The two muddy bulls fighting

No Buddha conceived by human thought is a Buddha, only an illusion. Seeking truth through thought only leads to confusion.

Buddha is beyond any fixed form, impossible to enclose in concepts. Unfortunately, this is what we do most of the time. We look for truth in words. We are constantly in a conflict between what is good and what is bad, what is right and what is wrong…

A Zen master wrote this poem:

Two muddy bulls were fighting on the beach,

I saw them enter the sea and disappear beneath the waves.

From then on, I never tried to catch the truth or escape from illusions.

This image of the two muddy bulls constantly fighting each other is the mental search for truth, a search that only leads to more mud and confusion.

From the moment I abandoned the search for the Way through the mind, through the intellect, through thought, I gave myself to reality, I plunged into reality – and my illusions disappeared beneath the waves of reality.

No Buddha conceived by human thought is a Buddha.

Kodo Sawaki writes: ‘You, who have the Buddha nature deep down, it is only when you put into practice the Buddha’s behaviour that you are a Buddha’. When you behave like a fool, you are a fool. It is only in the way we live that Buddha appears. We live in reality, our mind must meet reality. Please don’t confine your life to the bubble of the mind.

Seeking truth through thought only leads to confusion. Beyond everything, Buddha appears, he is the unlimited.

A person who acts like a Buddha is a Buddha. This is how liberation begins.

To enter into reality, to be present to reality, to give oneself to reality, is to act like a Buddha.

He who assists all existences, who assists existence and helps all existences, he is Buddha. Look no further.

Taiun JP Faure, November 2024