Not till your thoughts cease all their branching here and there, not till you abandon all thoughts of seeking for something, not till your mind is motionless as wood or stone, will you be on the right road to the Gate.
Huangbo XiyunRead
A perception, sudden as blinking, that subject and object are one, will lead to a deeply mysterious understanding; and by this understanding you will awaken to the truth.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote expresses the idea that recognizing the unity of subject and object leads to profound insight and awakening.
Huangbo Xiyunβs quote suggests that when one experiences a sudden realization that the observer and the observed are fundamentally interconnected, it can lead to a deep, mysterious understanding of reality. This awareness is described as a form of awakening to a greater truth, implying that our usual perceptions often obscure a more profound, unified existence.
Themes
PerceptionUnityAwakeningTruthUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophy class discussing Eastern thought.
More from Huangbo Xiyun
All quotes β...Therefore it is said: 'The perception of a phenomenon IS the perception of the Universal Nature, since phenomena and Mind are one and the same.'
Huangbo XiyunRead
The nature of the Absolute is neither perceptible nor imperceptible; and with phenomena it is just the same. But to one who has discovered his real nature, how can there be anywhere or anything separate from it?... ...Therefore it is said: 'The perception of a phenomenon IS the perception of the Universal Nature, since phenomena and Mind are one and the same.'
Huangbo XiyunRead
Our original nature is...void, omnipresent, silent, pure; it is glorious and mysterious peaceful joy - and that is all. Enter deeply into it by awakening yourself.
Huangbo XiyunRead
On seeing one thing, you see all things. On perceiving an individual's mind, you perceive all mind. Glimpse one truth, and all truth is present in your vision, for there is nowhere at all that is devoid of the Truth.
Huangbo XiyunRead
People are scared to empty their minds_x000D_ _x000D_ fearing that they will be engulfed by the void._x000D_ _x000D_ What they don't realize is that_x000D_ _x000D_ their own mind is the void.
Huangbo XiyunRead
Similar quotes
I'm no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and in the jury system - that is no ideal to me, it is a living, working reality.
Harper LeeRead
A consciousness of wrongdoing is the first step to salvation...you have to catch yourself doing it before you can correct it.
Seneca The YoungerRead
People go to Africa and confirm what they already have in their heads and so they fail to see what is there in front of them. This is what people have come to expect. Its not viewed as a serious continent. Its a place of strange, bizarre and illogical things, where people dont do what common sense demands.
Chinua AchebeRead
Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.
Theodore RooseveltRead
Imagine a multidimensiona l spider's web in the early morning covered with dew drops. And every dew drop contains the reflection of all the other dew drops. And, in each reflected dew drop, the reflections of all the other dew drops in that reflection. And so ad infinitum. That is the Buddhist conception of the universe in an image.
Alan WattsRead
We must therefore rediscover, after the natural world, the social world, not as an object or sum of objects, but as a permanent field or dimension of existence.
Maurice Merleau-PontyRead