Cold Ashes, Dead Tree

Text

Shishuang taught his monks: "Cease all agitation. Cease all involvement. Be cold ashes. Be a dead tree. Be a strip of white silk. Be a censer in an ancient ruined shrine." He called this the practice of "ten thousand years in one thought"—not the obliteration of thought, but the return to a stillness so complete that time itself dissolves.

license: public_domain

Attribution

• Attributed To
  Shishuang Qingzhu

Lineage: Qingyuan line

By Shishuang Qingzhu

• Alive or Dead in Sittingdialogue
• Cease and Desistsaying

From Jingde Chuandenglu

• On Gradual Cultivation
• Watch the Mind
• On Sudden Enlightenment
• The Debate at Huatai
• Before Thinking Arises
• The One Who Has No Rank
• The Arrow on High
• Meeting the Poet Li Ji
• Just This Is It
• The Encounter with Linji

Sources

• contentZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation

  Zen project editorial

  Jingde Chuandenglu, Vol. 15, Shishuang Qingzhu chapter

  Jingde Chuandenglu: Cold Ashes, Dead Tree