You are the void—where would you gather? You recognize this. At first, you need to gather. The purpose of gathering is to let you discover that you are illusory, that you are emptiness. If you are the void, and everything is already complete within the void, including all its energy, how could it become complete again? It was only a thought arising.
When you see something, you call it the appearance of a cloudless sky; it means that your nature of mind has become a little pure. This is called a wholesome state; in Buddhism, this is what it is called. He does not call it good or bad; he calls it a wholesome state. Because as soon as you call it good, you cling to an appearance. If you call it not good or not bad, you cling to a bad state, asking, “Is this state bad?”
A wholesome state means that your cultivation and realization have progressed a little. The cloudless sky you see never goes beyond the appearance of your mind. Since your mind is everywhere, how could it run outside the appearance of your mind? The appearance of your mind has become a little pure.
No problem, that’s good. Yes, that’s good. This is the Chan School. Sometimes it has this kind of practice: arousing a sensation of doubt. When he cannot make sense of a passage, he keeps turning it over in his mind, thinking and thinking. Then, generally, he takes a sentence or passage from the classics that he himself has not really penetrated, keeps bringing it back up in his mind, and thinks it over and over. This too is a method of cultivation and realization. It’s quite good.
Because most of you have cultivated before. Everyone here, in fact, has cultivated before. You have all learned many methods, many Dharma doors, and sometimes use them without realizing it. Even if you can’t remember, it doesn’t matter.
Really, it’s nothing much, nothing much—just a cultivation method. But what is worth praising is that you can keep your mind on cultivation every moment. Whether sleeping or walking, standing, sitting, or lying down; whether the method is tight or relaxed, whether you are attached, whether you are a little unable to figure it out, or whatever—but at the very least, your mind remains in cultivation and realization.
So as long as your mind is in cultivation and realization, that is Buddha. As long as you abide in the Buddha Way, one day you will awaken; one day you will understand completely and see clearly.
But you need to understand: where are you attached? There are many things; once you know where you are attached, identify which part of your thinking is obstructing you from seeing your own emptiness, clear that part away as soon as possible, and then you will easily see your Buddha-nature.
Because you cannot see Mount Lu’s true face when you are inside the mountain. This point is you yourself—your self. The self is there, always there. “I am practicing, I want attainment, I want to attain Fruition, I want to give rise to a mind that abides nowhere, I want, I want, I want”—it is all “I.” This “I” of yours is always there; it has not disappeared for a single moment.
Then you say no-self. You say: “I want no-self.” Yet it is still this same “I,” clinging there so firmly. “I want it this way; I want it that way.” This “I” is too forceful; it does not forget itself for a moment. As long as the “I” is there, you cling to the appearance of Buddha, the appearance of sentient beings, and the appearance of the self; you cannot abide nowhere.
Note: This text was prepared from a teaching video by Yang Ning. If it differs from the video, the video takes precedence. Watch the video.