4. When you are quiet, it is then essential to find potential and find its
opening; don't sit inside nothingness or indifference (so-called "neutral
voidness").
5. Even as you let go of all objects, you are alert and self-possessed.
6. But don't
get
enthusiastic about attaining the experience. (This easily
happens whenever reality is taken too seriously. That means not that you
shouldn't recognize reality, but that the rhythm of reality is on the brink of
existence and nonexistence. You can
get
it by intent that is not willful.)
7. Even in the midst of alert awareness, you are relaxed and natural. But
don't fall into the elements of body and mind, where material and
psychological illusions take charge. If you tend to fall into a deadness
whenever you go into meditation and are relatively lacking in growth and
creative energy, this means you have fallen into a shadow world. Your
mood is cold, your breath sinking, and you have a number of other chilling
and withering experiences. If you continue this way for a long time, you
will degenerate into a blockhead or a rockhead.
8. And yet it will not do to go along with all conditions.
9. Once you have gone into quietude and all sorts of loose ends come to you
for no apparent reason, you find you cannot turn them away if you want to,
and you even feel comfortable going along with them. This is called the
