Sitting on a Stone

Sitting on a Stone

Sitting and breathing – which came first?

Working it out – deviates from the Dao.

All is known without undue effort – and the stone stays where it is.

Is a human being life a stone?

Yes – because the human body is soft: No – because the human heart is hard.

When a reflect clearly perceives its own nature – duality and contradiction disappear.

Ch’an Adept – Da Dao

Ch’an practitioners have a certain quiet but dignified bearing. This is not a random occurrence, although it is also true that such obvious virtue cannot be contrived, or otherwise artificially induced. Its presence is in fact the product of the paradoxical presence of the realisation of ‘emptiness’ in form. This paradox is premised upon the understanding of the existence of ‘form’ in emptiness. However, none of this is possible without the cultivation of profound wisdom, compassion, and loving kindness, all of which is required if the mind is to turn around at its deepest level and regain a correct and true conscious awareness. The further paradox is that emptiness is not ‘nothing’, and that consciousness cannot exist without an object.