Only by Becoming a Living Dead Can One Fulfill the Path

If you want the thought of longing for the Dharma to become the dominant thought in your mind, then of course you must regard the Buddhadharma as paramount, not taking other worldly people, matters, and things as essential. Place all of your mind, or the vast majority of it, upon the Buddhadharma, and try not to be distracted by anything else. Keep yourself lowly, regard your own five-aggregate body as nothing at all—utterly worthless, without a single skill—so that when you are among people, they may feel you are a bit foolish, and beyond that you leave no impression. Do not show off outwardly and boast about how capable you are: your literary and artistic refinement, your mastery of the qin, chess, calligraphy, and painting, your singing and dancing, your elegant prose, your skill in graphic design and editing, your talent for poetry and verse, your cunning for power and influence, your knack for marketing and planning, your connections with some powerful figure, your handsome appearance, your being second to none, and so on and so forth. Cast all of these aside and forget who you are. All day long, apart from the Buddhadharma, just muddle along in a daze—be a living dead person; as long as you can stay alive, that is enough, with no love for anything in the world. In this way, all your thoughts will be of the Buddhadharma, the dominant thought will be clear, and you will absolutely have no worry about failing to attain the Way. "Only when your worldly thoughts are beaten to death will your transcendental Dharma body be allowed to live."

Most people cannot do this. The Buddhadharma is precisely about leaving the worldly and going against the worldly—what can be done about it? To enjoy worldly pleasures on the one hand while also having realization of the Buddhadharma on the other, gaining both the fish and the bear's paw, is impossible. One must first transcend the world before one can enter the world.