841Uif

170 I BAssm ' s SERMON AND LETTERStruth is wanting, you may be Wlahle to attain enlightenment in thislife. But if you carry on your Zen practice1 faithfully, even whiledying, you will Wlquestionably achieve enlightenment in your nextexistence. But don't dawdle. Imagine yourself on your deathbed atthis very moment. What alone can help you? What alone can preventyou from falling into hell because of your transgressions? Thereis fo rtooately a broad path to liberation. From your very roots askthis one question: "What is my Buddha-mind?" If you would seethe substance of all Buddhas in a trice, realize your own Mind.Is what I say true or false? Ask yourself this instant: "What ismy own Buddha-mind?" Upon your enlightenment the lotus willblossom in a roaring fire and endure throughout eternity. Man inherentlyis no different from the lotus. Why can't you grasp this?3 f TO LORD NAKAMURA, GOVERNOR OFAKI PROVINCE / You ask me how to practice Zen withreference to this phrase from a sutra: "Mind, having no fixed abode,should flow forth." There is no express method fo r attaining enlightenment.If you but look into your Self-nature directly, not allowingyourself to be deflected, the Mind flower will come into bloom.Hence the sutra says: "Mind, having no fixed abode, should flowforth." Thousands of words spoken directly by Buddhas and Patriarchsadd up to this one phrase. Mind is the True-nature of things,transcending all fonns. The True-nature is the Way. The Way isBuddha. Buddha is Mind. Mind is not within or without or in hetween.It is not being or nothingness or non-being or non-nothingnessor Buddha or mind or matter. So it is called the abodeless Mind.This Mind sees colors with the eyes, hears soWlds with the ears. Lookfor this master directly !A Zen master [Rinzai] of old says: "One's body, composed of thefour primal elements,2 can't hear or Wlderstand this preaching. Thespleen or stomach or liver or gall bladder can't hear or Wlderstand ·this preaching. Empty-space can't Wlderstand it. Then what doeshear and Wlderstand?" Strive to perceive directly. If your mind remainsattached to any form or feeling whatsoever, or is affected by1 That is, asking: "What is the true substance of my Mind?"2 Namely, solids (earth), liquids (water), heat (fire), gas (air).