Let not the appearance of these words fool you,
yet do not wander off from the context at hand.
Being One in Spirit (will) and of One Mind
is to be of a Single Mind in a here and now
that stretches beyond the temporal prison
of this body consciousness, which clouds
the true vision of your luminous Self.
The Buddhas have never lied nor will they ever
bare false witness [of the Dharma] to you.
Their dharma unfolds before you Minds´s eye
at any given moment.
Blink and you´ve already missed its splendor; speak and
the spiritual song of the truly living, becomes absent.
What you choose to SEE and SENSE and what really IS though,
are not of the same nature.
Where the one is empty (of dharma), the other shines
as purely itself permanently througout all ten directions.
How can you ever approach it or run from it by conventional means?
To say you are here, or there, or in that, or in the other,
implies the need of your present mind to constantly find
settlement and self identity with that, or the other.
This is the prison-consciousness of Samsara.
Though ashes to some, and golden to others,
It binds demons, animals, men and gods alike.
But your true Mind is primordially free; radiant, luminous – Unborn
and hence not subject [initself] to any position or law of becoming
giving the false sense of real beingness arising from it.
We speak of something incomprehensible pure; a nature and light,
second to no thing, or ideated being.
Where the ignorant bow to things, gods and other formations of desire, fear and ignorance, the true being of no rank, is One with The Mind´s supra-positional essence which the Lankavatara Sutra describes as IMAGELESS.
This is what is meant with establishing a Single Mind of one-pointedness (Zen) in the light of the Unborn Mind. This imageless light is within yourself. Where else would it be?
Focus on this lamp by means of a mandala, a koan or a dharani and it will one day break through the shades you´ve surrounded it with, shining its light upwards, filling your awed mind and Spirit, with the absolute contentment of its first enlightenment.
This in the very presence of countless Buddha’s and Bodhisattvas, all suddenly present, as to finalize your practice that reveals the other shore of Nirvana.
How can any true path and dharma of the Buddhas be found beyond it?
Those of One Mind are never alone, though it might seem so in the darkest moments of their practice.
Realizing the perfect purity of ones true nature, after seemingly endless eons in the darkness of one´s willed ignorance from the body consciousness and its vicious wheel of endless regenesis, is not easy.
Hence, once again, for the sake of your future success;
Let not the appearance of these words fool you,
Yet do not wander off from the context at hand.
Being One in Spirit and of One Mind is to be of a Single Mind,
a permanent REALITY where the absolute light in the Mind
of One-Pointedness [Zen] is attained.
With the Light of Mahayana finally at hand,
the path becomes crystal clear and its end
self-evident.
As a famous poet once wrote;
Deep Truth is always Imageless.
Hence, you need nothing more and nothing less.
In dharma,
Tozen