Teachings From Ancient Vietnamese Zen Masters – 204
87 Seeing the Nature
That spot is empty; its nature is originally emptiness.
Such are all things; all have the nature of emptiness.
Beyond the sky and earth, so vast is the universe.
Though shining countless worlds, so serene is the cold light.
It neither increases at the enlightened, nor decreases at the
unenlightened.
It appears square or round in receptacles at ease.
When the water is still,
the moon appears in thousands of rivers.
As the flower blossoms, the whole universe glows in red.
CHÂN NGUYÊN (1647 - 1726)
(COMMENT: If someone asks you about the afterlife, what should you
do? Just ring a bell, and tell the questioner to show where the sound’s
gone. It doesn’t mean that there is nowhere or somewhere for the
sound dwelling. It means that all phenomena are just the one mind.
Buddha says Nirvana is the extinction of desire, of hatred and of
illusion. If we don’t understand the working of the mind, we can not
extinguish the fire of desire, of hatred and of illusion.)
