caused by your own actions will be cleared all at once. After that, all sorts
of extraordinary possibilities will come to you without your seeking them."
There are also many Chan stories for initiating the golden flower
exercise. Some of them are very simple, but they can be used over and over
again.
A student asked a teacher, "What is Buddha?"
The teacher said, "This mind is Buddha."
A student asked a teacher, "What should one do when arising and vanishing
(of thoughts) goes on unceasingly?" The teacher said, "Tsk! Whose arising
and vanishing is it?"
Once a teacher asked a student, "Where are you from?"
The student said he was from such and such a place.
The teacher asked, "Do you think of that place?"
The student said that he often thought of it.
The teacher said, "The thinker is the mind, what is thought of is the
environment. In the environment are mountains, rivers, land, buildings,
people, animals, and so on. Now turn your thought around to think of the
thinking mind; are there so many things there?"
