Zen Essence

Zen Master Dahui on The science of Freedom. He explained:
The realm of the enlightened is not an external realm with manifest characteristics;
buddhahood is the realm of the sacred knowledge found in oneself.You do not
need paraphernalia, practices, or realizations to attain to it.
What you need is to clean out the influences of the psychological afflictions
connected with the external world, that have been accumulating in your
psyche since the beginning of time.

Japanese Zen Master Bunan said;
People think it is hard to perceive the essential human nature, but in reality,
it is neither difficult nor easy.Nothing at all can adhere to this essential nature.
It is a matter of responding to right and wrong, while remaining detached
from right and wrong, living in the midst of passions yet being detached from
passions, seeing without seeing, hearing without hearing, acting without acting
and seeking without seeking.

Zen Master Foyan  on Nonsubjectivity;
When you see, let there be no seer or seen; When you hear, let there be no hearer or heard.
When you think, let there be no thinker or thought,
Buddhism is extremely easy, and saves the most energy. Its just that you
yourself waste energy and cause yourself trouble.

Zen Master Dahui  on The natural state;
If you want to empty all things, first clean your own mind. When your mind
is clear and clean, all entanglements cease.
Once entanglements cease, both substance and functions are in there natural state.
"Substance" means the clear pure original source of your own mind.
The "function" is your own minds marvelous functions of change and creation,
which enters into both purity and defilement, without being affected
by or attached to either purity or defilement.

Zen Master Dahui   on Past, present and future.
Buddha said that when the mind does not grasp things of the past,does not long
for things of the future, and does not dwell on things of the present, then one
realizes that past, present, and future are empty.
Don't think about past events, whether good or bad, for if you think about them,
this impedes the Way. Don't calculate future matters, for if you calculate, you go mad.
Don't fix your attention on present affairs, whether unpleasant or pleasant,for if you
fix your attention on them they will disturb your mind. Just deal with situations
as they happen, and you will spontaneously accord with these principles.

Zen Master Ying-an  on Nothing to grab.
Zen has nothing to grab on to. When people who study Zen don't see it, that
is because they approach too eagerly. If you want to understand Zen easily,
just be mindless, wherever you are, twenty four hours a day, until you spontaneously
merge with the Way.Once you merge with the way, inside, outside, or in between
cannot be found at all, you experience a frozen emptiness,totally independent.
This is what an ancient worthy called " The mind not touching things, the steps not placed anywhere"

If you want to see the subtle mind of Zen, that is very easy. Just step back and pick it up.
with intense strength during all of your activities, whatever you are doing, even as you eat,
drink, and talk. Even as you experience the stress of attending to the world.

Zen Master Yuansou   on Liberation.
This inconceivable door of great liberation is in everyone. It has never been blocked,
it has never been defective. Buddhas and Zen Masters have appeared in the world
and provided expedient methods, with many different devices, using illusory medicines
to cure illusory illnesses, just because your faculties are unequal, your knowledge is
unclear, you do not transcend what you see,and hear, as you see and hear it.
You are tumbled about endlessly in an ocean of misery by afflictions due to ignorance
by emotional views and habitual conceptions of others and self, right and wrong.
The various teachings and techniques of buddhas and Zen Masters are only
set forth as that you will individually step back into yourself, understand your
original mind, and see your own original nature, so that you can reach a state
of great rest, peace, and happiness.