On Gradual Cultivation

Text

Shenxiu instructed his students: "All deluded thoughts are dust. When dust does not arise, that is the original radiance. You must not allow the dust of deluded thinking to cover the mirror of mind. Therefore I say: at all times, keep polishing. Do not think this effort is in opposition to the sudden teaching. The sudden and the gradual do not fight each other—the sudden is the destination, the gradual is the road. Who reaches the destination without walking the road?"

license: public_domain

Attribution

• Attributed To
  Yuquan Shenxiu

Lineage: Early Chan

By Yuquan Shenxiu

• The Bright Mirror Verseverse
• Watch the Mindsaying

From Jingde Chuandenglu

• 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
• Cold Ashes, Dead Tree
• The Encounter with Linji

Sources

• contentZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation

  Zen project editorial

  Jingde Chuandenglu, Vol. 4, Shenxiu chapter; Lengqie Shizi Ji

  Jingde Chuandenglu: On Gradual Cultivation