‘If you would free yourself from the sufferings of birth and death, you must learn the direct way to awakening. This way is no other than the realization of your own Mind … If you want to realize your own Mind, you must first of all look into the source from which thoughts flow. Sleeping and working, standing and sitting, profoundly ask yourself, ‘What is my own Mind,” with an intense yearning to resolve this question. This searching of one’s own Mind leads ultimately to awakening.’
-Zen Master Bassui Tokusho (Japan 1327-1387)
Years ago, my teacher asked me, ‘Who sees?’ Later, walking in a field under a full moon, my world collapsed, and I had my answer. Since then, not a day goes by that I am not grateful to Bassui, to my teachers, and to the sourceless source of this question, ‘What is my own Mind?’
