Hsu Yun - Heart of the Buddha
Ivan M. Granger August 6th, 2008
Heart of the Buddha
by Hsu Yun
No need to chase back and forth like the waves.
The same water which ebbs is the same water that flows.
No point turning back to get water
When it’s flowing around you in all directions
The heart of the Buddha and the people of the world…
Where is there any difference?
/ Photo by mckaysavage /
No need to chase back and forth like the waves.
The same water which ebbs is the same water that flows.
I love Hsu Yun’s realization here. It’s so… restful. No need to rush after this or that. No Herculean efforts required.
No point turning back to get water
When it’s flowing around you in all directions
All that is asked of us is to become quiet, still, and at last recognize the oceanic eternal principle that already flows around us and through us and fills everything.
The heart of the Buddha and the people of the world…
Where is there any difference?
All the world is already at rest in the heart of the Buddha. The only work is to see this.
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Hsu Yun
China (1839 - 1959) Timeline |
The Venerable Master Hsu Yun was born in 1839 or 1840 in the Guanzhou region of China.
When he was 13, Hsu Yun declared that he wanted to join a Buddhist monastery, but his father refused to allow it. He eventually went against his father’s wishes and became an ordained monk at age 20, in 1859.
He had a naturally ascetic temperament and often refused even the minimal food of a monk. He later went on a three year solitary retreat into the forest where he sustained himself primarily on wild greens and pure stream water.
Hsu Yun traveled quite a bit in his life, teaching in many parts of China and Southeast Asia. He is credited by many with revitalizing Buddhist practice throughout much of the region, which was showing signs of degeneration and decline in the period leading up to and following the communist revolution.
Although he attained immense respect, Hsu Yun remained supremely humble and simple in his lifestyle. He chose to live the final years of his long life quietly in his monastery’s cow shed.
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