indeed a monk.’ (3-4)Joseph of Thebes said, ‘Three things are seen to be honorable by God. the first is when temptations come on someone who is weak, and are accepted thankfully. The second is when every action is pure before God, mixed with no human motive. The third is when a disciple remains obedient to a spiritual father, and gives up all his self-will.’ (4)A brother asked him, ‘How ought we to live?’ Poemen replied, ‘We have seen the example of Daniel. They accused him of nothing except that he served God.’ (5)Poemen said, ‘If a monk hates two things, he can be free of this world.’ A brother inquired, ‘What are they?’ He said, ‘Bodily comfort and conceit.’ (5)John the Short said, “If a king wants to take a city filled with his enemies, he first captures their food and water, and when they are starving he subdues them. So it is with gluttony. If a man is sincere about fasting and is hungry, the enemies that trouble his soul will grow weak.” (22)They said of Sarah that for thirteen years she was fiercely attacked by the demon of lust. She never prayed that the battle should leave her, but she used to say only, “Lord, give me strength.” (36)Evagrius said that there was a brother who had no possessions except a Gospel book and he sold it in order to feed the poor. He said something worth remembering: “I have sold even the word that commands me to sell all and give to the poor.” (54)But it is not good to have more than the body needs. (59)A hermit said that for nine years a brother was goaded by his thoughts to despair of his salvation. He judged himself and said, “I have ruined myself, I have perished already, I will go back to the world.” On his journey he heard a voice saying, “Those temptations which you endured for nine years were your crowns. Go back to your cell, and I will take these evil thoughts from you.” So he realized that it is not right to despair of oneself because of the temptations that come. If we use these thoughts well they will give us a crown. (73)Ammon (of the place called Raithu) brought this question to Sisois: “When I read Scripture, I am tempted to make elaborate commentaries and prepare myself to answer questions on it.” He replied, “You don’t need to do that. It is better to speak simply, with a good conscience and a pure mind.” (81)Joseph asked Poemen, “Tell me how to become a monk.” He said, “If you want to find rest in this life and the next, say at every moment, ‘Who am I?’ and judge no one.” (85)A brother asked Poemen, “What am I to do, for I become weak just sitting in my cell?” He said, “Despise no one, condemn no one, revile no one: and God will give you quietness, and you will sit at peace in your cell.” (86)A brother said to Antony, “Pray for me.” He answered, “Neither I nor God will have mercy on you unless you do something about it yourself and ask God’s help.” (89)Poemen once asked Joseph, “What am I to do when temptations attack me? Do I resist them, or let them come in?” He said, “Let them come in and then fight them.” So he went back to his cell in Scetis. By chance, a man from the Thebaid told the brothers in Scetis that he had asked Joseph the same question, “When temptations come, do I resist it, or do I let it in?” and that he said to him, “On no account let it in, but cut it off at once.” When Poemen heard that Joseph had said this to the man from the Thebaid, he went back to Joseph at Panephysis and said to him, “Abba, I entrusted my thoughts to your care: and you said one thing to me, and the opposite to a monk from the Thebaid.” Joseph said, “You know that I love you?” He answered, “Yes.” He said, “Didn’t you tell me to say what I thought as though I was talking for my own good? If temptations come, and you deal with them within yourself, they will strengthen you. I said this to you as I should say it to myself. But there are other men for whom it is bad that passions should enter, and they must cut them off at once.” (95)Poemen said, “Do not live in a place where some are jealous of you; you will make no progress there.” (99)Joseph asked Poemen, “How should we fast?” Poemen said, “I suggest that everyone should eat a little less than he wants, every day.” Joseph said to him, “When you were a young man, didn’t you fast for two days on end?” He said to him, “That’s right, I used to fast three days on end, even for a week. But the great hermits have tested all these things, and they found that it is good to eat something every day, but on some days a little less. They have show that this is the king’s highway, for it is easy and light.” (99)A brother asked Poemen, “What is the meaning of the text, ‘Whoever is angry with his brother without a cause (Matt. 5:22)?’ He answered, “If you are angry with your brother for any kind of trouble that he gives you, that is anger without a cause, and it is better to pluck out your right eye and cast it from you. But if anyone wants to separate you from God, then you must be angry with him.” (100)He also said, “If a man appears silent in speech but is condemning other people in his heart, his is really talking incessantly. Another man may seem to talk all day, but he is keeping silence since he always speaks in a way that is right with his heart.” (101)She also said, “It is good not to be angry. If it happens, do not give way to it for as much as one day.” (105)A hermit said, “Anyone who wants to live in the desert ought to be a teacher and not a learner. If he still needs teaching, he will come to harm.” (111)A hermit said, “One man eats a lot and is still hungry. Another eats a little and has had enough. The man who eats a lot and is still hungry has more merit than the man who eats the little that satisfies him.” (114)A hermit said, “A monk ought not to listen to disparagement; he ought not to be disparaging, and he ought not to be scornful.” (115)They said that on Saturday evening Arsenius used to turn his back to the setting sun and stretch out his hands towards heaven and pray until, at dawn on Sunday, the rising sun lit up his face, and then he sat down again. (130)They said of Ammon that some people asked him to arbitrate in their quarrel but the hermit took no notice of them. So a woman said to her neighbor, “What a fool this hermit is!” Ammon heard her; and called her, and said, “You can’t imagine how hard I have tried in different deserts to be thought of as a fool! But now that you have recognized that it is part of my nature to be foolish you have made all my efforts to pretend to folly pointless.” (152)Moses said to brother Zacharias, “Tell me what to do.” At these words Zacharias threw himself at his feet, saying, “Why ask me, abba?” The hermit said, “I tell you, my son Zacharias, I saw the Holy Spirit coming upon you, and so I cannot avoid asking you.” Then Zacharias took his cowl from his head, and put it beneath his feet and stamped on it, and said, “Unless a man stamps upon self like that, he cannot be a monk.” (153)A hermit said to a brother, “Do not measure yourself against your brother, saying that you are more serious or more chaste or more understanding than he is. But be obedient to the grace of God, in the spirit of poverty, and in love unfeigned. The efforts of a man swollen with vanity are futile. It is written, ‘Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.’ (1 Cor. 10:12); ‘let your speech be seasoned with salt’ (Col. 4:6) and so you will be dependent upon Christ.” (162)The devil appeared to a monk disguised as an angel of light, and said to him, “I am the angel Gabriel, and I have been sent to you.” But the monk said, “Are you sure you weren’t sent to someone else? I am not worthy to have an angel sent to me.” At that the devil vanished. (165)A hermit said, “Even if you have succeeded in the habit of keeping silent, you should not have that in you as though it was a kind of virtue, but say: ‘I am not worthy to speak.’” (167)At a meeting of monks in Scetis, the hermits wanted to test Moses. So they poured scorn on him, saying, “Who is this black man who is here with us?” Moses heard them, but said nothing. When the meeting had dispersed, the monks who had insulted him asked him, “Weren’t you upset inside?” He replied, “I was upset, and I said nothing.” (173)Poemen said, “Whatever hardship comes upon you, it can be overcome by silence.” (173)Some brothers came to a holy hermit who lived in the desert and outside the hermitage they found a boy tending the sheep and using uncouth words. After they had told the hermit their thoughts and profited from his reply, they said, “Abba, why do you allow those boys to be here, and why don’t you order them to stop hurling abuse at each other?” He said, “Indeed, my brothers, there are days when I want to order them to stop it, but I hold myself back, saying, if I can’t put up with this little thing, how shall I put up with a serious temptation, if God ever lets me be so tempted? So I say nothing to them, and try to get into the habit of bearing whatever happens.” (175)Antony said, “Now I no longer fear God, I love him, for love casts out fear (1 John 4:18).” (177)Pambo once happened to be traveling in Egypt with some monks. He saw some men from the world sitting down, and said to them, “Get up, give a greeting, and kiss the monks that you may be blessed. For they often talk with God, and their mouths are holy.” (179)II. The Alphabetical CollectionAnthonySomeone asked Abba Anthony, “What must one do in order to please God?’ The old man replied, “Pay attention to what I tell you: whoever you may be, always have God before your eyes; whatever you do, do it according to the testimony of the holy Scriptures; in whatever place you live, do not easily leave it. Keep these three precepts and you will be saved.” (2)He also said, “Whoever has not experienced temptation cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” He even added, “Without temptations no-one can be saved.” (2)Abba Anthony said, “I saw the snares that the enemy spreads out over the world and I said groaning, ‘What can get through from such snares?’ Then I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Humility.’ ” (2)A brother said to Abba Anthony, “Pray for me.” The old man said to him, “I will have no mercy upon you, nor will God have any, if you yourself do not make an effort and if you do not pray to God.” (4)“what you need is prayers” (5)Abba Anthony said, “A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him saying, ‘You are mad, you are not like us.’” (6)Three Fathers used to go and visit blessed Anthony every year and two of them used to discuss their thoughts and the salvation of their souls with him, but the third always remained silent and did not ask him anything. After a long time, Abba Anthony said to him, “You often come here to see me, but you never ask me anything,” and the other replied, “It is enough for me to see you, Father.” (7)He also said, “Always have the fear of God before your eyes. Remember him who gives death and life. Hate the world and all that is in it. Hate all peace that comes from the flesh. Renounce this life so that you may be alive to God. Remember what you have promised God, for it will be required of you on the day of judgment. Suffer hunger, thirst, nakedness, be watchful and sorrowful; weep and groan in your heart; test yourselves, to see if you are worthy of God; despise the flesh, so that you may preserve your souls.” (8)ArseniusWhile still living in the palace, Abba Arsenius prayed to God in these words: “Lord, lead me in the way of salvation.” And a voice came saying to him, “Arsenius, flee from men and you will be saved.” (9)“if you hear Arsenius is there, do not go there” (10)Abba Mark asked Abba Arsenius, “Is it good to have nothing extra in the cell? I know a brother who had some vegetables and he has pulled them up.” Abba Arsenius replied, “Undoubtedly that is good but it must be done according to a man’s capacity. For if he does not have the strength for such a practice he will soon plant others.” (12)AgathonHe also said, “I have never gone to sleep with a grievance against anyone, and, as far as I could, I have never let anyone go to sleep with a grievance against me.” (20)Whenever his thoughts urged him to pass judgment on something which he saw, he would say to himself, “Agathon, it is not your business to do that.” Thus his spirit was always recollected. (23)Abba Agathon said, “If I could meet a leper, give him my body and take his, I should be very happy.” That indeed is perfect charity. (24)AmmonasAbba Ammonas said, “I have spent fourteen years in Scetis asking God night and day to grant me the victory over anger.” (26)AloniusHe also said, “If I had not destroyed myself completely, I should not have been able to rebuild and shape myself again.” (35)BessarionA brother who had sinned was turned out of the church by the priest. Abba Bessarion got up and went with him, saying, “I, too, am a sinner.” (42)A brother who shared a lodging with other brothers asked Abba Bessarion, “What should I do?” The old man replied, “Keep silence and do not compare yourself with others.” (42)BenjaminAs he was dying, Abba Benjamin said to his sons, “If you observe the following, you can be saved, ‘Be joyful at all times, pray without ceasing and give thanks for all things.’” (44)Gregory the TheologianHe also said, “The whole life of a man is but one single day for those who are working hard with longing.” (45)DanielOne day Abba Daniel and Abba Ammoes went on a journey together. Abba Ammoes said, “When shall we, too, settle down, in a cell, Father?” Abba Daniel replied, “Who shall separate us henceforth from God? God is in the cell, and, on the other hand, he is outside also.” (45)Epiphanius, Bishop of CyprusHe also said, “The acquisition of Christian books is necessary for those who can use them. For the mere sight of these books renders us less inclined to sin, and incites us to believe more firmly in righteousness.” (58)He also said, “Reading the Scriptures is a great safeguard against sin.” (58)He also said, “God sells righteousness at a very low price to those who wish to buy it: a little piece of bread, a cloak of no value, a cup of cold water, a mite.” (59)EuprepiusAbba Euprepius said, “Bodily things are compounded of matter. He who loves the world loves occasions of falling. Therefore if we happen to lose something, we must accept this with joy and gratitude, realizing that we have been set free from care.” (62)EvagriusHe also said, “Take away temptations and no-one will be saved.” (64)ZenoAbba Zeno said, “If a man wants God to hear his prayer quickly, then before he prays for anything else, even his own soul, when he stands and stretches out his hands towards God, he must pray with all his heart for his enemies. Through this action God will hear everything that he asks.” (67)EliasAbba Elias, the minister, said, “What can sin do where there is penitence? And of what use is love where there is pride?” (71)He also said, “Men turn their minds either to their sins, or to Jesus, or to men.” (71)Theodore of PhermeAbba Theodore of Pherme had acquired three good books. He came to Abba Macarius and said to him, “I have three excellent books from which I derive profit; the brethren also make us of them and derive profit from them. Tell me what I ought to do: keep them for my use and that of the brethren, or sell them and give the money to the poor?” The old man answered him in this way, “Your actions are good; but it is best of all to possess nothing.” Hearing that, he went and sold his books and gave the money for them to the poor. (73)He also said, “There is no other virtue than that of not being scornful.” (75)TheodoraShe also said that neither asceticism, nor vigils nor any kind of suffering are able to save, only true humility can do that. (84)John the DwarfHe also said, “Humility and the fear of God are above all virtues.” (90)One of the Fathers asked Abba John the Dwarf, “What is a monk?” He said, “He is toil. The monk toils at all he does. That is what a monk is.” (93)Abba Poemen said that Abba John said that the saints are like a group of trees, each bearing different fruit, but watered from the same source. The practices of one saint differ from those of another, but it is the same Spirit that works in all of them. (95)Isidore of PelusiaAbba Isidore of Pelusia said, “To live without speaking is better than to speak without living. For the former who lives rightly does good even by his silence but the latter does no good even when he speaks. When words and life correspond to one another they are together the whole of philosophy.” (98)Now the definition of virtue and of philosophy is: simplicity with prudence. (98)He also said, “The desire for possessions is dangerous and terrible, knowing no satiety; it drives the soul which it controls to the heights of evil. Therefore let us drive it away vigorously from the beginning. For once it has become master it cannot be overcome.” (99)Joseph of PanephysisAbba Poemen said to Abba Joseph, “Tell me how to become a monk.” He said, “If you want to find rest here below, and hereafter, in all circumstances say, What am I? and do not judge anyone.” (102)The same Abba asked Abba Joseph another question saying, “What should I do when the passions attack me? Should I resist them, or let them enter?” The old man said to him, “Let them enter and fight against them.” So he returned to Scetis where he remained. Now someone from Thebes came to Scetis and said to the brethren, “I asked Abba Joseph if I ought to resist the passions when they approach, or let them enter and he replied that I ought not to allow them the smallest entry but cut them off immediately.” When Abba Poemen learned that Abba Joseph had spoken to the brother from Thebes in this way, he got up and went to see him at Panephysis and said, “Abba, I consulted you about my thoughts and you have said one thing to me, and another to the Theban.” The old man said to him, “Do you not know that I love you?” He said, “Yes.” “And did you not say to me, speak to me as you speak to yourself?” “That is right.” Then the old man said, “Truly, if the passions enter you and you fight them you become stronger. I spoke to you as to myself. But there are others who cannot profit in this way if the passions approach them, and so they must cut them off immediately.” (102)HieraxA brother questioned Abba Hierax saying, “Give me a word. How can I be saved?” The old man said to him, “Sit in your cell, and if you are hungry, eat, if you are thirsty, drink; only do not speak evil of anyone, and you will be saved.” (104)Isidore the PriestHe also said, “If you fast regularly, do not be inflated with pride, but if you think highly of yourself because of it, then you had better eat meat. It is better for a man to eat meat than to be inflated with pride and to glorify himself.” (107)He also said, “If you desire salvation, do everything that leads you to it.” (107)LonginusIf you have not first of all lived rightly with men, you will not be able to live rightly in solitude. (122)Macarius the GreatAbba Macarius the Great said to the brothers at Scetis, when he dismissed the assembly, “Flee, my brothers.” One of the old men asked him, “Where could we flee to beyond this desert?” He put his finger on his lips and said, “Flee that,” and he went into his cell, shut the door and sat down. (131)A brother came to see Abba Macarius the Egyptian, and said to him, “Abba, give me a word, that I may be saved.” So the old man said, “Go to the cemetery and abuse the dead.” The brother went there, abused them and threw stones at them; then he returned and told the old man about it. The latter said to him, “Didn’t they say anything to you?” He replied, “No.” The old man said, “Go back tomorrow and praise them.” So the brother went away and praised them, calling them, “Apostles, saints and righteous men.” He returned to the old man and said to him, “I have complimented them.” And the old man said to him, “Did they not answer you?” The brother said no. The old man said to him, “You know how you insulted them and they did not reply, and how you praised them and they did not speak; so you too if you wish to be saved must do the same and become a dead man. Like the dead, take no account of either the scorn of men or their praises, and you can be saved.” (132)Abba Paphnutius, the disciple of Abba Macarius, said, “I asked my Father to say a word to me and he replied, ‘Do no evil to anyone, and do not judge anyone. Observe this and you will be saved.’” (133)They said of Abba Macarius the Great that he became, as it is written, a god upon earth, because, just as God protects the world, so Abba Macarius would cover the faults which he saw, as though he did not see them; and those which he heard, as though he did not hear them.” (134)MosesThe monk must die to his neighbour and never judge him at all, in any way whatever. (141)The monk must die to everything before leaving the body, in order not to harm anyone. (141)To die to one’s neighbour is this: To bear your own faults and not to pay attention to anyone else wondering whether they are good or bad. Do no harm to anyone, do not think anything bad in our heart towards anyone, do not scorn the man who does evil, do not put confidence in him who does wrong to his neighbour, do not rejoice with him who injures his neighbour. This is what dying to one’s neighbour means. Do not rail against anyone, but rather say, “God knows each one.” Do not agree with him who slanders, do not rejoice at his slander and do not hate him who slanders his neighbour. This is what it means not to judge. Do not have hostile feelings towards anyone and do not let dislike dominate your heart; do not hate him who hates his neighbour. This is what peace is: Encourage yourself with this thought, “Affliction lasts but a short time, while peace is forever, by the grace of God the Word. Amen.’” (142-3)MatoesIt is not through virtue that I live in solitude, but through weakness; those who live in the midst of men are the strong ones. (145)MotiusFor this is humility: to see yourself to be the same as the rest. (148)MiusA soldier asked Abba Mius if God accepted repentance. After the old man had taught him many things he said, “Tell me, my dear, if your cloak is torn, do you throw it away?” He replied, “No, I mend it and use it again.” The old man said to him, “If you are so careful about your cloak, will not God equally careful about his creature?” (150)NilusHe also said, “Prayer is the seed of gentleness and the absence of anger. “ (153)He also said, “Prayer is a remedy against grief and depression.” (153)He also said, “If you want to pray properly, do not let yourself be upset or you will run in vain.” (153)He also said, “Do not be always wanting everything to turn out as you think it should, but rather as God pleases, then you will be undisturbed and thankful in your prayer.” (154)He also said, “Happy is the monk who thinks he is the outcast of all.” (154)NisterusA brother questioned an old man saying, “What good work should I do so that I may live?” The old man said, “God knows what is good. I have heard it said that one of the Fathers asked Abba Nisterus the Great, the friend of Abba Anthony, and said to him, ‘What good work is there that I could do?’ He said to him, ‘Are not all actions equal? Scripture says that Abraham was hospitable and God was with him. David was humble, and God was with him. Elias loved interior peace and God was with him. So, do whatever you see your soul desires according to God and guard your heart.’” (154)PoemenA brother came to see Abba Poemen and said to him, “Abba, I have many thoughts and they put me in danger.” The old man led him outside and said to him, “Expand your chest and do not breathe in.” He said, “I cannot do that.” Then the old man said to him, “If you cannot do that, no more can you prevent thoughts from arising, but you can resist them.” (171)Abba Poemen said, “If three men meet, of whom the first fully preserves interior peace, and the second gives thanks to God in illness, and the third serves with a pure mind, these three are doing the same work.” (171)Abba Poemen said, “Vigilance, self-knowledge and discernment; these are the guides of the soul.” (172)A brother asked Abba Poemen saying, “Can a man put his trust in one single work?” The old man said to him that Abba John the Dwarf said, “I would rather have a bit of all the virtues.” (173)The old man said that a brother asked Abba Pambo if it is good to praise one’s neighbour and that the old man said to him, “It is better to be silent.” (173)Abba Poemen said, “Even if a man were to make a new heaven and earth, he could not live free of care.” (173)Abba Poemen said that a brother who lived with some other brothers asked Abba Bessarion, “What ought I to do?” The old man said to him, “Keep silence and do not always be comparing yourself with others.” (178)He also said, “Do not give your heart to that which does not satisfy your heart.” (178)He also said, “If you take little account of yourself, you will have peace, wherever you live.” (178)He also said, “If you are silent, you will have peace wherever you live.” (178)A brother asked Abba Poemen, “If a brother is involved in a sin and is converted, will God forgive him?” The old man said to him, “Will not God, who has commanded men to act thus, do as much himself and even more? For God commanded Peter to forgive till seventy times seven.” (179)Abba Poemen said, “ A monk does not complain of his lot, a monk does not return evil for evil, a monk is not angry.” (179)Some old men came to see Abba Poemen and said to him, “When we see brothers who are dozing at the synaxis, shall we rouse them so that they will be watchful?” He said to them, “For my part when I see a brother who is dozing, I put his head on my knees and let him rest.” (179-80)Abba Poemen said, “Because of our need to eat and to sleep, we do not see the simple things.” (186)A brother asked Abba Poemen, “Is it better to speak or to be silent?” The old man said to him, “The man who speaks for God’s sake does well; but he who is silent for God’s sake also does well.” (188)Abba Poemen said, “Teach your mouth to say what is in your heart.” (189)He also said, “Wickedness does not do away with wickedness; but if someone does you wrong, do good to him, so that by your action you destroy his wickedness.” (191)PamboHe was greater than many others in that if he was asked to interpret part of the Scriptures or a spiritual saying, he would not reply immediately, but he would say he did not know that saying. If he was asked again, he would say no more. (197)Abba Pambo said, “If you have a heart, you can be saved.” (197)SisoesThey said of Abba Sisoes the Theban that when the assembly was dismissed he used to flee to his cell and they used to say of him, “He is possessed by a devil.” But he was really doing the work of God. (219)A brother asked Abba Sisoes, “What shall I do, abba, for I have fallen?” The old man said to him, “Get up again.” The brother said, “I have got up again, but I have fallen again.” The old man said, “Get up again and again.” (220)SilvanusAbba Moses asked Abba Silvanus, “Can a man lay a new foundation every day?” The old man said, “If he works hard, he can lay a new foundation at every moment.” (224)SarmatasAbba Sarmatas said, “I prefer a sinful man who knows he has sinned and repents, to a man who has not sinned and considers himself to be righteous.” (225)SarahIt was related of Amma Sarah that for thirteen years she waged warfare against the demon of fornication. She never prayed that the warfare should cease but she said, “O God, give me strength.” (229)SyncleticaShe also said, “Just as it is impossible to be at the same moment both a plant and a seed, so it is impossible for us to be surrounded by worldly honour and at the same time to bear heavenly fruit.” (234)OrAbba Or said, “The crown of the monk is humility.” III. The Lives of the Desert FathersFor I have truly seen the treasure of God hidden in human vessels. (49)The Saviour performs miracles through them in the same way. Indeed, it is clear to all who dwell there that through them the world is kept in being, and that through tem too human life is preserved and honored by God. [...] For there is no town or village in Egypt and the Thebaid which is not surrounded by hermitages as if by walls. And the people depend on the prayers of these monks as if on God himself. (50)And so, my children, first of all let us discipline ourselves to attain humility, since this is the essential foundation of all virtues. (59)And so you too, my children, should cultivate stillness and ceaselessly train yourselves for contemplation, that when you pray to God you may do so with a pure mind. For an ascetic is good if he is constantly training himself in the world, if he shows brotherly love and practices hospitality and charity, if he gives alms and is generous to visitors, if he helps the sick and does not give offence to anyone. He is good, he is exceedingly good, for he is a man who puts the commandments into practice and does them. But he is occupied with earthly things. Better and greater than he is the contemplative, who has risen from active works to the spiritual sphere and has left it to others to be anxious about earthly things. Since he has not only denied himself but even become forgetful of himself, he is concerned with the things of heaven. He stands unimpeded in the presence of God, without any anxiety holding him back. For such a man spends his life with God; he is occupied with God, and praises him with ceaseless hymnody. (62)Many of them who die in their cells are often not found for four days, because they do not see each other except at the Synaxis. 106The first work of a monk is to offer pure prayer to God with nothing reprehensible on his conscience. As the Lord says in his Gospel, “If you stand up to pray and remember that your brother has anything against you, unless you forgive your brother from your heart, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive you.” (Matt. 6.15) Then if, as we said before, we stand before God with a pure heart and free from all the passions and vices we have mentioned, we can, insofar as this is possible, see even God, and as we pray the eyes of our heart are turned towards him and we see that which is invisible with the spirit not with the flesh: this is a learning of the mind, and not a part of the flesh. For no one can suppose that he can behold the being of God in itself, but he shapes for himself some kind of appearance or image in his heart of some corporeal likeness. No form can be known in God, no limitations, but the understanding and the mind which is able to have understanding, and touch the love of the mind, can describe or relate, though it cannot comprehend. And so it behoves us to go towards God with all reverence and fear and thus set free in him the intuitions of the mind that we may know him to be above whatever there is that the human mind can conceive that is splendid, clear, bright and majestic; and I say this, provided that there is purity of mind, totally freed of voluntary states of sin. (146)Even water and bread if they are eaten with greed, that is, not as being necessary for the body but to satisfy the inner desires, even this abstinence leads to the vice of lust. (147)One day someone gave Saint Macarius a bunch of grapes, and he, thinking not of himself but others sent them to another brother whom he thought was more delicate than himself. Then the recipient gave thanks to God for his brother’s gift, but he likewise did not think of himself but of others and sent them to someone else, and this one to the next, and thus they passed through all the cells which are scattered about in the desert far from each other, each recipient ignorant of the original sender; at last they were returned to him who had first sent them away, Saint Macarius marvelled to see in the brethren such self-control and such brotherly love and he continued with more vigour his own attempts at the life of the spirit. (153)IV. Palladius – The Lausiac HistoryThere are in Egypt men who, desirous of living a life like that of angels, have sequestered themselves from the tumult of cities to dwell in deserts, and who among these barren sands produce by their extraordinary virtues fruit pleasing to God.... (3)For words and syllables do not construe teaching—sometimes those who possess these are disreputable in the extreme—but teaching consists of virtuous acts of conduct, of freedom from injuriousness, of dauntlessness, and of an even temper. To all these add an intrepidity which produces words like flames of fire. (21)For the soul being trained to act in accord with God’s plan must either learn faithfully what it does not know, or teach clearly what it does know. But if it is unwilling to do either, even though it is able, then it suffers madness. (22)Thus, O lover of divine learning, I followed this adage in part and met many of the saints. While I made no precise calculation, I would make journey of thirty days, or twice that, and covered on foot, God help me, the whole land of the Romans, and I accepted the hardship of travel gladly in order to meet a man full of the love of God and to gain what I lacked. (24-5)Now drinking wine within reason is better by far than drinking water in arrogance. For my sake, please look at the holy men who drink wine within the bounds of reason, then look at the corrupt men who drink water without moderation. Do not blame or praise the material itself, but deem blessed or unhappy the intention of those who use the material well or badly. (26)For, to be sure, neither eating nor abstinence is of any account, but it is faith which has extended itself to work done in charity that counts. (27)Also there were Paesius and Isaias, sons of Spanish merchant. When their father died, they divided the estate they held, namely five thousand coins, clothes, and slaves. They deliberated and planned together: “Brother, what kind of life shall we lead? If we become merchants, such as our father was, we will still be entrusting our work to others.“Then we would risk harm at the hands of pirates on the high seas. Come, let us take up the monastic life so that we may profit by our father’s goods and still not lose our souls.”The prospect of monastic life pleased them, but they found themselves in disagreement. For when they had divided the property, they each had in mind to please God, but by taking different ways of life.Now the one shared everything among the monasteries, churches, and prisons; he learned a trade so that he might provide bread for himself and he spent his time at ascetic practices and prayer. The other, however, made no distribution of his share, but built a monastery for himself and took in a few brethren. Then he took in every stranger, every invalid, every old man, and every poor one as well, setting up three or four tables every Saturday and Sunday. In this way he spent his money.After they both were dead, various pronouncements were made about them as though they had both been perfect. Some preferred one, some the other. Then rivalry developed among the brethren in regard to the eulogies. They went to the blessed Pambo and entrusted the judgment to him, thinking to learn from him which was the better way of life. He told them: “Both were perfect. One showed the work of Abraham; the other, that of Elias.”One faction said: “By your feet, we implore you, how can they be equal?” And this group considered the ascetic the greater, and insisted that he did what the Gospel commended, selling all and giving to the poor, and every hour both day and night carried the cross and followed the Saviour even in his prayers. But the others argued heatedly, saying that Isaias had shared everything with the needy and even used to sit on the highways and gather together the oppressed. Not only did he relieve his own soul, but many others as well by tending the sick and helping them.Pambo told them: “Again I say to you, they are both equal. I firmly insist to each of you that the one, if he had not lived so ascetically, would not be worthy to be compared with the goodness of the other. As for the other, he refreshed strangers, and thereby himself as well, and even if he appeared to carry the load of toil, he had also its relief thereafter. Wait until I have a revelation from God, and then come back and learn it.”They returned some days later and he told them: “I saw both of them standing in paradise in the presence of God.” (49-51)For there are differences in natures, but not in substances. (105)One day a brother was holding a piece of vine-cutting and he took it, sitting where he was on the slope of the mountain, and heaped dirt up over it as though planting it. Although it was not the right season, the cutting grew into a vine so large it covered the church. (131)Mind divorced from the thought of God becomes either a demon or a brute. (139)RamakrishnaRitual, Faith, Practice & ExperienceWhen, hearing the name of Hari or Rāma once, you shed tears and your hair stands on end, then you may know for certain that you do not have to perform such devotions as the sandhya any more. Then only will you have a right to renounce rituals; or rather, rituals will drop away of themselves. Then it will be enough if you repeat only the name of Rāma or Hari, or even simply Om. (1; 77)“If a man has faith in God, then even if he has committed the most heinous sins - such as killing a cow, a brahmin, or a woman - he will certainly be saved through his faith. Let him only say to God, “O Lord, I Will not repeat such an action”, and he need not be afraid of anything.” (1, 87)The goal of human life is to love God. (2, 94)Of little use are worship, oblations, or sacrifice. If a man?comes to love God, he need not trouble himself much about these activities. One needs a fan only as long as there is no breeze. The fan may be laid aside if the southern breeze blows. Then what need is there of a fan? (3, 108)After a man has attained samādhi all his actions drop away. All devotional activities, such as worship, japa, and the like, as well as all worldly duties, cease to exist for such a person. At the beginning there is much ado about work. As a man makes progress toward God, the outer display of his work becomes less and less—so much so that he cannot even sing the name and glories of God. (To Shivanath) As long as you were not here at the meeting, people talked a great deal about you and discussed your virtues. But no sooner did you arrive here than all that stopped. Now the very sight of you makes everyone happy. People now simply say, “Ah! Here is Shivanath Babu.” All other talk about you has stopped. (6, 151)“Will you tell me one thing? Why did you harp so much on sin? By repeating a hundred times, “I am a sinner”, one verily becomes a sinner. One should have such faith as to be able to say, “What? I have taken the name of God; how can I be a sinner?” God is our Father and Mother. Tell Him, “O Lord, I have committed sins, but I won’t repeat them.” Chant His name and purify your body and mind. Purify your tongue by singing God’s holy name.” (6, 159)The more you advance toward God, the less you will see of His glories and grandeur. The aspirant at first has a vision of the Goddess with ten arms; there is a great display of power in that image. The next vision is that of the Deity with two arms; there are no longer ten arms holding various weapons and missiles. Then the aspirant has a vision of Gopala, in which there is no trace of power. It is the form of a tender child. Beyond that there are other visions also. The aspirant then sees only Light. (7, 177)The nearer you come to God, the more you feel peace. Peace, peace, peace—supreme peace! The nearer you come to the Ganges, the more you feel its coolness. You will feel completely soothed when you plunge into the river. (7, 178)Once a tigress attacked a flock of goats. As she sprang on her prey, she gave birth to a cub and died. The cub grew up in the company of the goats. The goats ate grass and the cub followed their example. They bleated; the cub bleated too. Gradually it grew to be a big tiger. One day another tiger attacked the same flock. It was amazed to see the grass-eating tiger. Running after it, the wild tiger at last seized it, whereupon the grass-eating tiger began to bleat. The wild tiger dragged it to the water and said: “Look at your face in the water. It is just like mine. Here is a little meat. Eat it.” Saying this, it thrust some meat into its mouth. But the grass-eating tiger would not swallow it and began to bleat again. Gradually, however, it got the taste for blood and came to relish the meat. Then the wild tiger said: “Now you see there is no difference between you and me. Come along and follow me into the forest.” (11, 232-3)Before you came here, you didn’t know who you were. Now you will know. It is God who, as the guru, makes one know.Nangta told the story of the tigress and the herd of goats. Once a tigress attacked a herd of goats. A hunter saw her from a distance and killed her. ?The tigress was pregnant and gave birth to a cub as she expired. ?The cub began to grow in the company of the goats. ?At first it was nursed by the she-goats, and later on, as it grew bigger, it began to eat grass and bleat like the goats. ?Gradually the cub became a big tiger; but still it ate grass and bleated. ?When attached by other animals,?it would run away, like the goats. ?One day a fierce-looking tiger attacked the herd. ?It was amazed to see a tiger in the herd eating grass and running away with the goats at its approach. ?It left the goats and caught hold of the grass-eating tiger, which began to bleat and tried to run away. ?But the fierce tiger dragged it to the water and said: “Now look at your face in the water. ?You see, you have the pot-face of a tiger; it is exactly like mine.” Next it pressed a piece of meat into its mouth. ?At first the grass-eating tiger refused to eat the meat. ?Then it got the taste of the meat and relished it. ?At last the fierce tiger said to the grass-eater: “What a disgrace! You lived with goats and ate grass like them!” And the other was really ashamed of itself.Eating grass is like enjoying “woman and gold”. To bleat and run away like a goat is to behave like an ordinary man. ?Going away with the new tiger is like taking shelter with the guru, who awakens one’s spiritual consciousness, and recognizing him alone as one’s relative. ?To see one’s face rightly is to know one’s real Self.” (17, 359-60)Why should I go to Ganga or Gaya, to Kasi, Kanchi, or Prabhas,So long as I can breathe my last with Kali’s name upon my lips? (11, 251)Do you understand the views of teachers like him? According to them, one must first practise spiritual discipline: self-restraint, self-control, forbearance, and the like. Their aim is to attain Nirvāna. They are followers of Vedānta. They constantly discriminate, saying, “Brahman alone is real, and the world illusory.” But this is an extremely difficult path. If the world is illusory, then you too are illusory. The teacher who gives the instruction is equally illusory. His words, too, are as illusory as a dream.But this experience is beyond the reach of the ordinary man. Do you know what it is like? If you burn camphor nothing remains. When wood is burnt at least a little ash is left. Finally, after the last analysis, the devotee goes into samādhi. Then he knows nothing whatsoever of “I”, “you”, or the universe. (12, 266)The only purpose of life is to realize God. (12, 273)Have faith in the name of God. Then you won’t need even to go to holy places. (13, 292)A guru said to his disciple, “It is Rāma alone who resides in all bodies.” The disciple was a man of great faith. One day a dog snatched a piece of bread from him and started to run away. He ran after the dog, with a jar of butter in his hand, and cried again and again: “O Rāma, stand still a minute. That bread hasn’t been buttered.” (13, 293)The saying, “One cannot have the vision of God as long as one has these three—shame, hatred, and fear,” is very true. (14, 315)When a flood comes from the ocean, all the land is deep under water. Before the flood, the boat could have reached the ocean only by following the winding course of the river. But after the flood, one can row straight to the ocean. One need not take a roundabout course. After the harvest has been reaped, one need not take the roundabout course along the balk of the field. One can cross the field at any point. (15, 320)“How long do small girls play with their dolls? As long as they are not married and do not live with their husbands. After marriage they put the dolls away in a box. What further need is there of worshipping the image after the vision of God?” (16, 337)That was why I fed a cat with the food that was to be offered to the Divine Mother. I clearly perceived that the Divine Mother Herself had become everything-even the cat. The manager of the temple garden wrote to Mathur Babu saying that I was feeding the cat with the offering intended for the Divine Mother. But Mathur Babu had insight into the state of my mind. He wrote back to the manager: “Let him do whatever he likes. You must not say anything to him.” (16, 346)Everything can be realized simply through love of God. If one is able to love God, one does not lack anything. Kartika and Ganesa were seated near Bhagavati, who had a necklace of gems around Her neck. The Divine Mother said to them, “I will present this necklace to him who is the first to go around the universe.” Thereupon Kartika, without losing a moment, set out on the peacock, his carrier. Ganesa, on the other hand, in a leisurely fashion went around the Divine Mother and prostrated himself before Her. He knew that She contained within Herself the entire universe. The Divine Mother was pleased with him and put the necklace around his neck. After a long while Kartika returned and found his brother seated there with the necklace on. (18, 376-77)How can one expect to attain God without renunciation? Suppose one thing is placed upon another; how can you get the second without removing the first? (18, 379)What need is there of penance if God is worshipped with love?What is the use of penance if God is not worshipped with love?What need is there of penance if God is seen within and without?What is the use of penance if God is not seen within and without? (19, 388-9)MANILAL (to the Master): “Well, what is the rule for concentration? Where should one concentrate?”MASTER: “The heart is a splendid place. One can meditate there or in the Sahasrara. These are rules for meditation given in the scriptures. But you may meditate wherever you like. Every place is filled with Brahman-Consciousness. Is there any place where it does not exist? Narayana, in Vali’s presence, covered with two steps the heavens, the earth, and the interspaces. Is there then any place left uncovered by God? A dirty place is as holy as the bank of the Ganges. It is said that the whole creation is the Virat, the Universal Form of God. (20, 403)The realization of God is enough for me. What does it matter if I don’t know Sanskrit? The grace of God falls alike on all His children, learned and illiterate―whoever longs for Him. The father has the same love for all his children. Suppose a father has five children. One calls him “Baba”, some “Ba”, and some “Pa”. These last cannot pronounce the whole word. Does the father love those who address him as “Baba” more than those who call him “Pa”? The father knows that these last are simply too young to say “Baba” correctly. (20, 407)First of all you must discriminate, following the method of “Neti, neti”: “He is not the five elements, nor the sense-organs, nor the mind, nor the intelligence, nor the ego. He is beyond all these cosmic principles.” You want to climb to the roof; then you must eliminate and leave behind all the steps one by one. The steps are by no means the roof. But after reaching the roof you find that the steps are made of the same materials―brick, lime, and brick-dust―as the roof. It is the Supreme Brahman that has become the universe and its living beings and the twenty-four cosmic principles. That which is ?tman has become the five elements. You may ask why the earth is so hard, if it has come out of ?tman? All is possible through the will of God.?(21, 417-8)One cannot completely get rid of the six passions: lust, anger, greed, and the like. Therefore one should direct them to God. If you must have desire and greed, then you should desire love of God and be greedy to attain Him. If you must be conceited and egotistic, then feel conceited and egotistic thinking that you are the servant of God, the child of God. (22, 428)One should keep pictures of holy men in one’s room. That constantly quickens divine ideas. (22, 431)MASTER (to the elder Gopal and the other devotees): “As long as a man feels that God is ‘there’, he is ignorant. But he attains Knowledge when he feels that God is ‘here’…. What a man seeks is very near him. Still he wanders about from place to place.”RAM: “Sir, I now realize why a guru asks some of his disciples to visit the four principal holy places of the country. Once having wandered about, the disciple discovers that it is the same here as there. Then he returns to the guru. All this wandering is only to create faith in the guru’s words.” [???]The aim of life is the attainment of God. (23, 453)What is the use of making pilgrimages if you can attain love of God remaining where you are? I have been to Benares and noticed the same trees there are here. The same green tamarind-leaves! (24, 469)The Bauls from Shibpur began to sing to the accompaniment of a stringed instrument. A line in the first song was: We are sinners: redeem us, O merciful Lord!MASTER (to the devotees): “It is the attitude of a beginner to worship God out of fear. Please sing about God-realization-songs expressing divine joy.(To Rākhāl ) “How well they sang that song the other day at Nabin Niyogi’s house: “Be drunk, O mind, be drunk with the Wine of Heavenly Bliss”! While singing religious songs one should not constantly refer to one’s worries. One should rather feel joyous and ecstatic as one chants God’s name. (26, 501)PRIYA: “But the mind is not under my control.”MASTER: “How is that? There is such a thing as abhyiisayoga, yoga through practice. Keep up the practice and you will find that your mind will follow in whatever direction you lead it. The mind is like a white cloth just returned from the laundry. It will be red if you dip it in red dye and blue if you dip it in blue. It will have whatever colour you dip it in. (28, 539)There is a sādhu in Hrishikesh who gets up early in the morning and stands near a great waterfall. He looks at it the whole day and says to God: “Ah, You have done well! Well done! How amazing!” He doesn’t practise any other form of japa or austerity. At night he returns to his hut. (30, 586)Be firm in one ideal—either in God with form or in the formless God. Then alone will you realize God; otherwise not. With firm and unwavering belief the followers of God with form will realize Him, as will those who speak of Him as formless. You may eat a cake with icing either straight or sidewise; it will taste sweet either way. (All laugh.) (32, 624)SUB-JUDGE: “Sir, I am a sinner. How can I say that God dwells in me?” MASTER: “That’s the one trouble with you Brahmos. With you it is always sin and sin! That’s the Christian view, isn’t it? Once a man gave me a Bible. A part of it was read to me, and it was full of that one thing—sin and sin! One must have such faith that one can say: “I have uttered the name of God; I have repeated the name of Rāma or Hari. How can I be a sinner?” One must have faith in the glory of God’s?name.” (32, 627)They say that when you plunge into the holy waters of the Ganges your sins perch on a tree on the bank. No sooner do you come out of the water after the bath than the sins jump back on your shoulders. (All laugh.) A man must prepare the way beforehand, so that he may think of God in the hour of death. The way lies through constant practice. If a man practises meditation on God, he will remember God even on the last day of his life. (32, 632)VIJAY: “What remains if one renounces both dharma and adharma?”MASTER: “Pure love of God. I prayed to the Divine Mother: “O Mother; here, take Thy dharma; here, take Thy adharma; and give me pure love for Thee. Here, take Thy virtue; here, take Thy vice; and give me pure love for Thee. Here, take Thy knowledge; here, take Thy ignorance; and give me pure love for Thee.” You see, I didn’t ask even for knowledge or public recognition. When one renounces both dharma and adharma, there remains only pure love of God-love that is stainless, motiveless, and that one feels only for the sake of love.” (32, 634)A man must work. Only then can he see God. One day, in an exalted mood, I had a vision of the Haldārpukur. I saw a low-caste villager drawing water after pushing aside the green scum. Now and then he took up the water in the palm of his hand and examined it. In that vision it was revealed to me that the water cannot be seen without pushing aside the green scum that covers it; that is to say, one cannot develop love of God or obtain His vision without work. Work means meditation, japa, and the like. The chanting of God’s name and glories is work too. You may also include charity, sacrifice, and so on. (33, 645)What then is man’s duty? What else can it be? It is just to take refuge in God and to pray to Him with a yearning heart for His vision. (34, 671)GIRISH: “Please bless me, sir.”MASTER: “Have faith in the Divine Mother and you will attain every?thing.”GIRISH: “But I am a sinner.”MASTER: “The wretch who constantly harps on sin becomes a sinner.”GIRISH: “Sir, the very ground where I used to sit would become unholy.”MASTER: “How can you say that? Suppose a light is brought into a room that has been dark a thousand years; does it illumine the room little by little, or all in a flash?”GIRISH: “Then you have blessed me.”MASTER: “If you sincerely believe it. What more shall I say? I eat and drink and chant the name of God.”GIRISH: “I have no sincerity. Please give it to me.”MASTER: “I? Sages like Nārada and Sukadeva?could have done that.”GIRISH: “I don’t see Nārada and Sukadeva. But you are here before me.”MASTER (smiling): “All right. You have faith.” (35, 679)One speaks as one thinks. If a man thinks of worldly things day and night, and deals with people hypocritically, then his words are coloured by his thoughts. If one eats radish, one belches radish. Instead of talking about “shopkeeping”, he should rather have said, “A man should act as if he were the doer, knowing very well that he is really not the doer.” The other day a man was singing here. The song contained words like “profit” and “loss”. I stopped him. If one contemplates a particular subject day and night, one cannot talk of anything else. (35, 686)All troubles come to an end when the ego dies. (39, 758)The truth is that you cannot attain God if you have even a trace of desire. (40, 769)There are different views. All these views are but so many paths to reach the same goal. But everyone believes that his view alone is right, that his watch alone keeps correct time. (39, 748)NARENDRA: “It is enough to have faith in God. I don’t care about what He is doing or what He hangs from. Infinite is the universe; infinite are the Incarnations.”As Sri Ramakrishna heard the words, “Infinite is the universe; infinite are the Incarnations”, he said with folded hands, “Ah!” (40, 773)Why should a man cherish love of God in his heart? How else will he live? How else will he spend his days? (42, 811)If one has faith one has everything. (45, 849)During my boyhood God manifested Himself in me. I was then eleven years old. One day, while I was walking across a paddy field, I saw something. Later on I came to know from people that I had been unconscious, and my body totally motionless. Since that day I have been an altogether different man. I began to see another person within me. When I used to conduct the worship in the temple, my hand, instead of going toward the Deity, would very often come toward my head, and I would put flowers there. A young man who was then staying with me did not dare approach me. He would say: “I see a light on your face. I am afraid to come very near you.” (47, 890)I don’t want liberation; I want love of God! (48, 914)“When the mind is united with God, one sees Him very near, in one’s own heart. But you must remember one thing. The more you realize this unity, the farther your mind is withdrawn from worldly things. There is the story of Vilwamangal in the Bhaktamala. He used to visit a prostitute. One night he was very late in going to her house. He had been detained at home by the sraddha ceremony of his father and mother. In his hands he was carrying the food offered in the ceremony, to feed his mistress. His whole soul was so set upon the woman that he was not at all conscious of his movements. He didn’t even know how he was walking. There was a yogi seated on the path, meditating on God with eyes closed. Vilwamangal stepped on him. The yogi became angry, and cried out: “What? Are you blind? I have been thinking of God, and you step on my body!” “I beg your pardon,” said Vilwamangal, “but may I ask you something? I have been unconscious, thinking of a prostitute, and you are conscious of the outer world though thinking of God. What kind of meditation is that?” In the end Vilwamangal renounced the world and went away in order to worship God. He said to the prostitute: “You are my guru. You have taught me how one should yearn for God.” He addressed the prostitute as his mother and gave her up.” (48, 916-7)How wonderful Narendra’s state of mind is! You see, this very Narendra did not believe in the forms of God. And now you see how his soul is panting for God! You know that story of the man who asked his guru how God could be realized. The guru said to him: “Come with me. I shall show you how one can realize God.” Saying this, he took the disciple to a lake and held his head under the water. After a short time he released the disciple and asked him, “How did you feel?” “I was dying for a breath of air!” said the disciple.When the soul longs and yearns for God like that, then you will know that you do not have long to wait for His vision. The rosy colour on the eastern horizon shows that the sun will soon rise.” (49, 937)The Master had once said to M., “It becomes difficult for me to give up the body, when I realize that after my death you will wander about weeping for me.” (52, 975)Faith is the one essential thing. God exists. He is very near us. Through faith alone one sees him. (52, 999)When I lived at Kamarpukur, Hriday’s son, a child four or five years old, used to spend the whole day with me. He played with his toys and almost forgot everything else. But no sooner did evening come than he would say, “I want to go to my mother.” I would try to cajole him in various ways and would say, “Here, I’ll give you a pigeon.” But he wouldn’t be consoled with such things; he would weep and cry, “I want to go to my mother.” He didn’t enjoy playing any more. I myself wept to see his state.One should cry for God that way, like a child. That is what it means to be restless for God. One doesn’t enjoy play or food any longer. After one’s experiences of the world are over, one feels this restlessness and weeps for God.” (Appendix A, 1011)Other ReligionsGod can be realized through all paths. It is like your coming to Dakshineswar by carriage, by boat, by steamer, or on foot. You have chosen the way according to your convenience and taste; but the destination is the same. Some of you have arrived earlier than others; but all have arrived. (Appendix A, 1010)I see people who talk about religion constantly quarrelling with one another. Hindus, Mussalmans, Brahmos, Shaktas, Vaishnavas, Saivas, all quarrel with one another. They haven’t the intelligence to understand that He who is called Krishna is also Shiva and the Primal ?akti, and that it is He, again, who is called Jesus and Allah. There is only one Rāma and He has a thousand names.You should undoubtedly bow before all views. But there is a thing called unswerving devotion to one ideal. True, you should salute everyone. But you must love one ideal with your whole soul. That is unswerving devotion. (18, 371)A man can reach God if he follows one?path?rightly. Then he can learn about all the other paths. It is like reaching the roof by some means or other. Then one is able to?climb down by the wooden or stone stairs, by a bamboo pole, or even by a rope. (18, 374)M: “Sir, I like to think of God as formless.”MASTER: “Very good. It is enough to have faith in either aspect. You believe in God without form; that is quite all right. But never for a moment think that this alone is true and all else false. Remember that God with form is just as true as God without form. But hold fast to your own conviction.” (1; 80)You were talking of worshipping the clay image. Even if the image is made of clay, there is need for that sort of worship. God Himself has provided different forms of worship. He who is the Lord of the Universe has arranged all these forms to suit different men in different stages of knowledge.The mother cooks different dishes to suit the stomachs of her different children. Suppose she has five children. If there is a fish to cook, she prepares various dishes from it—pilau, pickled fish, fried fish, and so onto suit their different tastes and powers of digestion. Do you understand me? (1, 81)Sri Ramakrishna was talking to Kāli, the Divine Mother of the Universe. He said: “Mother, everyone says, “My watch alone is right.” The Christians, the Brahmos, the Hindus, the Mussalmans, all say, “My religion alone is true.” But, Mother, the fact is that nobody’s watch is right. Who can truly understand Thee? But if a man prays to Thee with a yearning heart, he can reach Thee, through Thy grace, by any path. Mother, show me some time how the Christians pray to Thee in their churches. But Mother, what will people say if I go in? Suppose they make a fuss! Suppose they don’t allow me to enter the Kāli temple again! Well then, show me the Christian worship from the door of the church.” (2, 93-4)God can be realized through all paths. All religions are true. The important thing is to reach the roof. You can reach it by stone stairs or by wooden stairs or by bamboo steps or by a rope. You can also climb up by a bamboo pole.?You may say that there are many errors and superstitions in another religion. I should reply: Suppose there are. Every religion has errors. Everyone thinks that his watch alone gives the correct time. It is enough to have yearning for God. It is enough to love Him and feel attracted to Him: Don’t you know that God is the Inner Guide? He sees the longing of our heart and the yearning of our soul. Suppose a man has several sons. The older boys address him distinctly as “Baba” or “Papa”, but the babies can at best call him “Ba” or “Pa”. Now, will the father be angry with those who address him in this indistinct way? The father knows that they too are calling him, only they cannot pronounce his name well. All children are the same to the father. Likewise, the devotees call on God alone, though by different names. They call on one Person only. God is one, but His names are many. (4, 111-12)It is like water, called in different languages by different names, such as “jal”, “pani”, and so forth. There are three or four ghats on a lake. The Hindus, who drink water at one place, call it “jal”. The Mussalmans at another place call it “pani”. And the English at a third place call it “water”. All three denote one and the same thing, the difference being in the name only. In the same way, some address?? the Reality as “Allah”, some as “God”, some as “Brahman”, some as “Kāli”, and others by such names as “Rama”, “Jesus”, “Durga”, “Hari.” (5, 135)It is not good to feel that one’s own religion alone is true and all others are false. God is one only, and not two. Different people call on Him by different names: some as Allah, some as God, and others as Krishna, ?iva, and Brahman. It is like the water in a lake. Some drink it at one place and call it “jal”, others at another place and call it “pani”, and still others at a third place and call it “water”. The Hindus call it “jal”, the Christians “water”, and the Mussalmans “pani”. But it is one and the same thing. Opinions are but paths. Each religion is only a path leading to God, as rivers come from different directions and ultimately become one in the one ocean. (12, 264-5)Once someone gave me a book of the Christians. I asked him to read it to me. It talked about nothing but sin. (To Keshab) Sin is the only thing one hears of at your Brahmo Samaj, too. The wretch who constantly says, “I am bound, I am bound” only succeeds in being bound. He who says day and night, “I am a sinner, I am a sinner” verily becomes a sinner.One should have such burning faith in God that one can say: “What? I have repeated the name of God, and can sin still cling to me? How can I be a sinner any more? How can I be in bondage any more?”If a man repeats the name of God, his body, mind, and everything become pure. Why should one talk only about sin and hell, and such things? Say but once, “O Lord, I have undoubtedly done wicked things, but I won’t repeat them.” And have faith in His name. (5, 138)All trouble and botheration come to an end when the “I” dies. You may indulge in thousands of reasoning, but still the “I” doesn’t disappear. For people like you and me, it is good to have the feeling, “I am a lover of God.”The Saguna Brahman is meant for the bhaktas. In other words, a bhakta believes that God has attributes and reveals Himself to men as a Person, assuming forms. It is He who listens to our prayers. The prayers that you utter are directed to Him alone. You are bhaktas, not jnanis or Vedantists. It doesn’t matter whether you accept God with form or not. It is enough to feel that God is a Person who listens to our prayers, who creates, preserves, and destroys the universe, and who is endowed with infinite power.It is easier to attain God by following the path of devotion. (6, 149)Listen to a story. Once a man entered a wood and saw a small animal on a tree. He came back and told another man that he had seen a creature of a beautiful red colour on a certain tree. The second man replied: “When I went into the wood, I also saw that animal. But why do you call it red? It is green.” Another man who was present contradicted them both and insisted that it was yellow. Presently others arrived and contended that it was grey, violet, blue, and so forth and so on. At last they started quarrelling among themselves. To settle the dispute they all went to the tree. They saw a man sitting under it. On being asked, he replied: “Yes, I live under this tree and I know the animal very well. All your descriptions are true. Sometimes it appears red, sometimes yellow, and at other times blue, violet, grey, and so forth. It is a chameleon. And sometimes it has no colour at all. Now it has a colour, and now it has none.”In like manner, one who constantly thinks of God can know His real nature; he alone knows that God reveals Himself to seekers in various forms and aspects. God has attributes; then again He has none. Only the man who lives under the tree knows that the chameleon can appear in various colours, and he knows, further, that the animal at times has no colour at all. It is the others who suffer from the agony of futile argument. (6, 149-50)“One should not think, “My religion alone is the right path and other religions are false.” God can be realized by means of all paths. It is enough to have sincere yearning for God. Infinite are the paths and infinite the opinions. (6, 158)If you asked me which form of God you should meditate upon, I should say: Fix your attention on that form which appeals to you most; but know for certain that all forms are the forms of one God alone. (8, 184)With sincerity and earnestness one can realize God through all religions. The Vaishnavas will realize God, and so will the Saktas, the Vedantists, and the Brahmos. The Mussalmans and Christians will realize Him too. All will certainly realize God if they are earnest and sincere.Some people indulge in quarrels, saying, “One cannot attain anything unless one worships our Krishna”, or, “Nothing can be gained without the worship of Kāli, our Divine Mother”, or, “One cannot be saved without accepting the Christian religion.” This is pure dogmatism. The dogmatist says, “My religion alone is true, and the religions of others are false.” This is a bad attitude. God can be reached by different paths. (8, 191)“You do not accept God with form. That is all right. The image is not meant for you. For you it is good to deepen your feeling toward your own Ideal. From the worshippers of the Personal God you should learn their yearning—for instance, Sri Krishna’s attraction for Radha. You should learn from the worshippers of the Personal God their love for their Chosen Ideal. When the believers in the Personal God worship the images of Kāli and Durga, with what feeling they cry from the depths of their souls, “Mother! O Mother!” How much they love the Deity! You should accept that feeling. You don’t have to accept the image.” (10, 216)Yes, all one’s confusion comes to an end if one only realizes that it is God who manifests Himself as the atheist and the believer, the good and the bad, the real and the unreal; that it is He who is present in waking and in sleep; and that He is beyond all these. (11, 236)Besides, it is a sin to criticize anyone, especially a devotee of God. All sins may be forgiven, but not the sin of criticizing a devotee. (18, 371)Truth is one; only It is called by different names. All people are seeking the same Truth; the variance is due to climate, temperament, and name. A lake has many ghats. From one Ghat the Hindus take water in jars and call it “jal”. From another Ghat the Mussalmans take water in leather bags and call it “pani”. From a third the Christians take the same thing and call it “water”. (All laugh.) Suppose someone says that the thing is not “jal” but “pani”, or that it is not “pani” but “water”, or that it is not “water” but “jal”. It would indeed be ridiculous. But this very thing is at the root of the friction among sects, their misunderstandings and quarrels. This is why people injure and kill one another, and shed blood, in the name of religion. But this is not good. Everyone is going toward God. They will all realize Him if they have sincerity and longing of heart. (21, 423)You must know that there are different tastes. There are also different powers of digestion. God has made different religions and creeds to suit different aspirants. By no means are all fit for the Knowledge of Brahman. Therefore the worship of God with form has been provided.The mother brings home a fish for her children. She curries part of the fish, part she fries, and with another part she makes pilau. By no means all can digest the pilau. So she makes fish soup for those who have weak stomachs. Further, some want pickled or fried fish. There are different temperaments. There are differences in the capacity to comprehend. (25, 486)He is indeed a real man who has harmonized everything. Most people are one-sided. But I find that all opinions point to the One. All views—the Sakta, the Vaishnava, the Vedānta—have that One for their centre. He who is formless is, again, endowed with form. It is He who appears in different forms: The attributeless Brahman is my Father. God with attributes is my Mother. Whom shall I blame? Whom shall I praise? The two pans of the scales are equally heavy. (25, 490)You see how many opinions there are about God. Each opinion is a path. There are innumerable opinions and innumerable paths leading to God…. You must stick to one path with all your strength. A man can reach the roof of a house by stone stairs or a ladder or a rope-ladder or a rope or even by a bamboo pole. But he cannot reach the roof if he sets foot now on one and now on another. He should firmly follow one path. Likewise, in order to realize God a man must follow one path with all his strength.But you must regard other views as so many paths leading to God. You should not feel that your path is the only right path and that other paths are wrong. You mustn’t bear malice toward others. (27, 514)It is by the will of God that different religions and opinions have come into existence. God gives to different people what they can digest. The mother does not give fish pilau to all her children. All cannot digest it; so she prepares simple fish soup for some. Everyone cherishes his own special ideal and follows his own nature. (28, 540)“But I say that we are all calling on the same God. Jealousy and malice need not be. Some say that God is formless, and some that God has form. I say, let one man meditate on God with form if he believes in form, and let another meditate on the formless Deity if he does not believe in form. What I mean is that dogmatism is not good. It is not good to feel that my religion alone is true and other religions are false. The correct attitude is this: My religion is right, but I do not know whether other religions are right or wrong, true or false. I say this because one cannot know the true nature of God unless one realizes Him. Kabir used to say: “God with form is my Mother, the Formless is my Father. Which shall I blame? Which shall I praise? The two pans of the scales are equally heavy.”Hindus, Mussalmans, Christians, Saktas, Saivas, Vaishnavas, the Brahmajnanis of the time of the rishis, and you, the Brahmajnanis of modern times, all seek the same object. A mother prepares dishes to suit the stomachs of her children. Suppose a mother has five children and a fish is bought for the family. She doesn’t cook pilau or kalia for all of them. All have not the same power of digestion; so she prepares a simple stew for some. But she loves all her children equally. Do you know my attitude? I love all the preparations of fish. I have a womanly nature (all laugh). I feel myself at home with every dish-fried fish, fish cooked with turmeric powder, pickled fish. And further, I equally relish rich preparations like fish-head, kalia, and pilau. (all laugh)Do you know what the truth is? God has made different religions to suit different aspirants, times, and countries. All doctrines are only so many paths; but a path is by no means God Himself. Indeed, one can reach God if one follows any of the paths with whole-hearted devotion. Suppose there are errors in the religion that one has accepted; if one is sincere and earnest, then God Himself will correct those errors. Suppose a man has set out with a sincere desire to visit Jagannath at Puri and by mistake has gone north instead of south; then certainly someone meeting him on the way will tell him: “My good fellow, don’t go that way. Go to the south.” And the man will reach Jagannath sooner or later.If there are errors in other religions, that is none of our business. God, to whom the world belongs, takes care of that. Our duty is somehow to visit Jagannath. (To the Brahmos) The view you hold is good indeed. You describe God as formless. That is fine. One may eat a cake with icing, either straight or sidewise. It will taste sweet either way.But dogmatism is not good. You have no doubt heard the story of the chameleon. A man entered a wood and saw a chameleon on a tree. He reported to his friends, “I have seen a red lizard.” He was firmly convinced that it was nothing but red. Another person, after visiting the tree, said, “I have seen a green lizard.” He was firmly convinced that it was nothing but green. But the man who lived under the tree said: “What both of you have said is true. But the fact is that the creature is sometimes red, sometimes green, sometimes yellow, and sometimes has no colour at all.” (29, 558-559)One must accept everything: God with form and God without form. While meditating in the Kāli temple I noticed Ramani, a prostitute. I said, “Mother, I see that Thou art in that form too.” Therefore I say one must accept everything. One does not know when or how God will reveal Himself. (29, 577)I keep men’s own ideals intact. I ask a Vaishnava to hold to his Vaishnava attitude and a Sakta to his. But this also I say to them “Never feel that your path alone is right and that the paths of others a wrong and full of errors. Hindus, Mussalmans, and Christians are going to the same destination by different paths. A man can realize God by following his own path if his prayer is sincere. (30, 596)When you mix with people outside your Samaj, love them all. When in their company be one of them. Don’t harbour malice toward them. Don’t turn up your nose in hatred and say: “Oh, this man believes in God with form and not in the formless God. That man believes in the formless God and not in God with form. This man is a Christian. This man is a Hindu. And this man is a Musslman.” It is God alone who makes people see things in different ways. Know that people have different natures. Realize this and mix with them as much as you can. And love all. But enter your own inner chamber to enjoy peace and bliss. (32, 637)Once a man went into a wood and saw a beautiful creature on a tree. Later he told a friend about it and said, “Brother, on a certain tree in the wood I saw a red-coloured creature.” The friend answered: “I have seen it too. Why do you call it red? It is green.” A third man said: “Oh, no, no! Why do you call it green? It is yellow.” Then other persons began to describe the animal variously as violet, blue, or black. Soon they were quarrelling about the colour. At last they went to the tree and found a man sitting under it. In answer to their questions he said: “I live under this tree and know the creature very well. What each of you has said about it is true. Sometimes it is red, sometimes green, sometimes yellow, sometimes blue, and so forth and so on. Again, sometimes I see that it has no colour whatsoever.”Only he who constantly thinks of God can know His real nature. He alone knows that God reveals Himself in different forms and different ways that He has attributes and, again, has none. Only the man who lives under the tree knows that the chameleon can assume various colours and that sometimes it remains colourless. Others, not knowing the whole truth, quarrel among themselves and suffer. (45, 859)EffortCry to the Lord with an intensely yearning heart and you will certainly see Him. People shed a whole jug of tears for wife and children. They swim in tears for money. But who weeps for God? Cry to Him with a real cry. (1, 83)Longing is like the rosy dawn. After the dawn out comes the sun. Longing is followed by the vision of God.?(1, 83)Nothing whatsoever is achieved in spiritual life without yearning. By constant living in the company of holy men, the soul becomes restless for God. This yearning is like the state of mind of a man who has someone ill in the family. His mind is in a state of perpetual restlessness, thinking how the sick person may be cured. Or again, one should feel a yearning for God like the yearning of a man who has lost his job and is wandering from one office to another in search of work. If he is rejected at a certain place which has no vacancy, he goes there again the next day and inquires, “Is there an vacancy today?” (2, 96)Anger and lust cannot be destroyed. Turn them toward God. If you must feel desire and temptation, then desire to realize God, feel tempted by Him. Discriminate and turn the passions away from worldly objects. When the elephant is about to devour a plaintain-tree in someone’s garden, the mahut strikes it with his iron-tipped goad. (6, 162)You practised so many austerities, but people expect to realize God in a moment! Can a man build a wall simply by moving his finger around his home? (11, 238)What yearning! What love! Radha possessed not only one hundred per cent of divine love, but one hundred and twenty-five per cent. This is what it means to be intoxicated with ecstatic love of God. The sum and substance of the whole matter is that a man must love God, must be restless for Him. It doesn’t matter whether you believe in God with form or in God without form. You may or may not believe that God incarnates Himself as man. But you will realize Him if you have that yearning. Then He Himself will let you know what He is like. If you must be mad, why should you be mad for the things of the world? If you must be mad, be mad for God alone. (23, 449)A man asked, “Why don’t I see God?” I said to him, as the idea came to my mind: “You want to catch a big fish. First make arrangements for it. Throw spiced bait into the water. Get a line and a rod. At the smell of the bait the fish will come from the deep water. By the movement of the water you will know that a big fish has come.“You want to eat butter. But what will you achieve by simply repeating that there is butter in milk? You have to work hard for it. Only thus can you separate butter from milk. Can one see God by merely repeating, “God exists”? One needs sādhanā. (31, 608)He who has no compassion is no man. (32, 628)It is very hard to cultivate discrimination and dispassion. It is not easy to get rid of the idea, “I am the master and all these are mine.” (35, 681)Everyone wants to be a teacher, but a disciple is hard to find. (41, 794)One cannot attain divine knowledge till one gets rid of pride. (46, 874)The Varieties of Worldly LifeMASTER (to Narendra): “How do you feel about it? Worldly people say all kinds of things about the spiritually minded. But look here! When an elephant moves along the street, any number of curs and other small animals may bark and cry after it; but the elephant doesn’t even look back at them. If people speak ill of you, what will you think of them?”NARENDRA: “I shall think that dogs are barking at me.”MASTER (Smiling): “Oh, no! You mustn’t go that far, my child! (Laughter). God dwells in all beings. But you may be intimate only with good people; you must keep away from the evil-minded. God is even in the tiger; but you cannot embrace the tiger on that account. (Laughter). You may say, “Why run away from a tiger, which is also a manifestation of God?” The answer to that is: “Those who tell you to run away are also manifestations of God—and why shouldn’t you listen to them?” (1, 84)Let me tell you a story. In a forest there lived a holy man who had many disciples. One day he taught them to see God in all beings and, knowing this, to bow low before them all. A disciple went to the forest to gather wood for the sacrificial fire. Suddenly he heard an outcry: “Get out of the way! A mad elephant is coming!” All but the disciple of the holy man took to their heels. He reasoned that the elephant was also God in another form. Then why should he run away from it? He stood still, bowed before the animal, and began to sing its praises. The mahut of the elephant was shouting: “Run away! Run away!” But the disciple didn’t move. The animal seized him with its trunk, cast him to one side, and went on its way. Hurt and bruised, the disciple lay unconscious on the ground. Hearing what had happened, his teacher and his brother disciples came to him and carried him to the hermitage. With the help of some medicine he soon regained consciousness. Someone asked him, “You knew the elephant was coming—why didn’t you leave the place?” “But”, he said, “our teacher has told us that God Himself has taken all these forms, of animals as well as men. Therefore, thinking it was only the elephant God that was coming, I didn’t run away.” At this the teacher said: “Yes, my child, it is true that the elephant God was coming; but the mahut God forbade you to stay there. Since all are manifestations of God, why didn’t you trust the mahut’s words? You should have heeded the words of the mahut God.” (Laughter) (1, 84)A DEVOTEE: “Sir, is there no help, then, for such a worldly person?”MASTER: “Certainly there is. From time to time he should live in the company of holy men, and from time to time go into solitude to meditate on God. Furthermore, he should practise discrimination and pray to God, “Give me faith and devotion.” Once a person has faith he has achieved everything. There is nothing greater than faith.”? (1, 87)Why shouldn’t one realize God while living in the world? (2, 98)Everybody will surely be liberated. But one should follow the instructions of the guru; if one follows a devious path, one will suffer in trying to retrace one’s steps. It takes a long time to achieve liberation. A man may fail to obtain it in this life. Perhaps he will realize God only after many births. Sages like Janaka performed worldly duties. They performed them, bearing God in their minds, as a dancing-girl dances, keeping jars or trays on her head. Haven’t you seen how the women in northwest India walk, talking and laughing while carrying water-pitchers on their beads? (2, 98)A man cannot live on the roof a long time. He comes down again. Those who realize Brahman in samādhi come down also and find that it is Brahman that has become the universe and its living beings. In the musical scale there are the notes sa, re ga, ma, pa, dha, and ni; but one cannot keep one’s voice on “ni” a long time. The ego does not vanish altogether. The man coming down from samādhi perceives that it is Brahman that has become the ego, the universe, and all living beings. This is known as vijnāna.?(3, 104)Again, the worldly man is like a snake trying to swallow a mole. The snake can neither swallow the mole nor give it up. The bound soul may have realized that there is no substance to the world—that the world is like a hog plum, only stone and skin—but still he cannot give it up and turn his mind to God.I once met a relative of Keshab Sen, fifty years old. He was playing cards. As if the time had not yet come for him to think of God! (7, 165)A frog had a rupee, which he kept in his hole. One day an elephant was going over the hole, and the frog, coming out in a fit of anger, raised his foot, as if to kick the elephant, and said, “How dare you walk over my head?” Such is the pride that money begets! (7, 169)He who has realized God does not look upon a woman with the eye of lust; so he is not afraid of her. He perceives clearly that women are but so many aspects of the Divine Mother. He worships them all as the Mother Herself. (7, 168)When one has such love and attachment for God, one doesn’t feel the attraction of maya to wife, children, relatives, and friends. One retains only compassion for them. To such a man the world appears a strange land, a place where he has merely to perform his duties. It is like a man’s having his real home in the country, but coming to Calcutta for work; he has to rent a house in Calcutta for the sake of his duties. When one develops love of God, one completely gets rid of one’s attachment to the world and worldly wisdom.One cannot see God if one has even the slightest trace of worldliness. Match-sticks, if damp, won’t strike fire though you rub a thousand of them against the match-box. You only waste a heap of sticks. The mind soaked in worldliness is such a damp match-stick. (7, 173)Bound souls, worldly people, are like silk-worms. The worms can cut through their cocoons if they want, but having woven the cocoons themselves, they are too much attached to them to leave them. And so they die there. (9, 206)Once Hriday brought a bull-calf here. I saw, one day, that he had tied it with a rope in the garden, so that it might graze there. I asked him, “Hriday, why do you tie the calf there every day?” “Uncle,” he said, “I am going to send this calf to our village. When it grows strong I shall yoke it to the plough.” As soon as I heard these words I was stunned to think: “How inscrutable is the play of the divine maya! Kamarpukur and Sihore are so far away from Calcutta! This poor calf must go all that way. Then it will grow, and at length it will be yoked to the plough. This is indeed the world! This is indeed maya!”? I fell down unconscious. Only after a long time did I regain consciousness. (12, 270)“Why should you say such things? This world may be a “frame work of illusion”, but it is also said that it is a “mansion of mirth”. Let the body remain. One can also turn this world into a mansion of mirth.” (14, 298)It is narrated in the Bhagavata that the Avadhuta had twenty-four gurus, one of whom was a kite. In a certain place the fishermen were catching fish. A kite swooped down and snatched a fish. At the sight of the fish, about a thousand crows chased the kite and made a great noise with their cawing. Whichever way the kite flew with the fish, the crows followed it. The kite flew to the south and the crows followed it there. The kite flew to the north and still the crows followed after it. The kite went east and west, but with the same result. As the kite began to fly about in confusion, lo, the fish dropped from its mouth. The crows at once let the kite alone and flew after the fish. Thus relieved of its worries, the kite sat on the branch of a tree and thought: “That wretched fish was at the root of all my troubles. I have now got? rid of it and therefore I am at peace.” (14, 314)I find a change, coming over me. Years ago Vaishnavcharan said to me, “One attains Perfect Knowledge when one sees God in man.” Now I see that it is God alone who is moving about in various forms: as a holy man, as a cheat, as a villain. Therefore I say, “Narayana in the guise of the Sādhu, Narayana in the guise of the cheat, Narayana in the guise of the villain, Narayana in the guise of the lecher. (21, 419)Therefore I say that, whatever you may do, you will find better and better things if only you go forward. You may feel a little ecstasy as the result of japa, but don’t conclude from this that you have achieved everything in spiritual life. Work is by no means the goal of life. Go forward, and then you will be able to perform unselfish work. But again I say that it is most difficult to perform unselfish work. Therefore with love and longing in your heart pray to God: “O God, grant me devotion at Thy Lotus Feet and reduce my worldly duties. Please grant me the boon that the few duties I must do may be done in a detached spirit.” If you go still farther you will realize God. (23, 454)I tell people that there is nothing wrong in the life of the world. But they must live in the world as a maidservant lives in her master’s house. Referring to her master’s house, she says, “That is our house.” But her real home is perhaps in a far-away village. Pointing out her master’s house to others, she says, no doubt, “This is our house”, but in her heart she knows very well that it doesn’t belong to her and that her own house is in a faraway village. She brings up her master’s son and says, “My Hari has grown very naughty”, or “My Hari doesn’t like sweets.” Though she repeats, “My Hari” with her lips, yet she knows in her heart that Hari doesn’t belong to her, that he is her master’s son.Thus I say to those who visit me: “Why don’t you live in the world? There is no harm in that. But always keep your mind, on God. Know for certain that house, family and property are not yours. They are God’s. Your real? home is in God.” Also I ask them to pray always with a longing heart for love of God’s Lotus Feet. (23, 456-7)Live in the world like an ant. The world contains a mixture of truth and untruth, sugar and sand. Be an ant and take the sugar.Again, the world is a mixture of milk and water, the bliss of God-Consciousness and the pleasure of sense-enjoyment. Be a swan and drink the milk, leaving the water aside.Live in the world like a waterfowl. The water clings to the bird, but the bird shakes it off. Live in the world like a mudfish. The fish lives in the mud, but its skin is always bright and shiny.The world is indeed a mixture of truth and make-believe. Discard the make-believe and take the truth.” (24, 472)A man should do his worldly duties with only twenty-five per cent of his mind, devoting the rest to God. (27, 523)NILKANTHA: “Revered sir, I am entangled in worldliness.”MASTER (smiling): “God has kept you in the world for the sake of others. There are eight fetters. One cannot get rid of them all. God keeps one or two so that a man may live in the world and teach others. You have organized this theatrical company. How many people are being benefited by seeing your bhakti! If you give up everything, then where will these musicians go? (30, 598)PUNDIT (smiling): “Revered sir, I feel a spirit of total renunciation when I am here. I feel like going away, giving up the world.”MASTER: “No, no! Why should you give up? Give up mentally. Live unattached in the world.” (31, 610)But I have not got rid of all desires. I have the desire for love of God. (32, 638)A man should have faith in the words of his guru. He doesn’t have to look into his guru’s character. “Though my guru visits the grog-shop, still he is the Embodiment of Eternal Bliss.”A man who used to give recitals of the Chandi and the Bhagavata once said, “A broomstick is itself unclean, but it cleans dirty places.” (33, 658)If a householder is a genuine devotee he performs his duties without attachment; he surrenders the fruit of his work to God—his gain or loss, his pleasure or pain—and day and night he prays for devotion and for nothing else. This is called motiveless work, the performance of duty without attachment. A sannyāsi, too, must do all his work in that spirit of detachment; but he has no worldly duties to attend to, like a householder.If a householder gives in charity in a spirit of detachment, he is really doing good to himself and not to others. It is God alone that he serves—God, who dwells in all beings; and when he serves God, he is really doing good to himself and not to others. If a man thus serves God through all beings, not through men alone but through animals and other living beings as well; if he doesn’t seek name and fame, or heaven after death; if he doesn’t seek any return from those he serves; if he can carry on his work of service in this spirit-then he performs truly selfless work, work without attachment. Through such selfless work he does good to himself. This is called karma yoga. This too is a way to realize God. But it is very difficult, and not suited to the Kaliyuga. (34, 670-1)These youngsters have no relationship whatsoever with the world. They owe nothing to the world, nor do they expect anything from it. It is the sense of obligation that entangles a man in the world. (49, 937)You say that God wants everybody to lead a worldly life. But why don’t you see it as God’s will when your wife and children die? Why don’t you see His will in poverty, when you haven’t a morsel to eat? (Appendix A, 1013)It is very difficult to do one’s duty in the world. If you whirl round too fast you feel giddy and faint; but there is no such fear if you hold on to a post. Do your duty, but do not forget God.You may ask, “If worldly life is so difficult, then what is the way?” The way is constant practice. At Kamarpukur I have seen the women of the carpenter families flattening rice with a husking-machine. They are always fearful of the pestle’s smashing their fingers; and at the same time they go on nursing their children and bargaining with customers. They say to the customers, “Pay us what you owe before you leave.” (Appendix A, 1014)The Limitations of Knowledge and ReasonAs long as a man argues about God, he has not realized Him. You two were arguing. I didn’t like it.How long does one hear noise and uproar in a house where a big feast is being given? So long as the guests are not seated for the meal. As soon as food is served and people begin to eat, three quarters of the noise disappears. (All laugh.) When the dessert is served there is still less noise. But when the guests eat the last course, buttermilk, then one hears nothing but the sound “soop, sup”. When the meal is over, the guests retire to sleep and all is quiet.The nearer you approach to God, the less you reason and argue. When you attain Him, then all sounds—all reasoning and disputing—come to an end. Then you go into samādhi-sleep—into communion with God in silence.” (38, 735)Mere pundits are like diseased fruit that becomes hard and will not ripen at all. Such fruit has neither the freshness of green fruit nor the flavour of ripe. Vultures soar very high in the sky, but their eyes are fixed on rotten carrion on the ground. The book-learned are reputed to be wise, but they are attached to “woman and gold”. Like the vultures, they are in search of carrion. They are attached to the world of ignorance. Compassion, love of God, and renunciation are the glories of true knowledge. (3, 101)There is nothing in mere scholarship. The object of study is to find means of knowing God and realizing Him. A holy man had a book. When asked what it contained, he opened it and showed that on all the pages were written the words “Om Rama”, and nothing else.?(3, 104)Chaitanyadeva set out on a pilgrimage to southern India. One day he saw a man reading the Gita. Another man, seated at a distance, was listening and weeping. His eyes were swimming in tears. Chaitanyadeva asked him, “Do you understand all this?” The man said, No, revered sir, I don’t understand a word of the text.” “Then why are you crying?” asked Chaitanya. The devotee said: “I see Arjuna’s chariot before me. I see Lord Krishna and Arjuna seated in front of it, talking. I see this and I weep.” (3, 105)“Bhakti is the one essential thing. Who can ever know God through reasoning? I want love of God. What do I care about knowing His infinite glories? One bottle of wine makes me drunk. What do I care about knowing how many gallons there are in the grog-shop? One jar of water is enough to quench my thirst. I don’t need to know the amount of water there is on earth.” (6, 157)God cannot be realized without guilelessness. (7, 176)What is there in mere scholarship? God can be attained by crying to Him with a longing heart. There is no need to know many things. (7, 180)Mere dry reasoning—I spit on it! I have no use for it! (12, 272)Who can ever know God? I don’t even try. I only call on Him as Mother. Let Mother do whatever She likes. I shall know Her if it is Her will; but I shall be happy to remain ignorant if She wills otherwise. My nature is that of a kitten. It only cries, “Mew, mew!” The rest it leaves to its mother. The mother cat puts the kitten sometimes in the kitchen and sometimes on the master’s bed. The young child wants only his mother. He doesn’t know how wealthy his mother is, and he doesn’t even want to know. He knows only, “I have a mother; why should I worry?” Even the child of the maidservant knows that he has a mother. If he quarrels with the son of the master, he says: “I shall tell my mother. I have a mother.” My attitude, too, is that of a child. (14, 299)NEIGHBOUR: “Who can know God?”MASTER: “Right. Who can really know Him? But as for us, it is enough to know as much of Him as we need. What need have I of a whole well of water? One jar is more than enough for me. An ant went to a sugar hill. Did it need the entire hill? A grain or two of sugar was more than enough.” (15, 329)That is very good. But the characteristic of a man of Perfect Knowledge is that he doesn’t keep a single book with? him. He carries all his Knowledge on the tip of his tongue. There’s the instance of Sukadeva. Books—I mean the scriptures—contain a mixture of sand and sugar. The sādhu takes the sugar, leaving aside the sand. He takes only the essence. (16, 342)Once several men were crossing the Ganges in a boat. One of them, a pundit, was making a great display of his erudition, saying that he had studied various books—the Vedas, the Vedānta, and the six systems of philosophy. He asked a fellow passenger, “Do you know the Vedānta?” “No, revered sir.” “The Samkhya and the Patanjala?” “No, revered sir.” “Have you read no philosophy whatsoever?” “No, revered sir.” The pundit was talking in this vain way and the passenger sitting in silence, when a great storm arose and the boat was about to sink. The passenger said to the pundit, “Sir, can you swim?” “No”, replied the pundit. The passenger said, “I don’t know the Samkhya or the Patanjala, but I can swim.”MASTER (smiling): “What will a man gain by knowing many scriptures? The one thing needful is to know how to cross the river of the world. God alone is real, and all else illusory. (19, 392)On attaining Knowledge he becomes conscious that God dwells in all beings. Suppose a man has a thorn in the sole of his foot. He gets another thorn and takes out the first one. In other words, he removes the thorn of ajnāna, ignorance, by means of the thorn of jnāna, knowledge. But on attaining vijnāna, he discards both thorns, knowledge and ignorance. Then he talks intimately with God day and night. It is no mere vision of God. (20, 404)Let me tell you something. You are a learned and intelligent and serious-minded soul. Keshab and you were like the two brothers, Gaur and Nitai. You have had enough of lectures, arguments, quarrels, discussions, and dissensions. Can such things interest you any more? Now gather your whole mind and direct it to God. Plunge deep into God. (23, 454-5)SHRISH: “God exists and He alone does everything. But the attributes we ascribe to Him are not the right ones. How can a man conceive of Him? His nature is infinite.”MASTER: “What need is there of your counting the number of trees and branches in an orchard? You have come to the orchard to eat mangoes. Do that and be happy. The aim of human birth is to love God. Realize that love and be at peace.“Suppose you have entered a tavern for a drink. Is it necessary for you to know how many gallons of wine there are in the tavern? One glass is enough for you. What need is there of your knowing the infinite qualities of God? You may discriminate for millions of years about God’s attributes and still you will not know them.” (24, 463)Better than reading is hearing, and better than hearing is seeing. One understands the scriptures better by hearing them from the lips of the guru or of a holy man. Then one doesn’t have to think about their non-essential part. Hanuman said: “Brother, I don’t know much about the phase of the moon or the position of the stars. I just contemplate Rāma.”But seeing is far better than hearing. Then all doubts disappear. It is true that many things are recorded in the scriptures; but all these are useless without the direct realization of God, without devotion to His Lotus Feet, without purity of heart. The almanac forecasts the rainfall of the year. But not a drop of water will you get by squeezing the almanac. No, not even one drop.How long should one reason about the texts of the scriptures? So long as one does not have direct realization of God. How long does the bee buzz about? As long as it is not sitting on a flower. No sooner does it light on a flower and begin to sip honey than it keeps quiet. (25, 476)There are some who do not care to know the splendours of God. What do I care about knowing how many gallons of wine there are in the tavern? One bottle is enough for me. Why should I desire the knowledge of God’s splendours? I am intoxicated with the little wine I have swallowed. (25, 476)What good is there in reading a whole lot of scriptures? What good is there in the study of philosophy? What is the use of talking big? In order to learn archery one should first aim at a banana tree, then at a reed, then at a wick, and last at a flying bird. At the beginning one should concentrate on God with form. (25, 484)The harmful effect of the study of the scriptures is that it encourages reasoning and arguing. (25, 484)PUNDIT : “In expounding religion one has to use a great many words.” MASTER: “While preaching, eliminate the “head and tail”, that is to say, emphasize only the essentials.” (25, 485)The important thing is somehow to cultivate devotion to God and love for Him. What is the use of knowing many things? It is enough to cultivate love of God by following any of the paths. When you have this love, you are sure to attain God. Afterwards, if it is necessary, God will explain everything to you and tell you about the other paths as well. It is enough for you to develop love of God. You have no need of many opinions and discussions. You have come to the orchard to eat mangoes. Enjoy them to your heart’s content. You don’t need to count the branches and leaves on the trees. It is wise to follow the attitude of Hanuman: “I do not know the day of the week, the phase of the moon, or the position of the stars; I only contemplate Rāma.” (26, 506)(To Hazra) “If there is knowledge of one, there is also knowledge of many. What will you achieve by mere study of the scriptures? The scriptures contain a mixture of sand and sugar, as it were. It is extremely difficult to separate the sugar from the sand. Therefore one should learn the essence of the scriptures from the teacher or from a sādhu. Afterwards what does one care for books?(To the devotees) “Gather all the information and then plunge in. Suppose a pot has dropped in a certain part of a lake. Locate the spot and dive there.“One should learn the essence of the scriptures from the guru and then practise sadhana. If one rightly follows spiritual discipline, then one directly sees God. The discipline is said to be rightly followed only when one plunges in. What will a man gain by merely reasoning about the words of the scriptures? Ah, the fools! They reason themselves to death over information about the path. They never take the plunge. What a pity! (28, 543)After the realization of God, how far below lie the Vedas, the Vedānta, the Purana, the Tantra! (28, 544)One cannot realize God without the faith that knows no guile, the simple faith of a child. (29, 568)It is one thing to learn about God from the scriptures, and quite another to see Him. The scriptures only give hints. Therefore to read a great many scriptures is not necessary. It is much better to pray to God in solitude. (30, 587)You may speak of the scriptures, of philosophy, of Vedānta; but you will not find God in any of these. You will never succeed in realizing God unless your soul becomes restless for Him. (31, 607)Can one find God in the sacred books? By reading the scriptures one may feel at the most that God exists. But God does not reveal Himself to a man unless he himself dives deep. Only after such a plunge, after the revelation of God through His grace, is one’s doubt destroyed. You may read scriptures by the thousands and recite thousands of texts; but unless you plunge into God with yearning of heart, you will not comprehend Him. By mere scholarship you may fool man, but not God. (32, 625)How much of the scriptures can you read? What will you gain by mere reasoning? Try to realize God before anything else. Have faith in the guru’s words, and work. If you have no guru, then pray to God with a longing heart. He will let you know what He is like.What will you learn of God from books? As long as you are at a distance from the market-place you hear only an indistinct roar. But it is quite different when you are actually there. Then you hear and see everything distinctly. You hear people saying: “Here are your potatoes. Take them and give me the money.” From a distance you hear only the rumbling noise of the ocean. Go near it and you will see many boats sailing about, birds flying, and waves rolling.One cannot get true feeling about God from the study of books. This feeling is something very different from book-learning. Books, scriptures, and science appear as mere dirt and straw after the realization of God. (33, 645-6)If you can somehow get yourself introduced to Jadu Mallick, then you will be able to learn, if you want to, the number of his houses and gardens and the amount of his money invested in government securities. Jadu Mallick himself will tell you all about them. But if you haven’t met him and if you are stopped by his door-keepers when you try to enter his house, then how will you get the correct information about his houses, gardens, and government securities? When you know God you know all else; but then you don’t care to know small things. The same thing is stated in the Vedas. You talk about the virtues of a person as long as you haven’t seen him, but no sooner does he appear before you than all such talk stops. You are beside yourself with joy simply to be with him. You feel overwhelmed by simply conversing with him. You don’t talk about his virtues any more. (34, 672)The one thing you need is to realize God. Why do you bother so much about the world, creation, “science”, and all that? Your business is to eat mangoes. What need have you to know how many hundreds of trees there are in the orchard, how many thousands of branches, and how many millions of leaves? You have come to the garden to eat mangoes. Go and eat them. Man is born in this world to realize God; it is not good to forget that and divert the mind to other things. You have come to eat mangoes. Eat the mangoes and be happy.?(34, 672)Let me tell you this: really and truly I don’t feel sorry in the least that I haven’t read the Vedānta? or the other scriptures. I know that the essence of the Vedānta?is that? Brahman alone is real and the world illusory. And what is the essence of the Gitā? It is what you get by repeating the word ten times. Then it is reversed into, “Tagi”, which refers to renunciation. The pupil should hear the essence of the scriptures from the guru; then he should practise austerity and devotions. A man needs the letter he has received from home as long as he has not learnt its contents. After reading it, however, he sets out to get the thing he has been asked to send. Likewise, what need is there of the scriptures if you know their essence? The next thing is the practice of spiritual discipline.” (36, 694)I see. You think as the intellectuals do: one reaps the results of one’ actions. Give up these ideas. The effect of karma wears away if one takes refuge in God. I prayed to the Divine Mother with flowers in my hand: “Here, Mother, take Thy sin; here, take Thy virtue. I don’ want either of these; give me only real bhakti. Here, Mother, take Thy good; here, take Thy bad. I don’t want any of Thy good or bad; give me only real bhakti. Here, Mother, take Thy dharma; here, take Thy adharma. I don’t want any of Thy dharma or adharma; give me only real bhakti. Here, Mother, take Thy knowledge; here, take Thy ignorance. I don’t want any of Thy knowledge or ignorance; give me only real bhakti. Here, Mother, take Thy purity; here, take Thy impurity. Give me only real bhakti.” (43, 817)What will you achieve by quoting from books? The pundits recite verses and do nothing else. What will you gain by merely repeating “siddhi”? You will not be intoxicated even by gargling with a solution of siddhi. It must go into your stomach; not until then will you be intoxicated. One cannot comprehend what I am saying unless one prays to God in solitude, all by oneself, with a longing heart. (44, 844)Many people think they cannot have knowledge or understanding of God without reading books. But hearing is better than reading, and seeing is better than hearing. Hearing about Benares is different from reading about it; but seeing Benares is different from either hearing or reading. (45, 863)NARENDRA: NARENDRA: “I did not believe in anything.”M:” You mean the forms of God?”NARENDRA: “At first I did not accept most of what the Master said. One day he asked me, “Then why do you come here?” I replied, “I come here to see you, not to listen to you.”M: “What did he say to that?”NARENDRA: “He was very much pleased.” (52, 984)Why do you write about me in your paper? You cannot make a man great by writing about him in books and magazines. If God makes a man great, then everybody knows about him even though he lives in a forest. When flowers bloom in the deep woods, the bees find them, but the flies do not. What can man do? Don’t look up to him. Man is but a worm. The tongue that praises you today will abuse you tomorrow. I don’t want name and fame. May I always remain the humblest of the humble and the lowliest of the lowly!” (Appendix A, 1020)Beyond Knowledge and ReasonGo beyond knowledge and ignorance; only then can you realize God. To know many things is ignorance. Pride of scholarship is also ignorance. The unwavering conviction that God alone dwells in all beings is Jnāna, knowledge. To know Him intimately is vijnāna, a richer Knowledge. If a thorn gets into your foot, a second thorn is needed to take it out. When it is out both thorns are thrown away. You have to procure the thorn of knowledge to remove the thorn of ignorance; then you must set aside both knowledge and ignorance. God is beyond both knowledge and ignorance. Once Lakshmana said to Rāma, “Brother, how amazing it is that such a wise man as Vasishtha wept bitterly at the death of his sons!” Rāma said: “Brother, he who has knowledge must also have ignorance. He who has knowledge of one thing must also have knowledge of many things. He who is aware of light is also aware of darkness.” Brahman is beyond knowledge and ignorance, virtue and vice, merit and demerit, cleanliness and uncleanliness. (47, 899)One man may read the Bhagavata by the light of a lamp, and another may commit a forgery by that very light; but the lamp is unaffected. The sun sheds its light on the wicked as well as on the virtuous. (3, 102)Bhishma was none other than one of the eight Vasus, but even he shed tears on his bed of arrows. He said: “How astonishing! God Himself is the companion of the Pandava brothers, and still there is no end to their troubles and sorrows!” Who can ever understand the ways of God? (8, 183)The paramahamsa realizes that all these—good and bad, virtue and vice, real and unreal-are only the glories of God’s maya. But these are very deep thoughts. One realizing this cannot keep an organization together or anything like that. (11, 250)MASTER: “The inferior devotee says, “God exists, but He is very far off, up there in heaven.” The mediocre devotee says, “God exists in all beings as life and consciousness.” The superior devotee says: “It is God Himself who has become everything; whatever I see is only a form of God. It is He alone who has become maya, the universe, and all living beings. Nothing exists but God.” (12, 265)But there are signs that a man has had the vision of God. A man who has seen God sometimes behaves like a madman: he laughs, weeps, dances, and sings. Sometimes he behaves like a child, a child five years old—guileless, generous, without vanity, unattached to anything, not under the control of any of the gunas, always blissful. Sometimes he behaves like a ghoul: he doesn’t differentiate between things pure and things impure; he sees no difference between things clean and things unclean. And sometimes he is like an inert thing, staring vacantly: he cannot do any work; he cannot strive for anything. (12, 265)Thus pleasure and pain are inevitable when the soul accepts a body. (13, 275)You ask why? Brahman doesn’t act in consultation with others. It is Brahman’s pleasure. Brahman is self-willed. Why should we try to know the reason for Brahman’s acting this way or that? You have come to the orchard to eat mangoes. Eat the mangoes. What is the good of calculating how many trees there are in the orchard, how many thousands of branches, and how many millions of leaves? One cannot realize Truth by futile arguments and reasoning. (25, 496)But you must remember one thing. One cannot see God sporting as man unless one has had the vision of Him. Do you know the sign of one who has God-vision? Such a man acquires the nature of a child. Why a child? Because God is like a child. So he who sees God becomes like a child. (35, 688)Who can comprehend everything about God? It is not given to man to know any aspect of God, great or small. And what need is there to know everything about God? It is enough if we only realize Him. And we see God Himself if we but see His Incarnation. Suppose a person goes to the Ganges and touches its water. He will then say, “Yes, I have seen and touched the Ganges.” To say this it is not necessary for him to touch the whole length of the river from Hardwar to Gangasagar. (38, 725-6)I prayed to the Divine Mother only for love. I offered flowers at Her Lotus Feet and said with folded hands: “O Mother, here is Thy ignorance and here is Thy knowledge; take them both and give me only pure love for Thee. Here is Thy holiness and here is Thy unholiness; take them both and give me only pure love for Thee. Here is Thy virtue and here is Thy sin; here is Thy good and here is Thy evil; take them all and give me only pure love for Thee. Here is Thy dharma and here is Thy adharma; take them both and give me only pure love for Thee.” (47, 902) SourcesZen:I: Classics of Buddhism and Zen, Volume 1, tr. Thomas Cleary.II: Classics of Buddhism and Zen, Volume 2, tr. Thomas Cleary.III: Classics of Buddhism and Zen, Volume 4, tr. Thomas Cleary.IV: Classics of Buddhism and Zen, Volume 5, tr. Thomas Cleary.V: The Pocket Zen Reader, tr. Thomas Cleary.Desert Fathers:The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks, tr. Benedicta Ward.The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection, tr. Benedicta Ward.The Lives of the Desert Fathers: The Historia Monachorum in Aegypto, tr. Norman Russell.The Lausiac History, by Palladius, tr. Robert T. Meyer.Ramakrishna:The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, by M., tr. Swami Nikhilananda ................
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