Excerpt from 'The Sun My Heart' by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh

Sunshine and Green Leaves

Beginning meditators usually think they must suppress all thoughts and feelings (often called "false mind") in order to create conditions favorable to concentration and understanding (called "true mind"). They use methods such as focusing their attention on an object or counting their breathes to try to block out thoughts and feelings. Concentrating on an object and counting the breath are excellent methods, but they should not be used for suppression or repression. We know that as soon as there is repression, there is rebellion -- repression entails rebellion. True mind and false mind are one. Denying one is denying the other. Suppressing one is suppressing the other. Our mind is our self. We cannot suppress it. We must treat it with respect, with gentleness, and absolutely without violence. Since we do not even know what our "self" is, how can we know if it is true or false, and whether or not what to suppress? The only thing we can do is to let the sunlight of awareness shine on our "self" and en-lighten it, so we can look at it directly.

Just as flowers and leaves are only part of a plant, and just as waves are only part of the ocean, perceptions, feelings, and thoughts are only part of the self. Blossoms and leaves are a natural manifestation of plants, and waves are a natural expression of oceans. It is useless to try to repress or stifle them. It is impossible. We can only observe them. Because they exist, we can find their source, which is exactly the same as our own.

The sun of awareness originates in the heart of the self. It enables the self to illuminate the self. It lights not only all thoughts and feelings present. It lights itself as well.

Let us return to the apple juice, quietly "resting." The river of our perceptions continue to flow, but now, in the sunlight of awareness, it flows peacefully, and we are serene. The relation between the river of perceptions and the sun of awareness is not the same as that of an actual river and the actual sun. Whether it is midnight or noon, whether the sun is absent or its penetrating rays are beaming down, the waters of the Mississippi River continue to flow, more or less the same. But when the sun of awareness shines on the river of our perceptions, the mind is transformed. Both river and sun are of the same nature.

Let us consider the relationship between the color of leaves and sunlight, which also have the same nature. At midnight, the starlight and moonlight reveal only the form of the trees and leaves. But if the sun were suddenly to shine, the green color of the leaves would immediately appear. The tender green of the leaves in April exists because the sunlight exists. One day, while sitting in a forest, mimicking the Prajna Paramita Heart Sutra, I wrote:

Sunshine is green leaves
Green leaves are sunshine
Sunshine is not different from green leaves
Green leaves are not different from sunshine
The same is true of all forms and colors.

As soon as the sun of awareness shines, at that very moment a great change takes place. Meditators lets the sun of awareness rise easily, so we can see more clearly. When we meditate, we seem to have two selves. One is the flowing river of thoughts and feelings, and the other is the sun of awareness that shines on them. Which is our own self? Which is true? Which false? Which is good? Which bad? Please calm down, my friend. Lay down your sharp sword of conceptual thinking. Don't be in such a hurry to cut your "self" in two. Both are self. Neither is true. Neither is false. They are both true and both false.

We know that light and color are not separate phenomena. In the same way, the sun of self and the river of self are not different. Sit with me, let a smile form on your lips, let your sun shine, close your eyes, if need be, to see your self more clearly. Your sun of awareness is only part of your river of self, isn't it? It follows the same laws as all psychological phenomena: it arises and vanishes away. To examine something with a microscope, a scientist must shine light on the object being observed. To observe the self, you must shine light on it too, the light of awareness.

I just told you to put down your sword of conceptualization and not cut your self into sections. Actually, you couldn't, even if you wanted to. Do you think you can separate the sunshine from the green color of the leaves? You can no more separate the observing self from the self observed. When the sun of awareness shines, the nature of thoughts and feelings is transformed. It is one with the observing mind, but they remain different, like the green of the leaves and the sunshine. Don't rush from the concept of "two" to the concept of "one." This ever-present sun of awareness is at the same time its own object. When a lamp is turned on, the lamp itself is also brought to light. "I know that I know." "I am conscious of being conscious." When you think, "The sun of awareness has gone out in me," at that moment it re-lights itself, faster than the speed of light.

.....

some other quotations which Thusness/PasserBy liked from the book --

"When we say I know the wind is blowing, we don't think that there is something blowing something else. "Wind' goes with 'blowing'. If there is no blowing, there is no wind. It is the same with knowing. Mind is the knower; the knower is mind. We are talking about knowing in relation to the wind. 'To know' is to know something. Knowing is inseparable from the wind. Wind and knowing are one. We can say, 'Wind,' and that is enough. The presence of wind indicates the presence of knowing, and the presence of the action of blowing'."

"..The most universal verb is the verb 'to be'': I am, you are, the mountain is, a river is. The verb 'to be' does not express the dynamic living state of the universe. To express that we must say 'become.' These two verbs can also be used as nouns: 'being", "becoming". But being what? Becoming what? 'Becoming' means 'evolving ceaselessly', and is as universal as the verb "to be." It is not possible to express the "being" of a phenomenon and its "becoming" as if the two were independent. In the case of wind, blowing is the being and the becoming...."

"In any phenomena, whether psychological, physiological, or physical, there is dynamic movement, life. We can say that this movement, this life, is the universal manifestation, the most commonly recognized action of knowing. We must not regard 'knowing' as something from the outside which comes to breathe life into the universe. It is the life of the universe itself. The dance and the dancer are one."

---------------- Comments by Thusness/PasserBy: "...as a verb, as action, there can be no concept, only experience. Non-dual anatta (no-self) is the experience of subject/Object as verb, as action. There is no mind, only mental activities... ...Source as the passing phenomena... and how non-dual appearance is understood from Dependent Origination perspective."




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Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh:

"When we say it's raining, we mean that raining is taking place. You don't need someone up above to perform the raining. It's not that there is the rain, and there is the one who causes the rain to fall. In fact, when you say the rain is falling, it's very funny, because if it weren't falling, it wouldn't be rain. In our way of speaking, we're used to having a subject and a verb. That's why we need the word "it" when we say, "it rains." "It" is the subject, the one who makes the rain possible. But, looking deeply, we don't need a "rainer," we just need the rain. Raining and the rain are the same. The formations of birds and the birds are the same -- there's no "self," no boss involved. 

There's a mental formation called vitarka, "initial thought." When we use the verb "to think" in English, we need a subject of the verb: I think, you think, he thinks. But, really, you don't need a subject for a thought to be produced. Thinking without a thinker -- it's absolutely possible. To think is to think about something. To perceive is to perceive something. The perceiver and the perceived object that is perceived are one.

When Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am," his point was that if I think, there must be an "I" for thinking to be possible. When he made the declaration "I think," he believed that he could demonstrate that the "I" exists. We have the strong habit or believing in a self. But, observing very deeply, we can see that a thought does not need a thinker to be possible. There is no thinker behind the thinking -- there is just the thinking; that's enough. 

Now, if Mr. Descartes were here, we might ask him, "Monsieur Descartes, you say, 'You think, therefore you are.' But what are you? You are your thinking. Thinking -- that's enough. Thinking manifests without the need of a self behind it."

Thinking without a thinker. Feeling without a feeler. What is our anger without our 'self'? This is the object of our meditation. All the fifty-one mental formations take place and manifest without a self behind them arranging for this to appear, and then for that to appear. Our mind consciousness is in the habit of basing itself on the idea of self, on manas. But we can meditate to be more aware of our store consciousness, where we keep the seeds of all those mental formations that are not currently manifesting in our mind. 

When we meditate, we practice looking deeply in order to bring light and clarity into our way of seeing things. When the vision of no-self is obtained, our delusion is removed. This is what we call transformation. In the Buddhist tradition, transformation is possible with deep understanding. The moment the vision of no-self is there, manas, the elusive notion of 'I am,' disintegrates, and we find ourselves enjoying, in this very moment, freedom and happiness."

 

 

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Chinese:

 

一行禅师:太阳我的心


"风有知


  咱们跳一会儿舞,轻松一下,以便更好地理解"知"。假如我说,"我知道在刮风。""我"与其是说指我的身体,不如说是指我的心,这样,这句话的真实意思就是:"我的心知道在刮风。"心是知者,这实际就是说:"知者知道在刮风。""知者"是主语,"知道"是动词,"在刮风"是宾语。但是如果说"知者知道",就显得可笑。不是吗?我们想象知者是独立于它对象之外的一个实体,它存在于我们的大脑中,为了弄清外界正在发生什么事情,它就走进外界作简单的短途旅行。正如我们用尺子度量某物,我们让自己的心去适应某一预想的模型,而这个模型正是由我们自己的心创造出来的。因此,我们称之为"心"的东西,并不是纯净的真实的心。它已经陷入了名相概念之网中。


  当我们说:"我知道风在吹",我们想说的不是一物在吹另一物。"风"和"吹"是并行的。没有吹,也就没有风,没有风也就无所谓吹。"知"也是如此。心即是知者,知者即是心。我们现在谈论一下知与风的关系。"知"就是知道某物。知道与风是不可分的。风和知道是融为一体的。我们可以说"风",这就够了。"风"的存在暗示着"知"以及"吹"这个动作的存在。假如我们把"我知道风在吹"这个句子压缩成一个简单的"风"字,我们可以避免语法上的误解,从而接近真实。在日常生活中,我们养成了一种思维习惯和表达方式,这种思维习惯和表达方式基于这样一种观念,认为每一事物都是相互独立的。这种思维和言谈方式使得我们要契入非二元的、无分别的真实变得困难起来。真实是无法用名相概念来表达的。


每一行为是它自己的主语


  The wind blows(风在吹),The rain falls(雨在下),The river flows(河在流),在类似这样的句式中,我们可以清楚地看到主语和动词是一体的,相同的。不吹就没有风,不下也就没有雨,不流也就没有河。如果我们仔细观察的话,我们就会发现,行为的主语就在行为当中,行为本身即是主语。


  最一般的动词就是"to be(是),"如"I am (我是)","you are (你是)","the mountain is (山是)","a river is (河是)"。动词"to be(是)"不表达宇宙生机勃勃的动态,如果要表达的话,我们就必须说"become(变成)"。"to be(是)"和"to become(变成)"这两个动词都可以用作名词"being(存在)"、"becoming(正在存在、正在变成某种存在状态)"。但是,"being" 是什么?"becoming" 又是什么?"becoming"意思是"不断地变化",像动词"to be"一样通用。假如主语和动词是相互分立的,那么我们根本无法表达某一现象的"being(存在)"和它的"becoming(正在存在、正在变成某种存在状态)"。在"风"这个例子中,"blowing(吹)"就是风的"being(存在)"和"becoming(正在存在)"。对于"雨"而言,它的"being (存在)"和"becoming(正在存在)"就是"falling(下)"。对于"河"而言,"flowing(流)"就是它的"being(存在)"和"becoming(正在存在)"。”

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