Sending the Buddha in search of the Buddha, grasping the mind with the mind, they may exhaust themselves in striving for an entire eon but will never… - Huangbo Xiyun

The essence of the mind is empty, and the myriad conditions are all serene. It is like the great orb of the sun climbing into space—the refulgent brilliance gleams in illumination, purity without a single speck of dust. The realization [of this mind] is without new or old, without shallow or deep. Its explanation depends neither on doctrinal understanding, on teachers, nor on opening up the doors and windows [of one’s house to let in students]. Right now, and that’s it! To activate thoughts is to go against it! Afterward, [you’ll realize] this is the fundamental Buddha.

[The master] entered the hall and said: Rather than the hundred varieties of erudition, to be without seeking is primary. A religious person is someone who does nothing and is truly without the numerous types of mind. There is also no meaning that can be preached. There’s nothing else, so you may go.

If one definitively understands that all dharmas are fundamentally nonexistent and that there is nothing that can be attained, with no reliance and no abiding, no subject and no object, without activating false thoughts—this is to realize bodhi. And when one realizes enlightenment, this is only to realize the fundamental Buddha of the mind. To pass through eons of effort is nothing but useless cultivation. Just as when the warrior attained his pearl he merely attained the pearl that was originally on his forehead, and this had nothing to do with his ability to seek elsewhere. Therefore the Buddha has said, “I have truly not attained anything in the ultimate bodhi.”