Bomyeong Sunim
Theme: All Is Made by the Mind (일체유심조 / 一切唯心造)
"How you direct your mind" is what matters.
Using the mind: with what thought will you live?
'Without sound, without wind, like the moon slipping through the clouds — why not try living that way?'
The stream flowing through a mountain valley is only called a stream by name.
The 'anger' and 'anxiety' you are raising right now are also only names.
See them as they are and accept them as they are.
The moment a sound is heard from the original self, "anger (anxiety, joy, etc.)" arises,
the moment the eye sees from the original self, "anger (anxiety, joy, etc.)" begins.
Everything, the moment I receive it, goes through the five aggregates (form, feeling, perception, volition, consciousness) and becomes body and consciousness.
In other words, my mind is formed according to what it responds to.
As you eat rice when you are hungry,
do not hate the anger in your mind when you see or hear anger.
Instead, quickly return to your place and reflect on your original mind.
One wave, ten thousand ripples: always think about how a single thought may spread.
The ripple is alive.
"That one thought, right now, is what matters."
Finding the original mind
I ask, and I listen.
To look at yourself as you would look into a mirror — that is all there is to it.
Only — are you not reaching out your hand into the mirror, trying to fix yourself, and then feeling frustrated about it?
That is worth turning back on yourself to consider.
The way of accepting surrender
1) I vow to liberate all sentient beings.
2) Even when I have liberated them all, I will not think of it that way.
3) The moment the thought "I have liberated them all" arises, one is no longer a bodhisattva.
4) Having liberated them, I find there are no beings that have been extinguished, and no beings that needed to be liberated,
so in the end, you and I are the same. As if blowing hard into a balloon to "liberate" it,
yet in the end the air inside and outside the balloon is no different.
It is only one image, briefly arising, in response to your mind.
The way the mind abides
How shall the mind be made to abide?
: When you practice giving, do not abide in form, sound, scent, taste, touch, or dharma.
: Do not abide in any image, and practice giving.
Such merit is "likewise so" (역부여시). (A single thought spreads across the universe.)
The moment you cling, many things disappear and you will gain only the one image you abide in.
Though the mind has no limits.
If you set no limits on that mind, it can grow endlessly, and so can its attainment.
When spring comes, the cherry tree blooms.
But before the blossom opens,
no matter how you cut and break the tree, you will not find a cherry blossom inside.
So too, we must meet the right conditions
and wait for the right time, so as to come face to face with the scent and the bloom.
Why not become the 'I' that does not change within these changing years?
The body (its form) may be young or old, man or woman, rich or poor, but the mind is only a matter of how it is used. Let us not forget that.
The Tathagata (Buddha) is not an image.
It is only a mirror.
It only reflects my original mind.
In truth, your form is likewise.
"발백비심백 고인증류선..
Though the hair turns white, the mind does not grow old
(Master Seosan)"
