365 Buddha PA - Jeff Schmidt [30]
The Elder replied: ‘Some he feels and some not.’
‘Which are they?’
‘He may feel bodily pain, O king; but mental pain he would not.’
‘How would that be so?’
‘Because the causes, proximate or remote, of bodily pain still continue, he would be liable to it. But the causes, proximate or remote, of mental agony having ceased, he could not feel it. For it has been said by the Blessed One: “One kind of pain he suffers, bodily pain: but not mental.” ’
‘Then why, Sir, does he not die?’
‘The Arahant, O king, has need neither to curry favor nor to bear malice. He shakes not down the unripe fruit, but awaits the full time of its maturity. For it has been said, O king, by the Elder, Sāriputta, the Commander of the faith:
“It is not death, it is not life I welcome;
As the hireling his wage, so do I bide my time.
It is not death, it is not life I want;
Mindful and thoughtful do I bide my time.” ’
‘Well put, Nāgasena!’
MILINDAPAÑHA 44-45
343.
Opening the door on voidness of identity,
Clear awareness floods everywhere,
And though everywhere, nowhere is an identity found.
DRINKING THE MOUNTAIN STREAM: SONGS OF
TIBET’S BELOVED SAINT, MILAREPA
344.
“I am not, I will not be.
I have not, I will not have.”
That frightens all the childish
And extinguishes fear in the wise.
NĀGĀRJUNA; PRECIOUS GARLAND 26
345.
Abandoning malicious speech, he abstains from malicious speech; he does not repeat elsewhere what he has heard here in order to divide (those people) from these, nor does he repeat to these people what he has heard elsewhere in order to divide (these people) from those; thus he is one who reunites those who are divided, a promoter of friendships, who enjoys concord, rejoices in concord, delights in concord, a speaker of words that promote concord.
MAJJHIMA-NIKĀYA i.179
346.
The fundamental Doctrine of the Dharma is that there are no Dharmas, yet that this Doctrine of No-Dharma is in itself a Dharma; and now that the No-Dharma Doctrine has been transmitted, how can the Doctrine of the Dharma be a Dharma?
HUANG PO; ZEN TEACHING OF HUANG PO
347.
A view is true or false only when one is judging how accurately it refers to something else. If one is regarding it simply as an event in & of itself, true & false no longer apply. Thus for the Tathāgata—who no longer needs to impose notions of subject or object on experience, and can regard sights, sounds, feelings, & thoughts purely in & of themselves—views are not necessarily true or false, but can simply serve as phenomena to be experienced. . . . As a result, the mind can see conditioned events in their suchness—‘such are the aggregates, such their origin, such their disappearance’—and is left free to its own Suchness: unrestrained, uninfluenced by anything of any sort.
ṬHĀNISSARO BHIKKHU; MIND LIKE FIRE UNBOUND
348.
If you think you see both
Destruction and becoming,
Then you see destruction and becoming
Through impaired vision.
NĀGĀRJUNA; MŪLAMADHYAMAKA-KĀRIKĀ XXI, 11
349.
Should we free our mind from attachment to all ‘things,’ the Path becomes clear; otherwise, we put ourselves under restraint.
THE SUTRA OF HUI NENG
350.
And the king said: ‘What is the object, Sir, of your renunciation, and what [is] the summum bonum at which you aim?’
‘Why do you ask? Our renunciation is to the end that this sorrow may perish away, and that no further sorrow may arise; the complete passing away, without cleaving to the world, is our highest aim.’
‘How now, Sir! Is it for such high reasons that all members of it have joined the Order?’
‘Certainly not, Sire. Some for those reasons, but some have left the world in terror at the tyranny of kings. Some have joined us to be safe from being robbed, some harassed by debt, and some perhaps to gain a livelihood.’
‘But for what object, Sir, did you yourself join?’
‘I was received into the Order when I was a mere boy; I knew not then the ultimate