Someone asked: “What are enlightenment and delusion?” Linji said: “A moment when your mind is in doubt is delusion. If you can comprehend that the my… - Linji Yixuan

People who study the Path genuinely do not grasp buddhas or bodhisattvas or arhats; they do not grasp attainments of special excellence within the triple world. They are transcendent and free and on their own—they are not constrained by things. Even if heaven and earth turn upside down, they are not in doubt. If all the buddhas of the ten directions appear before them, they feel no joy. If [all the torments of] the hungry ghosts, the animals, and the beings in hell appear before them, they feel no fear. Why are they like this? They see the emptiness of all phenomena, which exist through transformation and don’t exist without it. They see that the triple world is only mind, and the myriad things are only consciousness. Therefore, why bother to grasp [what are really] dreamlike illusions and apparitions?

Enlightenment abides nowhere. Therefore, there is no attaining it. What else is there for really great people to be in doubt about? Who is the one before your very eyes functioning? Take hold and act: don’t affix names. This is the mystic message. If you can see things this way, there is nothing to despise or avoid. An ancient said: ‘Mind revolves following the myriad objects. Where it revolves is surely obscure. If, following the flow, you can recognize its true nature, there is no joy or sorrow.’

An ancient said that if you call it a thing, you miss the mark. Just look for yourself: what else is there? Talk could go on forever: each of you must personally make the effort.