I sincerely offer these words of advice to those who wish to truly practice:
Don’t be pulled by states of mind or objects or rely on intellectual knowledge.
Don’t show in your hands what you have received on your seat.
Just throw body and mind into the Great Treasury of Luminosity and don’t look back.
Don’t try to fabricate enlightenment or hide from delusion.
Stable and calm, practice shikantaza, just sitting.
Breathing in. Breathing out.
Do not push away the arising of thoughts or crave them; do not identify.
In not propagating thoughts, they will not continue.
Sitting under the open sky, weightless as a flame.
Eighty-four thousand thoughts come and go, each displaying itself as luminous perfect knowing.
Do not hold them; just allow them to go their own way.
This step, this step, off the seat and not just in sitting.
The walking of light—realize it directly.
All through the day discard personal views or fragmented thoughts.
Breathing in and breathing out; hearing and touching.
No thoughts of separation; just the silent illumination of luminosity in which body and mind are not two.
Thus when someone calls, you will answer.
Deluded and enlightened, all beings and sages are one body.
In the midst of impermanence, this luminosity is unobstructed.
Forest and flowers, grasses and leaves, humans and creatures, large or small, long or short, square or round—all present themselves at once free of discriminating thoughts or intentions.
Ever-changing unobstructed luminosity is open brilliance, not depending on mind.
No location.
When Buddhas appear in this universe, it does not arise with them.
When Buddhas cease, it does not cease.
When you are born, it is not born; when your life ends, it does not end.
Buddhas do not have more of it; living beings do not have less.
If you are deluded, it is not; if you are enlightened, it is not.
No rank, no form, no name.
The Body of Totality.
It can’t be grasped; it can’t be thrown away.
Although unattainable, it penetrates this whole body.
From highest heaven to deepest hell, all realms are illumined perfectly.
Wondr’ous and inconceivable.
With trust, there is no need to ask what is right or wrong.
Coming face to face with your grandfather in the village, instantly realize reality.
Don’t practice to receive a paper of certification or predictions of becoming a Buddha.
Unattached to clothing, food, or home.
Not giving into attachment or lustful cravings.
From beginningless time samadhi is the seat of awakening.
The Ocean of Awake Awareness.
This zazen is the Buddha’s own practice.
Sitting as Awake Awareness which is transmitted from Buddha to Buddha.
Oh child of the Awakened Ones, sit calmly in your own seat.
Do not sit like a hell dweller or hungry ghost, animal or human being, jealous being or shining being, or like those with hearsay knowledge or those who fabricate enlightenment.
Practice just sitting—Shikantaza.
This is the complete practice place of Ordinary Mind, of the Treasury of Luminosity.
This is inconceivable luminous freedom.
And most important, do not waste your time.
