Dogen

‘In general, when you are a beginner you cannot fathom the buddha way. Your assumptions do not hit the mark. The fact that you cannot fathom the buddha way as a beginner does not mean that you lack ultimate understanding, but it does mean that you do not recognize the deepest point.

Endeavor wholeheartedly to follow the path of earlier sages. You may have to climb mountains and cross oceans when you look for a teacher to inquire about the way. Look for a teacher and search for understanding with all-encompassing effort, as if you were coming down from heaven or emerging from the ground. When you encounter a true teacher, you invoke sentient beings as well as insentient beings. You hear with the body, you hear with the mind.

To hear with the ear is an everyday matter, but to hear with the eye is not always so. When you see buddha, you see self-buddha, other- buddha, a large buddha, a small buddha. Do not be frightened by a large buddha. Do not be put off by a small buddha. Just see large and small buddhas as valley sounds and mountain colors, as a broad, long tongue, and as eighty-four thousand verses. This is liberation, this is outstanding seeing.’ (Shobogenzo Keisei Sanshoku)

Today’s post, which according to WordPress’ unerring counter, is number 2300 on this blog, comes to you courtesy of opening the Shobogenzo at a random page. There are many worse ways to learn, few better ways to come to outstanding seeing.