Discipline Of Tao

IMAGE OF THE WEEK

We are grateful to Rupali Bhuva for offering this hand-made painting for this reading.

A master called Yuan came to Tai-chu Hui-hai and asked: 'When disciplining oneself in the Tao, is there any special way of doing it?"

Hui-hai: 'Yes, there is."

Yuan: 'What is that?"

Hui-hai: 'When hungry, one eats, when tired, one sleeps."

Yuan: 'That is what other people do; is their way the same as yours?'

Hui-hai: 'Not the same.'

Yuan: 'Why not?'

Hui-hai: 'When they eat, they do not just eat, they conjure up all kinds of imagination; when they sleep, they do not just sleep, they are given up to varieties of idle thoughts. That is why their way is not my way.'

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From the book, The Zen Doctrine of No-Mind.