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NEVER TELL YOU ABOUT THIS WITH THE MOUTH GIVEN TO ME BY MY PARENTS!"
THIS WAS HIS WAY OF TEACHING.
This mouth, given by your parents is not capable of saying it; but the being is not given to you by your parents. You have come through them, they have been vehicles, but you are not part of them. Your body is made by your parents, the temple is raised by them, but the deity in the temple, the being, comes from eternity, it cannot come from mortal bodies.
ISAN THEN SUGGESTED THAT TOZAN VISIT UNGAN WHO TOZAN LATER SUCCEEDED. COMING UP TO UNGAN, TOZAN ASKED, "WHO CAN HEAR THE SERMONS OF INSENTIENT CREATURES?"
"INSENTIENT CREATURES CAN HEAR THEM," ANSWERED UNGAN.
"WHY CAN I NOT HEAR THEM?" ASKED TOZAN.
UNGAN RAISED HIS STAFF STRAIGHT UP AND SAID, "DO YOU HEAR?"
"NO, I DON'T," ANSWERED TOZAN.
UNGAN SAID, "DON'T YOU KNOW THE SUTRA SAYS, `BIRDS AND TREES, ALL MEDITATE ON THE BUDDHA AND THE DHARMA?'"
AT THIS TOZAN SUDDENLY BECAME ENLIGHTENED.
HE WROTE THE FOLLOWING VERSE:
WONDERFUL! HOW WONDERFUL!
SERMONS BY INSENTIENT CREATURES;
YOU FAIL IF YOU LISTEN WITH YOUR EARS;
I repeat:
YOU FAIL IF YOU LISTEN WITH YOUR EARS.
LISTENING WITH YOUR EYES, YOU HEAR THEM.
By the eyes he does not mean the ordinary eyes, he means the eyes of an awakening clarity of your being. If you can hear in your silence, if you can see in your silence, then everything in the world is speaking, giving sermons, singing songs, dancing.
Can't you see? But these eyes and these ears won't do. You will have to dig deep within yourself to find the right approach to see the eternal dance of existence, to hear the music and to see the beauty of it.
TOZAN CONTINUED PRACTICING ZAZEN AND WAS EVER WATCHFUL. ONE DAY WHILE HE WAS SWIMMING IN A STREAM, HE SAW HIS SHADOW CAST ON THE WATER AND EXPERIENCED HIS GREAT ENLIGHTENMENT. HIS VERSE ON THAT OCCASION WAS:
LONG SEEKING IT THROUGH OTHERS,
I WAS FAR FROM REACHING IT.
NOW I GO BY MYSELF;
I MEET IT EVERYWHERE.
IT IS JUST I MYSELF,
AND I AM NOT ITSELF.
UNDERSTANDING THIS WAY,
I CAN BE
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