“The greatest difficulty is the mental resistance to things that arise—and the underlying assumption that they should not.”

-Eckhart Tolle

Blue Cliff Record Case #50: Unmon and the Dust-Dust Samadhi
A monk asked Unmon, “What is the dust-dust samadhi?”
Unmon said, “Rice in the bowl, water in the pail.”

“The Buddha-dharma doesn’t ask us to give up control. Instead, it acknowledges that we never had it in the first place. When we can see this, the desire to control naturally begins to wane.”

-Steve Hagen

Blue Cliff Record Case #47: Unmon’s Six
A monk asked Unmon, “What is the Dharma-body?”
Unmon said, “The six (senses) can’t grasp it.”

“Conditioned mind operates entirely on the basis of preferences, likes and dislikes; it seeks to avoid pain and maximize pleasure. Conditioned mind tries to hold on to experiences we judge as “good” and reject experiences we judge as “bad,” believing that happiness is a product of aligning our experiences with our preferences… unconditioned awareness takes us outside of the cycle of reactive responses and emotions by connecting us with the nature of our mind as pure, contentless, unstructured awareness.”

-Peter Fenner

Blue Cliff Record Case #39: Unmon’s “Garden Fence”
A monk asked Unmon, “What is the Pure Dharma-body?”
Unmon said, “Flower fence.”
The monk said, “What if I understand the point that way?”
Unmon said, “A golden-haired lion.”

“Any insistence that people or circumstances meet our exact expectations is not faith but another effort at control, which is bound to end in disappointment.”

-Sharon Salzberg

Blue Cliff Record Case #27: Unmon’s Complete Exposure
A monk asked Unmon, “What is it when the tree withers and the leaves fall?”
Unmon answered, “Complete exposure of the golden wind.”

Chapter III: Yasutani-Roshi’s Private Encounters with Ten Westerners, pages 120-130, “The Encounters: Student B and first half of Student C.”