The field of boundless emptiness is what exists from the very beginning. You must purify, cure, grind down, or brush away all the tendencies you have fabricated into apparent habits. Then, you can reside in the clear circle of brightness.

The above quote from Chan Master Hongzhi gives us the antidote to the associated consequences of our damning actions. Study it. Practice it. Free the mind.

The world is full of striving temptations. What are yours?

strive (v.)

1. 1200, “quarrel, contend,” from Old French estriver“to quarrel, dispute, resist, struggle, put up a fight, compete,” from estrif, estrit“quarrel” (see strife). It became a strong verb (past tense strove) by rhyming association with drive, dive, etc. Meaning “try hard” is from early 14c. Related: Striving. Etymology Online

If we strive, we will experience the consequences of striving. Striving is a common human attribute of mind. It is an action of mind and body that is an ally of strife. That’s right. Striving leads to trouble. Striving is a form of fighting. It may be a rivalry which is also known as competition. It may come in a costume of wishes and dreams of jealousy and envy. Often it becomes protective, suspicious, and protective.

Quarrels, often presented as a challenge of some sort masquerades as trying hard and doing one’s best. Time and time striving brings struggles and conflicts.

But what is the cause of striving?  Perhaps the first ground of cause is to recognize that it is our action or actions that are the basis of the cause of striving. To help us understand, let us call striving making trouble for ourselves and others.

Let us be honest and admit that the root of striving is wanting something or someone. And to distinguish it from other desires, we will add that striving is rooted in the ego-self’s hunger for more and better which the striver believes, if attained IT, whatever IT is, will satisfy the underlying desire.

There is a sense of lack which the striver thinks are real. Something is missing, Something is absent. There is a deficiency, a scarcity of a desired something that jettison’s the mind to strive.

Now, let us change the word striving to wishes and dreams.

Wishing and dreaming are the mental formations that arise out of a sense of lack. The sense of lack causes a sense of deficiency and need. There is a hinger for something missing which is the cause of the wishes and dreams which arise in the acts of striving.

The acts of striving may show up in wishes and dreams that are expressed in a belligerent way. Disappointment in life follows belligerence. The mind rallies to arguing, hostility and aggression. The rock bottom cause is hunger. Hunger rolls between deprivation and bits of satiety, but the striver continues to rotate between a sense of deprivation and paltry satiety and belligerent disappointment. The acts that arise from this hunger are quarrelsome, confrontational, and combative often in the guise of working hard.

The person besieged by this cause is driven and emotional. Wants to show off, dominate and run the show.

This karmic condition is quite painful. It keeps a person in a cycle of trying again and again to satisfy this rock bottom sense of being cheated and deprived through wishes and dreams and all out quarrelsome competition. There is a sense of panic and unrest that surrounds the person.

The antidote is to STOP the striving by recognizing that it is an endlessly, painful cycle. It is to STOP the constant review and belief in being cheated and deprived of something. To DROP the blame and guilt.

This requires that the person study the causes to drop them, Generally, the cause that is recognizable is the mental formation in the mind. All those thoughts and images of being cheated, left out, and deprived of something must be discarded. It requires an ability to take responsibility for one’s actions and to stop blaming life. It is to be open to accepting the situations of life without strife.

One needs to study their tendencies to the extent that one recognizes that their tendencies lead to longstanding habits that keep us ignorant of the clear circle of brightness called by many names.

If one tends to dominate, one needs to study that tendency and the habit of being domineering to the point that both tendency and the habit dissolve. Otherwise, the beat of action continues into karmic results and suffering continues.

Fashi Lao Yue

December 27, 2020, Falling Off the World

A cold morning below a shimmering gray-cloud illusion above. To the East, the illusion splits apart letting the pink and blue colors shimmer and peek out. The earth rolled moving out of sight of the moon. The water for the birds and squirrels changed to ice. The dogs hunt for the chipmunk under the deck. All the trees have lost their leaves. The Truth uncovered and uncovered and uncovered. But we do not see it. We see the things in the world and think they are real. We could come up with a new slogan; Worldly Things Matter. We need another word. We need to add fundamentally with a question.

Do worldly things fundamentally matter?

White clouds gather in formation as time swiftly passes by while blue light magic conceals the vacant sky.

Who is the one that fundamentally sees into not dwelling anywhere?

Drop concern for your selfish self that dwells in worry and fear. Do not ask unwise questions.

• What will I say?
• How will I look?
• Where will I live?
• What will I wear?
• What can I get?
• Will I have fun?
• How will I sound?
• Where will I sleep?
• What will I eat?
• Who will look after me?
• How will I manage?
• What will I do?

This is where we begin. Power up concentration and study the self. Ask yourself:

Who am I? What am I?

Author: Fly

Old Moon

Zen Contemplative of the Order of Hsu Yun

A Single Thread is not a blog.

 If for some reason you need elucidation on the teaching,

please contact editor at: yao.xiang.editor@gmail.com

1. If you truly appreciate (value) a single thread, your eye (see) can suitably meet the world and its changes.
2. Value – I’ve built a grass hut where there’s nothing of value. …it includes the entire world. What happens there…illuminating forms and their nature.
3. A single thread (in the mind); one-pointed. …trust without doubt.
4. Seeing clearly, do not be fooled, and the ten thousand situations cannot shroud (bury) you.
5. Burial cloth, obscures, dead.
6. Do Not Be Fooled by fooling around with the stuff of life that is not
7. The pervasive knowledge of the truth that everything changes strengthens our capacity to meet the world.
8. Moonlight falls on the water, wind blows over the pines.
9. Light and shadow do not confuse us; sounds and voices do not block
10. The whistling wind can resonate, pervading without impediment through the various structures.
11. Flowing along with things, harmonizing without deviation, thoroughly abandoning webs of dust, still one does not arrive in the original home.
12. Put to rest the remnants of your conditioning.
13. Sit empty of worldly anxiety, silent and bright, clear and illuminating, blank and accepting, far-reaching and responsive.
14. Without encountering external dusts, fulfilled in your own spirit, arrive at this field and immediately recognize your ancestors.

Author: Fly

Old Moon

Zen Contemplative of the Order of Hsu Yun

A Single Thread is not a blog.

Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage by Shitou Xiqian

Heed the wisdom from above…don’t look back…keep going…to high ground…in the Mind.

I have always been taken with the Jewish story of Lot’s wife. She is a woman to remember even though we don’t know her name. She was rescued from a terrible situation by two holy strangers who led her and her family out of a city under siege.

Here’s the gist of the story.

After a skirmish with the city rebels, two holy strangers (angels in disguise call Lot’s family together and tell them to get out of the city before it is destroyed. These holy strangers knew this to be true because they were sent to destroy the city.

As we might imagine if we were in this particular situation, we might react as they did. We might question the advice of these strangers and hesitate. We might not want to give up our home, our friends and what is familiar on the advice of two strangers who show up at our door. But if Lot and his kin were paying attention, they would have noticed that something terrible was happening in the city. It was in a word, a wreck. No matter how much Lot’s family might enjoy the place they might want to heed the knock on the door and get out of town.

But there’s confusion, hesitation because few want to be homeless wanderers with little food, water, shelter and the loss of our old companionable habits.

Lot, his wife and family hesitated. They didn’t just bag everything. They weren’t prepared with a bug-out-bag and a survivalist stash. They weren’t prepared. They were fearful for their lives. The two angels had to take them by the hand and lead them out of the city. The holy strangers led them to a certain point then turned back to destroy the city including Lot’s home and goods. But before they leave them, the two holy strangers give some advice to these refugees.

“Flee for your life! Do not look behind you, don’t stop anywhere in the Plain;

flee to the hills, otherwise you’ll be swept away.”

There is an urgent tone to this advice. Go, get out. Don’t look back. Flee. Go to high ground. Or else!

After some bargaining with the holy strangers that led to a whole other set of problems, they go. But… Lot’s wife? Well she looks back. And in looking back she turns into a pillar of salt.

When we distrust, when we follow the personal craving, ill-will, apathy, indolence, restlessness, and worry we remain confused. We don’t leave the city. We do not take heed and get out. We continue to seek rest on the plain or in the past rather than turn and run for high ground. The high ground of the Dharma is right there, wherever you are. But our eyes and hearts and minds are confused. We think and believe we are material beings.

Unlike Avalokiteshvara who studied the teachings of wisdom and by doing so realized the emptiness of form, feelings, perceptions, impulses and self-consciousness. We believe we are form, feelings, perceptions, impulses and all the stuff of ego-consciousness.

When we doubt and look for rest in the material realm of a fleeting world we exhibit our doubt, our confusion and our distrust. We look back, turn brackish. And find ourselves in all forms and feelings of suffering.

Go beyond these troubles. Forget accomplishments. Don’t look back. Run for high ground. Rest there. Study yourself in such a way the ego-self is forgotten. Emptied of all the impermanent wishes, hopes and fears.

Don’t give up. Heed the direction of the teachings. Find out for yourself what is True.

The Truth is like a lion,

You do not have to defend it.

Let it loose; it will defend itself.

Author: Fly

Old Mooon

Zen Contemplative of the Order of Hsu Yun

A Single Thread is not a blog.

 If for some reason you need elucidation on the teaching,

please contact editor at: yao.xiang.editor@gmail.com

Quotes: St. Augustine

Genesis 19:17

[1] Have you ever considered messengers as angels? Buddhism sees experience in terms of heavenly messengers; how do you look at your experience?