Nothing extra
If nothing extra is created in the mind, that's enough. With just that, everything will be solved. Humans' pure, original nature is just this. Without shape, form, or color; without birth and death; not clean or dirty; no increasing, no decreasing; not male or female; not young, not old; not intelligent, not stupid; not rich, not poor. There are no words, no explanations possible, no description that will apply here, only a pure, mirror-like base. This is humans' true quality, this is an actual experience. With our zazen, we cut all nen (mind-instant), dig down completely to the source of those nen - dig, dig, dig until we reach the place where the human character has been totally cleared. When the source point is reached, this state of mind can be touched.
This clear human character, which is like a mirror, can accept and receive everything, but nothing which is reflected can get stuck to this mirror. It reflects everything exactly as it is, but the mirror itself stays untouched. This mirror-like mind has no sense of "that's me" or "that's him, not me." It has no dualism, makes no distinctions like that. At that true base there actually is no differentiation between self and others. The world which is reflected by that mirror - reflected in that mirror - is not one of self and other, it has no such separation. It accepts everything as one unified whole. It was originally one world with no division into "my" world and "his" world. There are no two worlds like this; from the origin there is only one unified world.
To understand this as an actual fact with your own experience, is the wisdom of the Buddha.
- Shodo Harada Roshi in Morning Dewdrops of the Mind
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