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Autumn Retreat - The Record of Linji, Part 5
In every religious tradition, good and evil—Buddha and Mara—are not objective realities but products of the mind. Master Linji taught the method of “removing the object but not the person,” which means letting go of external circumstances without rejecting the person, in order to recognize that Mara is delusion in the mind and Buddha is the pure mind. Taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha is therefore not seeking something outside, but returning within, “taking refuge in the Buddha in myself,” beginning with recognizing the Buddha as an object, then seeing that the refuge is right within us, and finally taking refuge in the Buddha as a state of mind.
When contemplating the unborn nature of all phenomena, understanding the six sense organs—eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind—and the six sense objects—form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and objects of mind—we see that all distinctions of birth and death, being and non-being, coming and going, one and many, are all illusions. The present moment—le moment présent—is the only moment that contains everything; space and time become one between the manifested world (Lokatātu) and the Dharma realm (Dharmadhātu). Miraculous powers are not reserved only for the Buddha; each of us has the capacity in a moment of mindfulness, without needing to wait for accumulated practice.
A list of eight categories of thought to be cleansed in order to see the non-dual reality:
- birth
- death
- being
- non-being
- coming
- going
- one
- different