Sublime

this practice was not some exotic trip or a passing fad but a matter of life and death that required an equal commitment from us to meet him completely with our whole heart.

But koans also take us beyond kensho. If kensho is a lurch into the boundless, selfless universe of enlightenment, then afterward we still need to gradually cultivate our embodiment of what we have experienced. One way to do this is to train with koan after koan, gradually integrating the experience into ordinary life. More “openings” may befall us

Thus, the sutra weaves together the threads of Yogacara and Zen, along with such unique Mahayana concepts as the no-self self of the tathagata-garbha, and it does this for three hundred pages, mostly in prose, and with occasional recapitulations in verse.

It may be better not to get too attached to specific forms of practice. The

the koan that is the subject of this sutra: “Can you see the Tathagata?” And “no” was as far as he got or needed to go.

five dharmas: appearance, name, projection, correct knowledge, and suchness; the three modes of reality: imagined, dependent, and perfected; the eight forms of consciousness: one

always leads his disciple back to the two teachings that underlie this sutra: the “nothing but mind” of Yogacara and the “self–realization” of Zen.

So, at least in the beginning, a guru with knowledge of the Dharma who is from a traditional, institutionalized path is a safe bet.

A master who cannot bow to his disciple cannot bow to Buddha.