Beyond Om: Spiritual Passages for Meditation

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Clinging to Nothing

Slay anger, give up pride
And overcome all fetters;
For sorrows do not follow knowers of emptiness
Detached from mind and body, clinging to nothing.
Having broken out into freedom and gone beyond all selfish desire,
Free from the world of men, even the worlds of the gods.
Try as you might to find them, their path leaves not the slightest trace.


A Joy That Thrills With Wonder

Original Buddha-nature, the highest truth, is free from even an atom of otherness. It is empty, calm, pure, and permeates everything. It brings peaceful joy that thrills with wonder. Awaken inwardly, enter its depths. Everything before you is Buddha, blissful and full, complete it itself. All that exists is Buddha; there is nothing else beside.


Turn Your Mind Within

Talk about food doesn't fill you up,
Discussions about clothes won't keep out the cold.
A bowl of rice is what fills the stomach,
And it takes real clothes to make you warm.

But without thinking much about this,
You say it's so hard to realize the Buddha.
Turn your mind within, and he's right there!
Why do you look for him outside?


No Wave Will Swell

As on the deepest ocean's floor no waves occur, but all is still, so too may all spiritual aspirants be still, attain calm, and in their minds no wave will swell. For the aspirant after wisdom, detached from selfish desire and free from self-will, finds the deathless, attains to peace, and reaches the unchanging state of nirvana.


Fishing Emptiness

On a thousand hills, the flights of birds cut short
On ten thousand paths, the tracks of men extinguished;
In a single boat, an old man in a bamboo hat and cloak
Alone fishes the cold river snow.