Zen Master Ejo
Not fearing life and death is because of not seeing oneself. Not seeing oneself means not being self-conscious, not having a self-image. The light of great wisdom is thus impersonal, so the verse says that wisdom is Buddha.
In spite of this, you think that it is a matter of loving the transitory body, which is like dew on the grass, like a floating bubble, when it comes to the great light that is your real body, you think it is an irrelevant discussion and suppose that there must be something more grandiose. Thus you waste your time talking about political conditions and the status of pious donations, without any stable practice reflecting consideration of how this idly passing life will end up.
If you have any attainment of faith or practice within this treasury of light, why would it be only your own personal liberation? Requiting the four debts above, providing sustenance for those in the three realms of being below, mountains, rivers, and earth, your own body and other’s bodies, are all the light of suchness, illuminating everywhere endlessly.
Great Master Caoshan said in a verse:
“The essence of awareness, round and bright, the body without form:
Do not force distance or closeness in knowledge and opinion.
When thoughts differ, they obscure the mystic being,
When mind diverges, it is not close to the Path.
When feelings distinguish myriad things, you sink into the objects before you;
When consciousness reflects many things, you lose the original reality.
If you understand completely what is in these lines,
Clearly, you are trouble free, as you were of yore.”
This is a direct indication, a direct explanation, within the treasury of light, which furthermore gives directions for subtle cultivation of fundamental realization. It does not matter whether you are a monk or a lay person, whether you are beginner or experienced, it makes no difference whether you are sharp or dull, or how much learning or knowledge you have. This just points directly at the formless body of the essence of awareness, round and bright, which is utterly unique and unmatched.
There is no self-image in the Unborn. It has no personal agendas nor does It ever engage in political intrigues or other deviant designs that lurk in the hearts of men. Separate from the mystic being all the myriad things appear and converge upon the Treasury of your True Body That is Deathless Suchness bathed in Luminous Unborn Light. Just point directly at That which Illuminates and not on any secondary phenomenalizations that obscure and hoard-away the markless mark. This is known as subtle cultivation of the Fundamental Element of Truth.