June 02, 2006
Deathlessness
Those who uncover
The significance of these words
Shall not taste death.
If your guides claim
that liberation is in the sky,
The birds of the sky will be there before you.
If they say it is in the sea,
The fishes of the sea will be there before you.
The buddha's land is within you and without you.
Know what is before you.
That which is hidden shall be revealed.
This meditative heaven shall pass away
and that above shall pass away.
The dead have no longer lived,
the living no longer die.
Form does not differ from emptiness,
emptiness does not differ from form.
That which is form is emptiness,
that which is emptiness form.
You shall receive
what no eye has seen,
No ear heard, no hand touched
nor any heart received.
In emptiness no form, no sensation,
no perceptions, no impulses, no consciousness.
Blessed are those who stand
at the beginning, for they understand
the end without tasting death.
No eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind;
no color, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch,
no object of mind
No ignorance and also no extinction of it,
and so on until no old age and death
and also no extinction of them.
No suffering, no origination,
no stopping, no path, no cognition,
also no attainment with nothing to attain.
When you make two into one
and what is within like what is without,
and what is without like what was within.
And what is above like what is below,
and when you unite male and female in one
So that the male is no longer male,
and the female is no longer female,
When you make eyes in place of an eye
and a hand in place of a hand,
and a foot in place of a foot
and an image in place of an image,
Then you shall enter.
We stood
In the midst of the world,
and found everyone drunk
and none thirsty.
They cannot realize that they have come
empty into the world,
and must leave it empty.
Those who
received the keys of understanding, hid them.
They did not enter, nor allowed entrance to those
who so wished.
So people think
This world is in a great fire,
The end is coming.
But really this world is peaceful.
It is filled with gods and good people.
Its gardens, forests, and palaces
Are adorned with treasures;
Gem trees have fruits and flowers;
Living beings are enjoying themselves;
And the gods are beating heavenly drums.
Pouring music and mandarava blossoms,
On the Buddhas and all beings.
form is emptiness, emptiness is form.
Form is not other than emptiness.
Emptiness is not other than form.
The same is true of sensations, perceptions,
metal formations, and consciousness
This land is pure and indestructible.
But people think
It is full of sorrow, fear and pain,
and will soon burn away.
When will begin the ascension?
And when will the new age appear?
Be wise as serpents,and innocent as doves.
The salvation you expect is here,
Although you cannot recognize it.
Split wood and it is there.
Raise a stone and you will find it.
Those who seek shall find
and the doors will be opened to them.
Who knock.
The heavens will be rolled back, and the earth unfurled
before your eyes. The Loving One sees
neither death nor fear
It will never come if you are
expecting it. Nobody will say look here
or look there. Yet it
is spread throughout the earth and no one sees it.
Adapted & arranged
From Gospel of Thomas --Translator Nancy Johnson
The Heart Sutra
The Lotus Sutra