Declination to Throne (11)

1 Mou, the prince of Wei, received his feudatory in Zhongshan. So, he was called Zhongshan Prince Mou.

2 Though the prince lived in comfortable palace, he favored practice instead. He invited Zhanzi as his teacher. He often sat in meditation in Zhanzi’s house for practice.

3 Someday, Zhongshan Prince asked Zhanzi, “Though I sit here for practicing Zen, when I manage to calm down for practicing, the joy and trivia occur in my mind. How can I harness the wild-horse-like heart?”

4 Zhanzi said, “You may regard those things in palace as aberrance. Seeking and indulging into them causes harm to health and mind and brings endless vexation to you. Based on the concept of loving life and yourself, you might naturally think less of them.”

5 The prince replied, “I know well what you say. However, in fact I have difficulty in cutting them off.”

6 Zhanzi knew that it needs time for a prince to change into the state of practice. It is the opposite of what to wish if the change is too fast and great.

7 Zhanzi said, “If you can’t forget, let it be. As long as you remember that the five sensations are aberrance. They are not frequent and you can’t seize or hold them firmly. They would leave you eventually at any time.

8 With the discreet thinking, you can do with what it is. There is a BMW. You use it, but you don’t covet for a more luxury car, such as BENZ. There is a chance to have dinner in a grand hotel, you don’t decline it, as long as, the next day you have a bowl of soaked cooked rice and will not think it is difficult to swallow, that is acceptable.

9 On the way of practice, they, such as self-nature, Buddha-nature, Qi, calmness and refinement, don’t care for where you dine, what clothes you wear, how many wives you have and how much income you have. These are the same petty in the eye of them.

10 The key of practice isn’t the worldly trivia or what kinds of lives are you living, but whether the sound, tranquil and peaceful mind that you can maintain or not. In luxurious life, you can conserve soundness, tranquility and peace; so can you in austere life that is fine.

11 Paying too much attention to the appearance of practicing are not recommended. If you get used to having delicious, clean and good-smelling food, then it is unnecessary to force yourself to eat the remains of meal which makes you vomit.

12 What we stress is how to maintain soundness, tranquility and peace. It is wrong that you force yourselves to do something that you are not accustomed to or are hurt by. A man, who doesn’t care his own health, can’t keep his life, not to mention practice.”