Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘The conditionally generated experiences of the mind do not come from anywhere within the ten directions, nor do they go anywhere. When you can regularly observe thinking, discrimination, deluded views, feelings, random thoughts, and confusion as not individually substantive mental events, then your practice is becoming basically stable. If you can settle the mind and remain free of entanglement with this continual conditioned thinking, you will be serene and fully aware, and discover an end to your afflictions. This is called liberation.

If on observing the mind’s subtle afflictions, and it’s agonizing confusions, and even its deepest introspections, you can, in a single moment, let go of them all and return to gentle stability, your mind has naturally become peaceful and pure. Only you must be courageous… don’t be lazy! Dive into it!

When you are beginning to practice seated mediation and mind observation, you should sit in solitary presence, unified with your place. First, sit upright in a correct posture, loosen your robe and belt, and relax your body, (perhaps) with some self-message. Exhale all the air out from your lower abdomen, and become simple and calm… Dissolving completely in deep unknowing, one’s breathing becomes tranquil and ones mind gradually settled. Your energy becomes clear and sharp, your awareness bright and pure. Observing carefully, inside and outside become empty and pure, and the mind becomes still. From this stillness, the realization of the sage becomes manifest…

The presently arrived body of true nature is pure, perfect, and complete. All forms are manifested within it, even though that nature is without mental effort. It is like a clear mirror suspended in the air – all the various objects are manifested within it, but the mirror is without any effort to generate them.’ (from Essentials of Entering the Way and Pacifying the Mind)