After a difficult and sometimes arduous journey the temptation is to drink the cool water that you require and then simply rest. Yet here within the Buddha Dharma Path you may drink the cool water, but secure the place where you will rest.
If you have been fortunate and have been under the constant influence of an Awakened Master who has, in his time, followed the same Path, then you may, bearing his rod, which may have the sound of the Karavika bird or the lion's roar, have tasted Awakening.
But unless you have been able to carry the Presence with you, the Awakening will be no more than a glimpse of an oasis in the desert from a thousand miles.
That momentary or set of momentary Awakenings may provide an inspiration, but make no mistake, it is NOT Awakening. Yet the Presence must also be accompanied by the discipline that you will have internalized under a master to generate a constant letting go when working, playing and resting alone.
You may experience then the forest of Uncarved wood, but you are still only seeing the forest. You will not have yet entered and this is a much more difficult task than you might imagine.
The fuller Awakening is not Enlightenment, for you will still, as Buddha did after his Awakening, carry the habit strength of impediments with you.
DRINKING THE CLEAR WATER
Drinking the Clear Water means breaking all the habit strengths. There are no meditations which will help you accomplish this. There is no Master that can apply his rod. You simply have to let the habits arise, react to them cutting away as you have done all clear intentions that are not consistent with the Four Sublime States and then with full confidence in the Power of your Awakening allow the Natural system to apply its own remedy.
You must ignore any attempt to change those intentions. You must ignore perhaps even the condemnation of those who cannot understand, saying, "How can an Awakened master have this habit?" You will not appear even to be fighting those habits, for the smallest reaction to change is itself provoking the Identity habits. There must be a true letting go of everything while carrying the world with you.
Where does all this then lead? Wiil you become the great sage who enlightens others? No, you wll be as Dao has demanded "one with the dusty world". That is a wonderful phrase, but what does it mean?
It means that you will become an Ordinary man, perhaps indistinguishable from others, but carrying the Presence with you.
THE ORDINARY MAN
As an Ordinary Man you will have entered the Secret Forest of Uncarved wood. Past and Future will not exist for you and you will live within the range of the limited "now", without ambition, perhaps even despised and rejected.
You will sleep, defecate and do exactly what Nature has generated for the True Human Creature.
A clever man can imitate being an Ordinary Man and thus appear to be a Sage, but you will be beyond that fare and be an Ordinary man who carries a Sage within. Huineng was such an Ordinary man, probably from childhood and since he then carried the Four Sublime States with him, his Liberation was accomplished in a manner that few can replicate.
As an Ordinary man you will not suffer for yourself or for any other individual. As an Ordinary man you will not carry the burden of impediments with you, except undetected unresolved habits.
As an Ordinary man you will live your life simply and nobly. You will walk within stained Samsara seeing the first Truth of Unstained Samsara and the second Truth beyond it.
You will accomplish all by accomplishing nothing.
Yunmen declared:
"I used to say that all sounds are the Buddha's form, and that the whole world is the Buddha's body. Thus I quite pointlessly produced views that fit into the category of Buddhist teachings. Right now, when I see a staff I just call it 'staff' and when I see a house I just call it 'house'."
This is becoming an Ordinary Man.
Linji declared:
"Realization consists in being independent wherever you are. In this manner no situation will be perturbing and you will be liberated spontaneously of every poisoning habit."
This is being an Ordinary man.
Caoshan declared:
"There is also integration within work and achievement which resembles the transcendental. It is dealt with according to the situation; for example if you are trapped in a state of pure ethereality, then you have to realize that there are still things happening; go when you need to go, stop when you need to stop. Adapting fluidly in countless ways."
This is behaving like an Ordinary man.
Dongshan declared:
"Don't seek fame or fortune, glory or prosperity, just pass this life as it is, according to circumstances. When the breath is gone who is in charge? After the death of a body there is only an empty name.
"When your clothes are worn, repair them over and over; when you have no food, work to provide.
"How long can a phantom-like body last? Would you increase your ignorance for the sake of its idle concerns?"
This is acting as an Ordinary man.
Guishan declared:
"Assert mastery; do not follow human sentimentality. The entanglements of the results of action are impossibe to avoid.
When the voice is gentle, the echo corresponds; when the figure is upright, the shadow is straight."
This is the mind of an Ordinary man.
Fayan declared:
"When you degrade them, pearls and gold lose their beauty; when you prize them, shards and pebbles shine. If you go as you should go, principle and substance are both mastered; if you act when and as you should act (on the base of your true nature as an evoved human creature), there is not the slightest error."
That is becoming an Ordinary Man.
I hope that you get the idea. You must live an ordinary dignified and noble life without Identity or be a slave to the words and concepts of duality.
You should discover your place outside of stained Samsara, but with the ability to march therein and pass out again without being stained, leaving behind valued footprints.
You should live within nature, upon the mountains, in pleasant groves, by rivers and streams or by the silent beaches and the sea, communicating with every other form of living creature in its own voice and in its own manner.
When you teach it is best by example, but if you must speak, then let it be the voice that has touched the stars and moved in the sky and over the earth, knowing by experience the inheritance of all that supports life.
You may choose to pass by Chan and through Jivitindrya and Dao practices become a Man of Dao.
That is not an inferior position.
You may choose to become a Sage of Dao, through Chan Contemplation and study.
That is not a superior position. Being an Ordinary man, most who see you will neither detect nor see the difference.
You may in error believe that you can be an Ordinary man without Dharma Liberation. Then you will have already strayed away from the original mind.