Letter Sixty-Two

Respectfully prostrating before the Venerable Master:

I prostrate before the Buddha, prostrate before the Dharma, and prostrate before the Saṅgha.

This disciple has practiced the Heart-of-Heart Dharma for more than one thousand sessions over a period of more than three years, and naturally encounters this question: “Have you realized the mind and seen your true nature?” [Let go of everything; sit in meditation with utter resolve, and only then speak of emptying body, mind, and world!] This disciple answers: “If I say, ‘I have realized the mind and seen my true nature,’ that proves precisely that I have not realized the mind and seen my true nature. If I say, ‘I have not realized the mind and seen my true nature,’ then at that very moment I am slandering the Dharma. Like one who drinks water and knows for oneself whether it is cold or warm, one truly cannot open one’s mouth.”

[At midnight last night, the moon reached the window!] Of course, this is addressed to those who have already practiced, or who have resolved to practice, the Heart-of-Heart Dharma.

Disciple Zhiming prostrates.

[Youth Yongshou] For students who still have a sense of doubt and deluded thoughts, the expedient means of the Heart-of-Heart Dharma is simply to “let go of everything and empty body and mind,” is it not?

[LVM] For those who meditate and practice earnestly, they know this from the very beginning. Yet they have grown accustomed to clinging to appearances through measureless kalpas. Even when that segment of true light of their original nature is already clearly present before them, because it cannot be grasped or obtained, they still want to grope about for something among appearances.

Even when they clearly know that this which is lucidly present is the World-Honored One’s hidden intent, what Kāśyapa no longer conceals, and the meaning of Patriarch Bodhidharma’s coming from the West, they still want to reach a final conclusion through concepts. At such a time, true patriarchs with clear eyes would never put so-called “verification” into words; once it is put into words, it becomes “a guest seeing a guest.” When the Elder speaks here of “At midnight last night, the moon reached the window,” he is already being compassionate beyond measure.