SHAKUHACHI ZEN

The phenomenal world is simply the Absolute -- the Hua T'ou -- chasing its own tail.

In itself it is empty, nothing. Empty and blissful, a dream. BONG goes the mouth of the bell. Or did your ears just go BONG! In any case, there it is. It's just like this. BONG BONG BONG. The Hua T'ou jumps in the sea and laughs, swimming around, floating on its back like a sea otter, gazing up at the vast empty blue sky.

Grasping at "it" with mental and emotional energy causes "dukkha." Why? Because there is nothing to grasp. Grasping at nothing makes you feel crazy, and you get more and more agitated. Finally, desperate and wild-eyed, you run to a Teacher or Guru to save you from so-called ignorance.

Grasping at the Absolute -- Buddha Nature, Luminous Mind, Original Self -- is an even more mystifying idea. It also causes great "dukkha," though sometimes the suffering goes unrecognized even by the grasper. Why? Maybe because so-called religious people tend to inflict suffering much more than they suffer it. Mistaking a one-sided opinion for ultimate bliss, they turn hard, intellectual and arrogant. Don't be like that. Be like warm, wet clay.

Zen actually means not grasping, not holding anything, neither the so-called phenomenal nor the so-called Absolute, let go of Names and Forms completely, then let go of the act of letting go! Shatter thinking.

Go beyond grasping. Totally beyond. All the way to the Starry Sky.

The Energetic realm is actually void and still. Yet phenomena arise, images appear, everything happens quite naturally. What's the problem? What exists to have a roaring dispute about?

Shake the frost out of your hair. You're awake. Clearly awake. Even in dreams, always awake.

"One note on the bamboo flute, Complete Enlightenment."

BO-JI SO-WA-KA