The white cloud is born of the blue mountain

Our posture should not be closed up. Our posture should spread in all directions, in the numberless directions, it should open indefinitely. The infinity of forms is nothing but non-form. It could be said that forms come from non-form and return to non-form.

More poetically, we could say:

The white cloud is born of the blue mountain

All forms are transient; all go through birth, life and death. Dragonflies and mayflies, just like elephants, baobabs, rivers and mountains… All forms are ephemeral. All forms come from non-form and return to non-form. This is how the poem can be understood: the cloud appears in the sky and quickly disappears, but the mountain is eternal, it does not move. There is something in eternity that does not move. Even if we do not know what it is, we can speak of the primeval spirit, which is not the same as nothingness.

Thoughts appear and quickly disappear. Pure existence is eternal. Thought is born of pure existence. We cannot base our lives on thoughts only. For example: say we love someone. We can distinguish what is good or nice in this person but also what is bad. We can make all kinds of other distinctions, indefinitely. To love a person is to accept this person in its entirety, beyond all distinctions coming from thought.

Existence is the mother of all distinctions. A mother loves her child, whatever people may say or think about it. Before having thoughts, before words arise, we exist. We can’t live our lives on the basis of fear only. We cannot base our lives on greed, aversion, stupidity. It is important to base our life on pure existence, the mother of all points of view. To practice zazen is nothing but to open our mind to this dimension of pure existence, to this dimension of eternal spirit; to open our mind to non-fear, to true love. This applies to all human beings, without exception.

When Master Deshimaru arrived in the West, he was struck by the fear that haunts Westerners. “The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me” the philosopher Blaise Pascal said. Bodhidharma said: “To hurl oneself forward, to unite with the mystery.” To hurl oneself forward with faith, to unite with the unknowable.

The numberless distinctions contribute to the glory of the armies of the devils
while the absence of all motives, of all considerations, of all intentions
contributes to the majesty of Buddha.

This is done through the practice of letting go of all our points of view, of all our distinctions. Do not stop on anything. Maintain the majesty of Buddha.

Taiun JP Faure, august 2021