Rediscovering the Light of Our Heart

Our heart is originally the true form without form, but it starts springing into action and taking on forms in following the whims of outside things and human emotions. Reacting to the happenings and things in the phenomenal world it starts producing a discriminating consciousness and creates attachments. This causes us to roam through Samsara-- the cycle of life and death--with thoughts that constantly go all over the place, without any rest.

How can we let our heart return to the place of silence, return to the place of no sound,return to the place where there is nothing at all? How can we return and get habituated to that place of the true form which is no form, return to our true nature, in which originally there is not even a single thing? It takes time to slowly bring our heart back to that place of no form whatsoever. What it takes is the constant purification of thoughts until our consciousness no longer follows after, nor gets lost in the constant changes of the phenomenal world.

Listening is the function of our ears – and all we need to do is listen. What should we listen to? Listen to silence, listen to nothing there at all, listen to the nature of your heart in which originally there is not even a single thing.

Why are we not able to let our light shine continually? It is because we have so many misleading thoughts and attachments. The practice of Chan is like seeing the sun after the clouds have dispersed. It is a method to break free from the grip of the egoic self, the “I.” How do we break free from the grip of this “I”? Ask yourself: What is this “I”? What form does this take? As soon as there is any form, there is birth and death, Samsara. As soon as there is an “I, there is grasping and attachment.

Our heart originally is without any grasping, without any obstacle. Chan Meditation gradually clears out the misleading thoughts and attachments that cover up our heart. And as we get rid of those thoughts and attachments which are like dark clouds, our heart will become happier and happier, just as we are happy when the sun comes out. Let us practice the Dharma Door of listening to silence, of listening to no sound, of listening to nothing there at all, until we reach the insight of non-dual wisdom (Prajñā), until we reach the true form, the heart of Nirvana, until we come home to the origin of our heart.