deci belle

Oh, cheri❤❤

Passing Notes I'd spell it out— leave your ear stinging but there's no reason… and so forgetting cause there's just wonder. They all say you know the way but I want to hear it coming from you …like thunder. Our own mouths can melt metal, but who could forge an open secret like you? Whisper me homeless pearly words when we meet in the middlle in the middle of nowhere. I'll sing you rungs of hollowpoint leaned against the new moon by passerine nightbirds. I'll talk you down from siamese heights and then I will house you beyond the veils …yonder.

This is a re-run of a devotional song I have simultaneously posted on suninmyeye's mystical poetry thread. ed note: ref to sun's thread

The habitual flow of the internal dialogue of conscious awareness is not to be trifled with. It cannot be stopped by force of some ill-conceived method of mental control. It is correct to just observe its flow without judging it or getting caught up with its momentum. If a little voice seeps into the seat of observer this is the internal dialogue's insidious incipience infiltrating the objectivity of nonpsychological awareness. Just noticing the voice is enough; do not follow it. Not following the flow of internal dialogue or the sneaky little voice seeking to re-instate its domination of conscious awareness is enough. The objectivity of nonpsychological awareness and the insidious influence of the human (ego) mentality is the same mind. There are no two minds. Just observing the mind is the non-dual practice utilizing the light of the mind to observe itself. This is "turning the light around to shine back on itself". So the light of the mind itself observing is the activation of not-thinking extolled by the ancients. There is no intermediary employed other than mind itself. One note to help those who have conjured the idea to meditate: The definition of meditation is effortlessness. if there is effort employed, one has not yet seen the shining mind. Just do not-thinking to arrive at the shining mind. Observe this as just this. Observe that as just that. Scattered or shining, mind is one. Observe the mind without following mind. After a long time, you will observe the Celestial. ed note: delete reference to "mega-posters" that Flolfolil objected to…

Jetsun closed his post with: As did dawei: These observations are profound.❤ ed note: add dawei's quote

ok, sun!!❤

Precisely what I am saying is that there is no thinking intellect to observe once you begin to observe its absence. In its absence, the light does not hide anything because it is not being used habitually by the psychological (intellectual/emotional) apparatus to create illusion. Observation IS a discipline that SOME people need to practice. I have never meditated in my life. I have just devoted myself to open sincere intent in terms of now. That was my entry-point long, long ago. Otherwise, these are valid concerns, Jetsun, but in terms of process there is just open sincerity. Everything else inside and out, which is essentially one and without beginning, proceeds in a natural course of evolution in the midst of ordinary affairs. Not everyone has the same potentials nor burdens of karmic challenges. We only need to responsibly meet them in turn; in this respect, reality is karmic because potential is inherent in the dna of the situation itself. There is no other reality. Awakened enlightening being is just full presence within Unity in terms of the relative as expressed through the interdependence of karmic mutual arising. I do reflect on spontaneous response as a spontaneous exercise (very occasionally~ but certainly recently, I must admit). So the contemplation of spontaneous response is another way to practice observation. It (stopping and seeing) is not meant to be limited to the flow of unconscious thought, other than by MOST beginners, but certainly not all who venture to explore the nature of perception out of a sense of natural wonder as I have …and perhaps you, as well, need to take up such a mind-centric approach as a rule. Yet ultimately, all is mind. Seeing this for yourself, the unity of aware nature is a selfless locus arising out of one's own potential in everyday ordinary situations which has no origination— No one is perceived as outside oneself, in terms of mutual response. So the law of Cause is ultimately Causeless because this fact suits our inconceivable nature, which is a beginningless selfless aware light where even eternity is something created and nothing does not exist. You seem to be opening up into the clusters of elements of the organism in terms of seeing that there is a rich, rich basis to the reality of true being. It's like learning a whole vocabulary of the body. In truth, this is the abode of other, wordlessly knowing. I have been known to say that thought is itself indicative of mental illness.❤ ed note: add "Seeing this for yourself, the unity of aware nature is a selfless locus arising out of one's own potential in everyday ordinary situations which has no origination— No one is perceived as outside oneself, in terms of mutual response.", in 5th paragraph

it is a wonderful thing, that.❤

Protector said… WTF. BS by a staff-stiff. You have been warned. Protector starts fights. Deliberate off-topic remarks meant to up-hold any staff-members views as over and above any non-staff-members' thread or post. This is like a couple of PIGS covering each others' asses where they do not have a reason to be in the first place. Freedom of speech is not a license for anyone to spray bullshit just because they may get away with it. This forum can only rise to the level of its administrators. ed note: add last line

Look, I'm not complaining. I'm issuing a challenge. The bar must be raised. I repeat— This forum can only rise to the level of its administrators.

It's called off-topic because that is precisely what it is. Please be an example of what an ass-hole isn't, dear.❤ Some people have way too much time (and posts evidently) to be irresponsible (or so they think). Life is short. This forum can only rise to the level of its administrators. Let's loose this one. Not-thinking is not a matter of flippant mindlessness as demonstrated by the above administrator Protector. Not-thinking discursively, not making intellectual or emotional interpretations (well-meant by Flolfolil and derisively by Protector), not trying to figure anything out, but rather having real devotion in terms of true vulnerability by commitment to presence in any given situation— this is the import of authentic practice. I am very cautious in using the term devotion, because even the word selfless tends to send the recreational philosophers scurrying out of the room. Squeamish bunch, they are…❤ Beyond this, it is the fact that recreational philosophers cannot deal with anything remotely having to do with the work of not trying to figure anything out. This is precisely why they feel like they are being left out of the conversation. They simply cannot let go of the intellectual apparatus and are quite lost without it. If they cannot use w-o-r-d-s, they are completely at a loss. It is truly lamentable. I have been accused of using words myself… but only to convey the experience of not-using words, I might add~ which is beyond the ken of literalists …they do not know how little though. The inability to break out of the prison of words is simply due to laziness~ and the fear of ostracision from the mob mentality they hide behind. Recently, I had the opportunity to look at certain Sanskrit-derived material, obviously not originated, but evidently penned about 1500 years ago that has been available in the English language for around thirty years according to my source. I was shown documents sourced from this authentic tradition employing both devotional and psychological formats. I would have to say that what I read of the devotional material was principally in line (in terms of feeling-tone) with any of the alchemical Songs of Complete Reality taoist tradition. Perhaps slightly more ravishing as in the tradition of the mystic bard, Mirabai, than the Taoist counterparts. This being accountable to the Sanskrit spiritual tradition's penchant for personifying the teaching device as over against an east-Asian essential-minimalism given its traditions evolving into the first millennium CE. The only reason I bring this up is because, of those whose stomachs are lead-lined per the recognition and reception of alchemical true knowledge, the so-called devotional aspect of the Kashmiri tradition I viewed is essentially what I have been referring to in terms of open sincerity by its function as a framework for an ego-pulverizing vulnerability in practice. In alchemical terms this is open sincerity/earth catalyzing (clarifying conscious discursive knowledge/mercury) which attracts submerged (in water) true lead/real nonpsychological knowledge. Conscious knowledge nurturing real knowledge (refining true yang by true yin), is what is meant by the term sustaining a subtle consistency of concentration, like a hen sitting on an egg, mentally incubating the elixir of true awareness of the embryo of sagehood. A certain bum has recently discussed the challenge of 24/7 meditation as if it is a type of carry-over of stillness (just-sitting) into meditation-in-action. Without reservation, I must say that unless an impersonal devotional commitment to vulnerability (presence) in terms of ordinary situations is employed, there is no meditation to speak of, much less actualized. The fact of the matter is that the practice of stillness is for the benefit of beginners whose psychology has already been grounded substantially in one or more authentic analytic teaching traditions for many years, so they can actually see the ebb and flow of their conditioned human mentality for the first and subsequent time(s) responsibly, without developing addictions to meditation states (or then wanting to do something with it in this case). Complete Reality tradition calls for arriving at and sustaining a subtle consistency of concentration once this conditioned human mentality has lost its habit-energy of psychological momentum— at which point, the stage of the beginners' still-sitting method of self-refinement should be weaned from the forefront of practice. That point should take years of devotion to see, not a flash of ego-motivation and a question-oriented thread on this forum. ed note: change BCE to CE in the 8th paragraph

Bonjour Capitain!!❤

The title of this thread is a bit of a misnomer. Actually nothing at all is set up. The situation itself is already set-up when you recognize its potential. It is all a matter of following desire without stepping over the line in terms of entertaining speculative intent. True intent itself is just open and sincere; willing vulnerability on one's own behalf in terms of the true, which is just commitment to now as is. This is how one begins to see through everyday ordinary situations neither moving nor still …beckoning evolution through selflessness, which is none other than activating purity of nonpsychologically aware perception, void of bias and inclination; able to adapt spontaneously without leaving the pivot of non-self-conscious equipoise. Enlightening selflessness has nothing to do with the conventional term evoking diminishing one's ego-reflective speculations. Since there are none when nonpsychologically aware, the definition of selflessness can hereby convey the essence of that which does not rely on one's own power. This is transcendent function outside of karmic influence neither ordinary or holy. That is, neither relative nor absolute. This is the function within the activation of the Great Vehicle, the Middle Way of adepts having entered the workings of the Way of nonresistance. This has nothing to do with the sudden at all. Enlightening being is just now. It has never existed before or after as there has never been such a time outside of delusion, therefore it does not depend on a singular moment outside of time as IT IS THE ENERGY OF SINGULARITY IN TERMS OF POTENTIAL. ENLIGHTENING BEING CONSISTS OF NOTHING OTHER THAN THIS POTENTIAL. ENTERING INTO THIS POTENTIAL IS WHAT SELFLESSNESS IS. IT DOES NOT REFER TO THE EXULTATION OR DENIAL OF EGO. Therefore, setting up host and guest is none other that having the wherewithal to recognize the appropriate potential within any situation and then riding the energy of this potential for the love of it. As for those who have seen their nature, they know that this very uncreated energy is what love is, know that this potential has no origination, and that awareness is itself just one's own selfless identity. For those who are able, this is what constitutes practice leading to the sudden as well as practice after the sudden. It is not that people only enter the Tao in Reality after experiencing sudden enlightenment. ed note: add "speculative" at the end of the first paragraph

Gee…❤

Making an example of making foolishness covering wisdom worked for me in this instance. I will try to keep it as relevant in the future as I have in the past. ed note: hmmmm, the automatic inclusion of closely-timed subsequent posts into previous posts doesn't seem to be working. I didn't meant to rack up so many posts!! I swear, I'm not trying to catch up to the mega-posters!!

I would hope that future off-topic remarks by a member of staff be voiced via PM. It has now detracted from the import of this thread. There are hundreds, if not thousands of users of this content, registered and even more so who are not, who have no idea what your sticking-point relevant to the term "mega-poster" is, Flolfolil. Really!! There are perhaps four or five non-registered users at least, at any given time, for every registered user. Do you think they even know what you are referring to? I do not blame your distinction, but it is a bit myopic. Can we please drop it? To pick that out of the whole post and gripe about is what is serving no worthwhile function at the present time. As volatile as this has become of late, I am free to make an example of those who fit the bill …as if they don't deserve it. I have certainly paid my dues to do so. I haven't seen any of your threads deliberately, meaninglessly and boorishly attacked by any mega-posters of late. My reference to mega-posters is absolutely relevant to this topic as it it is a terrific example of the working definition of those exercising the psychology of word-based understanding (at pennies by the pound, as it were), that is not only the antithesis of a non-discursive immediate knowledge cultivated within the capacity of the practice of not-thinking, it is the very reason for the inability to do so. Non mega-posters can see this easily, as you do. Whereas those who have not yet made the distinction, by my example, they may perhaps become able to discern the not-so-subtle difference. I write to edify, using the most potent means available to me at any given time. My work on this forum has never had a dependent relationship to anyone or anything. Neither do I depend on documented words from any tradition, let alone do I assume a fractured specialization in one or another as certain mega-posters do. Let me use my examples as I see fit, since my point of reference is indisputably the source of the words of the classics, not dependent on the words derived and depended on by those who make their living on this forum, so to speak, solely by exercising the limited capacity of intellect alone.

Well it's true. And establishing this order after recognizing the imbalance of conditioning's influence is the work of self-refinement. But just pondering the reality that the difference, by recognizing the one as it is and the other as it becomes or not, is to analyze one's orientation towards the nature of the light going along as well as reversed. And when their places are properly established in one's life, their effects are discovered to be naturally ordered. In terms of the mature activation of enlightened activity, their functions alternate seamlessly when applied in actual situations because the light is one. The proper functioning of enlightening activity in terms of Chan's five ranks teaching is called "arriving within both together". But in terms of Zhuangzi's treatment in this particular chapter, the human mentality is seen in its habitually cloying aspect. The Yin Convergence Classic really digs deeply into both the psychologically mechanical and impersonally celestial aspects of mind in its analysis of their functional attributes. It is not very long at all. I have seen it with commentary by Liu I-ming in Thomas Cleary's Vitality Energy Spirit, Shambhala 1991. ISBN 0-87773-519-0. That volume possibly exists in a current re-itteration as Shambhala has re-packaged their Dragon Editions series over the last ten or fifteen years for some reason. What is important to note in Zhuangzi's lesson that it is necessary to actually see the Way of Heaven to also put the way of man into the relative and ultimate contexts of mental capacity in order to recognize the true mind and consequently, the true self independent of the relative, or conditional aspect of mind. The state of unalloyed egohood would, in the Five Ranks system of Chan buddhism, be categorized as the Guest within the Guest~ not that this category is expressed in the buddhist device, because it is a teaching device— not a condemnation of the human mentality. The relational terms guest/host used in Chan is as the relative within the absolute to describe "…seeing phenomena against the backdrop of the ultimate void". This is from Hongzi's Cultivating the Empty Field, Northpoint Press 1991. ISBN 0-86547-475-3 So Chan has a way of stripping the psychological-nonpsychological identifications from a self-reflective/impersonal dual-perspective to one of pure objective phenomenological observation. The five ranks are as follows: the relative in the absolute; the absolute in the relative; coming from within the absolute; going within both absolute and relative; arriving within both together. These are not portrayed as levels of achievement but as ontological aspects of awakened mind-function in terms of host/absolute and guest/conditional (re-phrased from Hongzi's book, above). In my experience, the traditional taoist usage dichotomizing the Celestial and the Conditional aspects of mind were much easier to deal with as just hearing that the two properties are to be realized, ultimately, as the same substance with differing valid functions. It is then logical to introduce in simplest (taoist) terms, the possibility of refining the one into the other without losing the capacities of the particular while recognizing and stabilizing the benefits of other, or impersonal immediate knowledge to constitute the real whole human being.

Everyone has this mind right now. It is not necessary to experience the sudden to activate enlightening being because your own aware nature is already thus. The sudden is the result of such activity, and so are all the classics of the authentic traditions extolling the nature of perception. As for having a real body (true self) at death… The reason people don't know their life is because they don't know their death (until it is too late). There is no ultimate identity of self in or out of time because awareness is selfless even as you read these words (or not). Your own essential nature is nothing other than just this uncreated selfless aware nature. The experience of sudden enlightenment is the experience of death itself of the individual conscious awareness (there is no other death to speak of). That is how we know there is no self; that death does not exist; that life has never begun; that there are no two minds. The transition between having a self and not is seamless. Jesus said that those who give up their lives will have everlasting life. This is precisely what he was referring to. It not some other life; some other time. Furthermore, buddhahood is not conferred by sudden enlightenment; neither is anything attained by complete perfect enlightenment. Spiritual powers are something else altogether independent of realizing your real body before you die. Instead of considering the enlightenment or not of others, consider the fact that your natures are no different than enlightened people …you just don't know it. Why not? Consider that instead and dispense with so many trivialities about something you know absolutely nothing about.

Yay! That's wonderful, Wu!!

Thank you, my friends.❤

So one who can see and assess inner and outer events and hold them clearly while adapting to chaotic situations without getting confused or losing one's place is one who forgets feelings and thoughts and calmly nurtures the elixir in the silent harmony of the empty vessel formed by sincere open intent. As with anything else, especially the alchemy of Complete Reality practice, timing is the crux of the matter when dealing with one's affair with Power. Neither hurrying nor lagging, one can then compress or expand time itself when one sees potential whereby response to the timing can be powerfully precise in concert with and in influencing the course of events. A good host always has something waiting in the wings. And a skilled guest isn't passive. The relationship of mutual arising is impersonal and exacting. A good host always has more than enough. An impeccable guest finds ways to lead into any situation. Profound study of the 10th hexagram Treading will provide insight into this relationship. Anyone interested in penetrating the façade of the I-Ching should put their Wilhelm-Baynes volume in the compost pile and turn it into damp dust. By that time you may apply a few other, albeit less pedantic volumes to the work, thereby to properly put that little Euro-latinate curiosity in its staid place. The most useful application of the I-Ching for an immortalist is as a glossary and code-book of supreme alchemical insight; that and the most transparent translation you can find of The Art of War will (with the right approach) take you far and let you see precisely from wherever you are right now by the ability to objectively assess the conditions of self and other and respond impersonally without confusion. This is not a matter of prognostication. This is application of deep insight by impersonal psychological fasting whereby the strength of concentration results in a corresponding effect of clarity. Following through on these developments is a matter of "having the heart to take hearts". Other than that, the self-refinement of audacious wayfarers intent on dealing with the world on its terms by activating the strategy of willing an inner openness to see reality in the first place— THERE IS ONLY THAT WILL AND PATIENCE to see you through to the end of the world itself which is what has always constituted your human mentality. THE ONLY PURPOSE OF ESTABLISHING HOST AND GUEST IS TO WITNESS THE OBLITERATION OF THE DYNAMIC, which must paradoxically always be driven by you: sometimes actively, sometimes passively. It is only you who sees into the potential of any situation. No one else sees what you see. And by that I mean whatever you do see, you see through it completely. Others may share a partial impersonal aspect (which depends on the power of nonpsychological awareness) to a point~ but only you see through it. Why? Because only you know what you are waiting for. That is the power of subtle intent. One only waits in order to find out what happened in the situation, nothing else. One never waits for anything else. THERE IS NO THING. You only see the aspect of relationship— and that in terms of host and guest~ but it doesn't really exist. Certainly nobody else sees it. Self-refinement is using the world to interrupt conscious awareness in secret. I do not use the term audacious lightly. It is totally up to you to use the world by adapting to its spontaneous terms and conditions. No one else can do this but you. This is what alchemy calls taking over creation. It is a game. I call it the end game because not only does it mesh tacitly with the matter of life and death, it sees through the totality of creative evolution, which is a strategy of mastery. End Game What makes this a strategy of compassion is that not only do you commit fully into the situational relationship, YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN AT ANY POINT, nor do you imply anything yourself because to do so would be no different than the current habitually circumstantial speculatively complacent relationship you and everyone else already has with our impersonally inter-related illusional karmic existence. The will to enlightening being then, is the will to see, know and be the expression of a selfless freedom of awareness. Karma is reality, but until you see your nature for what it is, you will never see reality for what it is. If this is not that important to you, then admit it and get out of your own way immediately without standing on ceremony. What makes this a ruthless strategy is that there is no emotional clinging to anything. Why? Because there is no thing that is real save for aware nature itself. Until you actually see your nature and then in the aftermath of experiencing the ultimate you then endeavor to assimilate the unattributable light after a long period of maturation of the achievement, how would you ever have the objectivity to determine for yourself what constitutes the real? Until you do achieve the objectivity of a Tathagata, how could you then dare to presume to act on that impersonal (selfless) objectivity with perspicacity? The fact is, buddhas don't act. The Virtue of the Receptive is the subtle function of enlightening being which responds effortlessly beyond one's own power by the power of unborn potential inherent in the situation itself. Therefore activating the device of host and guest is only recognizing a situation ripe for the relational dynamic whereby one lets other be the host and takes self as the guest unbeknownst to anyone in order to practice just this subtle functioning in enlightening being void of self-directed effort; only adapting impersonally to ordinary situations. A good host always has something waiting in the wings. And a skilled guest isn't passive. ed note: typos 1st & 7th paragraphs

mr lotus said: how about a link, dear? (from a PM resonse): Looking at it from the inside-out, alchemically speaking, essence is the host of the body and the body is the guest. Since conditioning has turned everything upside down, what originally was the host has lost its power. So whatever we want to nurture, we let that be the guest to take advantage of the situation we're in. So to nurture the essence, we let the body be the host (another example of reversal). Body=created karmic reality becomes the host; essence=nonpsychological awareness acts as guest. Actually, taking the position of guest is the personality's (ego's) cue to kick back and enjoy the show without being drawn into its habitual compulsions. Since it has no need to choose, the confusion of incessant occupation with conflicting mental and emotional activity is dispensed with altogether and the result is a seaside holiday balcony view of insanity, hence essence is nurtured by psychological and emotional fasting in the midst of ordinary affairs. This is the same method to quell desire (by removing the stimulus to choose) and anger (by failing to become involved) symbolized by the 41st hexagram Diminishing. Desire and anger ARE valid but habitual patterns of compulsion are what have to be eliminated to nurture essence in terms of the gradual work of self-refinement. I must have adapted the relationship to express my own experience in ordinary situations~ but I didn't make up the terms or even the application myself, I thought… but I can't find anything in my little library. Perhaps someone with a bigger library can make relevant applications (not just any, please) of taoist usage of host and guest available to the bums on this thread. The buddhist development of the terms can be studied as well in the writings of Shitou Xiqian (who emphasized the need to detach from ultimate experience in order to integrate the substance of awareness into its function in terms of phenomenal evolution which is the true expression of nondual awareness), Dongshan Liangjie (who fully developed host/guest=absolute/relative in terms of five ranks or categorizations of ontological aspects of awakened mind), Hongzhi Zhengjue (further expounded on realization's application in the relative), Eihei Dogen (brought this to Japan in the 1200s and whose current popularity overlooks an indebtedness to Hongzi)~ not that Dogen did! I do have a book called Cultivating the Empty Field, by Hongzi. ISBN 0-86547-475-0 I'm reading it again now. It was the first Chan material I studied after seeing my nature (the five years previous had been spent just pondering what the fcuk had happened to me with no words to say and nobody to tell). Taoist tradition does not make the transition so apparent~ they only say "See essence on your own, then seek a teacher". Hongzi became my teacher in this regard. But as for my treatment of the terms host and guest… perhaps I'm writing that book? Ya, so my so-called version of host/guest is to save energy/absorb potential as a fundamental entry into everyday ordinary working the firing process of spiritual alchemy. I just stumbled onto this over twenty years ago and I haven't changed anything about it since then. Advance, withdraw, eat, sleep, work, play, etc… of course, all the other aspects are already included, but I don't do them. Host/guest is the day-job and all that spiritual alchemy stuff just sorta takes care of itself naturally.

Dogen, Daokai and Yunmen proclaimed the moving, floating, walking, obstructing mountains by “Saying mountains are mountains isn’t saying mountains are mountains”. What then is the force of wayfarers who audaciously initiate creative reversal and use temporal circumstances to refine the integral? Flowing unknowing like mountains. Mountains are mountains. …are not mountains …return to mountains …are hidden in mountains. Who said the words? When? Whose habituation to word constructs and scholastic precedence would be limiting true study by pedantic foot-noting? So the way of etymology is not consistent with wisdom, as it consists of positing names as intellectual forms and valuing concurrence— if etymologists knew as we live in Power and act in eternity, that true study is transcendence of form …only then talking about it— Talk amongst those habituated to intellectualism about what they have never seen personally themselves and calling that philosophy in concurrence has never amounted to anything but confusion for those who come afterwards by obscuring and obstructing evidences of the rare. How can real and false be perceived by the blind? There is seeing through rote clinging to academic and popular constructs.Wrighting words without cutting (words) up, leaving words whole to shore the words’ meaning and leaving meanings to conjure images: as images are passed through, who arrives at noumenon? And, suddenly, what of the causeless? The ancients were so different? In a tale of inner meaning, a seeker is instructed to toss a book acquired from an old immortal into a cave after reading it, i.e.: words are to be abandoned at key intervals, to allow digestion of experience’s intrinsic content. Mental and emotional reifications stultify complete reality. “Empty the mind ; fill the belly” is really alchemic terminology. Rationalists have never known this. Why would they want to infringe on their petty pastime? The only reason I harp on these people is to warn those who have not yet developed the habit of intellectualism. It is a dead-end for dabblers. The studied ageless classics of the taoist and buddhist canon are all the direct result of immortal activity in the world. Entry into the real is dropping off feelings and opinions. The thinking self is indicative of unruly mind; but just this dropped off is not yet virtuous. Alchemical jargon is an imbedded device, created not for understanding, but for breaking through rote habit establishing the façade of rational ego-identity without weakening its valid functioning in ordinary affairs. Developing an intimate familiarity within the alchemic device naturally dissolves the concretions of false identity by exercising an unused capacity of mind to bypass the tyranny of self-reifying thought. It’s not nonsense; it’s non-sense in terms of specific types of non-doing designed to refine the self called the Sciences of Essence and Life. Water produces metal (potential/real knowledge/true lead). Not speculating in this, metal’s function becomes absorbed primal energy (this is also what is known as “stealing potential”). Mountain symbolizes the ever-ready potential not sensing any compulsion to act: and this is precisely the working definition of true practice— not to mention true attainment. What is water? What is metal’s function? What is primal energy? What is potential? True practice is sincere, dedicated research proven in actual affairs and is also the process of discovering this for oneself alone. No one else can do it for you. Alchemical terms are clues left behind to enter mysteries only you can discover for yourself. This is not history or philosophy, neither is it existent. Immortalism is a way of wonder to arrive at the fundamental transformation and realization of the totality of your true self. Do not undertake this with a sense of something to accomplish. This affair is the inconceivable, with no beginning or end. One’s arrival at the realization of the nonorigination of your own selfless living uncreated awareness is seeing your own nature for the first time that you yourself do not recognize as your own mind right now. Sensing without compulsion is identical to activating the mind without dwelling on its contents. This is the entire buddhist canon in one sentence. This is not the result of enlightenment. Mind is already one. What makes practice real is the fact that realization has no power unless one can act on its power. If you can dismiss the false effortlessly, why wait for enlightenment? It is your own awakened mind right now. Real practice is a force passing through stillness and movement without accruing any distinctions between self, other, time(s) and location(s), in order to spontaneously maneuver through delusion while functioning naturally in its phenomena by adapting to evolving situations. Not accruing distinctions is the same as functioning in the world without being subject to it’s influence. It is not that you don’t see distinctions. Reality is not some other reality. Seeing reality is just seeing through its distinctions that influence people to follow it. Enlightening beings do not go along with creation; they go in reverse. They turn the light around to shine on its source. It’s the same light; unless you are turning the light around, it’s not the practice of the completely real human with no status. Alchemically speaking: Heaven fills Lake, quickening “Sensing” (hex 31) instilled on Mountain. This is selfless evolutionary transformation of polluted energy resulting in “Withdrawl” (hex 33). When the energy of Heaven instills spontaneous reversion, the way is lofty; there is no choosing in terms of Suchness as is, the scene being utterly ordinary. This happens over and over and is called the firing process of alchemical reversion in endless transformations planting lotuses in fire, but it looks like an adaptive worldling functioning naturally in everyday situations. Here, Dogen’s term “mountains are not mountains”, is equivalent to glinting traces of enlightenment. So even complete perfect enlightenment is a stage that must be passed through completely. Sudden enlightenment is just a major cycle resonating the countless reversions one accomplishes in past, present and future lifetimes all at once outside of time. Nevertheless, it is still just another causeless cycle and must be transcended no different than any other cycle. It is enlightening being itself which activates the subtle operation of adepts, immortals and buddhas. So it is not a matter of doing, but rather transcendent nonresistance expressing the Virtue of the Receptive. So it goes without saying that ordinary applications of subtleties of the alchemic sciences should not be clung to~ and not simply because this is not attributed to the person. It is the knowledge itself accomplishing neither movement nor stillness of Mountains; actually seeing reality as reality is the accomplishment. Knowledge is being itself. Its movement or stillness is transcendence already, so reliance on one’s own power to act has no place in terms of real practice. Self-reifying accounts of even selfless vision must be emptied, otherwise this is no different than delusive clinging to delusion. Nonresistant selfless freedom does not admit clinging, not to anything at all, including detachment. The taoist classics on alchemy all say “after using lead, you then get rid of it”. The way to get rid of lead once you have “used” it is to plunge a mountain of transcendence into a mountain of practice without any trace. Now, when mountains are not mountains, who steps forward with open hands; who hears? This is then the further development of realization where “attaining enlightenment comes before awakening” and “sentient beings become buddhas and buddhas become sentient beings”. Mountains returning to mountains only explains there has never been a thing to attain because miraculous awareness is our living mind by which the light in your eyes sees these words. “Practice and verification are non-existent” is a famous phrase attributed to the sixth patriarch which Dogen uses to refer to the mystery of enlightened spiritual practice. There is an open secret in our midst, our life and our love, our heart and mind— how ordinary this knowing the traces seeking validation— and not going along… Mountains hidden in mountains is freely expressing neither knowing nor not knowing, for mountains are truly beyond our ken. There really is no understanding understanding. The beginningless is a mystery within a mystery. The living complete reality flowing unknowing like mountains. ed note: fixed paragraph spacing all over the place

Yes, the multifarious aspects are active in terms of relative and transcendent applications. That is the way it has to be expressed …it's an all at once dynamic of interpenetration and mutual arising. It's East Mountain walks on water, to be sure. ed note: typo