Teachings From Ancient Vietnamese Zen Masters – 88
37 Birth and Death
The true nature is profound and omnipresent;
Its inwardness is originally emptiness and stillness.
Not identical with birth and death,
it functions unhinderedly.
Thus birth comes from nowhere,
and death goes to nowhere.
DAO HUE (circa 12th century)
(COMMENT: How can you see and hear its stillness? Sitting motionless
and silencing all the noise? The stillness nature is not apart from the
motion or the noise. You will touch it, feel it, see it, hear it when you
realize the nonself nature of all things.
Zen Master Thuong Chieu, my Dharma uncle, once was asked about the
way of Zen. The old monk Thuong Chieu took a small pebble, threw it
at a wall, and asked if the student heard the sound of the pebble hitting
the wall. The student said, “Yes, Master. I heard it.” Zen Master Thuong
Chieu said, “That’s the Way.”)
