On Being Ordinary

Don't try to understand what I'm saying. These are just pointers. I don't understand what I'm saying either. Pointers point to the state of direct realization but they're not a substitute for it.

~ Eckhart Tolle

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“The nice thing is that when you stop waiting for the mind to stop doing what it does, you start to realize it doesn’t matter how long the mind does what it does. There’s still this direct taste, this sense of being. So waiting is unnecessary. It’s just another concept.”

~ Adyashanti

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To say something meaningful,
Get in the circle of silent ones
And be silent.

~ Rumi

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I felt in need of a great pilgrimage
so I sat still for three
days

and God came
to me.

~ Kabir

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The desire to find the self will be surely fulfilled, provided you want nothing else. But you must be honest with yourself and really want nothing else. If in the meantime you want many other things and are engaged in their pursuit, your main purpose may be delayed until you grow wiser and cease being torn between contradictory urges. Go within, without swerving, without ever looking outward.

~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

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In Master Linji's time, some Buddhist terms were used so often they became meaningless. People chewed on terms like “liberation” and “enlightenment” until they lost their power. It’s no different today.

What is a True Person?

“As I see it, there isn’t so much to do. Just be ordinary—put on your robes, eat your food, and pass the time doing nothing.”

~ Master Linji

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Insight can’t be found in sutras, commentaries, verbal expression, or —isms. Liberation and awakened understanding can’t be found by devoting ourselves to the study of the Buddhist scriptures. This is like trying to find fresh water in dry bones. Returning to the present moment, using our clear mind which exists right here and now, we can be in touch with liberation and enlightenment, as well as with the Buddha and the patriarchs as living realities right in this moment. The person who has nothing to do is sovereign unto herself. She doesn’t need to put on airs or leave any trace behind.

The true person is an active participant, engaged in her environment while remaining unoppressed by it. Although all phenomena are going through the various appearances of birth, abiding, changing, and dying, the true person doesn’t become a victim of sadness, happiness, love, or hate. She lives in awareness as an ordinary person, whether standing, walking, lying down, or sitting. She doesn’t act a part, even the part of a great Zen master. This is what Master Linji means by “being sovereign wherever you are and using that place as your seat of awakening.”

We may wonder, “If a person has no direction, isn’t yearning to realize an ideal, doesn’t have an aim in life, then who will help living beings be liberated, who will rescue those who are drowning in the ocean of suffering?” A Buddha is a person who has no more business to do and isn’t looking for anything. In doing nothing, in simply stopping, we can live freely and true to ourselves and our liberation will contribute to the liberation of all beings.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh