As all things are buddha-dharma, there is delusion and realization, practice, and birth and  death, and there are buddhas and sentient beings.
As the myriad things are without an abiding self, there is no delusion, no realization, no
 buddha, no sentient being, no birth and death.
The buddha way is, basically, leaping clear of the many and the one; thus there are birth
 and death, delusion and realization, sentient beings and buddhas.
Yet in attachment blossoms fall, and in aversion weeds spread.
To carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things
 come forth and experience themselves is awakening.
Those who have great realization of delusion are buddhas; those who are greatly deluded  about realization are sentient beings. Further, there are those who continue realizing  beyond realization, who are in delusion throughout delusion.
When buddhas are truly buddhas they do not necessarily notice that they buddhas.
However, they are actualized buddhas, who go on actualizing buddhas.
When you see forms or hear sounds fully engaging body-and-mind, you grasp things
 directly. Unlike things and their reflections in the mirror, and unlike the moon and its
 reflection in the water, when one side is illumined the other side is dark.
To study the buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To
 forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things,
 your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of
 realization remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly.
When you first seek dharma, you imagine you are far away from its environs. But dharma  is already correctly transmitted; you are immediately your original self.
When you ride in a boat and watch the shore, you might assume that the shore is moving.
But when you keep your eyes closely on the boar, you can see that the boat moves.
Similarly, if you examine myriad things with a confused body and mind you might suppose  that your mind and nature are permanent. When you practice intimately and return to  where you are, it will be clear that nothing at all has unchanging self.
Firewood becomes ash, and it does not become firewood again. Yet do not suppose that
 the ash is future and the firewood past. You should understand that firewood abides in
 the phenomenal expression of firewood, which fully includes past and future and is
 independent of past and future. Ash abides in the phenomenal expression of ash, which
 fully includes future and past. Just as firewood does not become firewood again after it
 is ash, you do not return to birth after death.
This being so, it is an established way in buddha-dharma to deny that birth turns into
 death. Accordingly, birth is understood as no-birth. It is an unshakable teaching in
 Buddha’s discourse that death does not turn into birth. Accordingly, death is
 understood as no-death.
Birth is an expression complete this moment. Death is an expression complete this
 moment. They are like winter and spring. You do not call winter the beginning of
 spring, nor summer the end of spring.
Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is
 the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a
 puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on
 the grass, or even in one drop of water.
Enlightenment does not divide you, just as the moon does not break the water. You
 cannot hinder enlightenment, just as a drop of water does not hinder the moon in the
 sky.
The depth of the drop is the height of the moon. Each reflection, however long or short
 its duration, manifests the vastness of the dewdrop, and realizes the limitlessness of the
 moonlight in the sky.
When dharma does not fill your whole body and mind, you think it is already sufficient.
When dharma fills your body and mind, you understand that something is missing.
For example, when you sail out in a boat to the middle of an ocean where no land is in
 sight, and view the four directions, the ocean looks circular, and does not look any other
 way. But the ocean is neither round or square; its features are infinite in variety. It is
 like a palace. It is like a jewel. It only looks circular as far as you can see at that time.
 All things are like this.
Though there are many features in the dusty world and the world beyond conditions, you
 see and understand only what your eye of practice can reach. In order to learn the
 nature of the myriad things, you must know that although they may look round or
 square, the other features of oceans and mountains are infinite in variety; whole worlds
 are there. It is so not only around you, but also directly beneath your feet, or in a drop
 of water.
A fish swims in the ocean, and no matter how far it swims there is no end to the water. A
 bird flies in the sky, and no matter how far it flies there is no end to the air. However,
 the fish and the bird have never left their elements. When their activity is large their field  is large. When their need is small their field is small. Thus, each of them totally covers  its full range, and each of them totally experiences its realm. If the bird leaves the air it  will die at once. If the fish leaves the water it will die at once.
Know that water is life and air is life. The bird is life and the fish is life. Life must be the
 bird and life must be the fish.
It is possible to illustrate this with more analogies. Practice, enlightenment, and people are  like this.
Now if a bird or a fish tries to reach the end of its element before moving in it, this bird or
 this fish will not find its way or its place. When you find your place where you are,
 practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. When you find your way at this
 moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point; for the place, the way, is
 either large nor small, neither yours nor others’. The place, the way, has not carried
 over from the past, and it is not merely arising now.
Accordingly, in the practice-enlightenment of the buddha way, meeting one thing is
 mastering it - doing one practice is practicing completely. Here is the place; here the
 way unfolds. The boundary of realization is not distinct, for the realization comes forth
 simultaneously with the mastery of buddha-dharma.
Do not suppose that what you realize becomes your knowledge and is grasped by your
 consciousness. Although actualized immediately, the inconceivable may not be
 apparent. Its appearance is beyond your knowledge.
Zen Master Baoche of Mt. Mayu was fanning himself. A monk approached and said,
 "Master, the nature of wind is permanent and there is no place it does not reach. Why,
 then, do you fan yourself?"
 "Although you understand that the nature of the wind is permanent, " Baoche replied,
 "you do not understand the meaning of its reaching everywhere."
 "What is the meaning of its reaching everywhere?" asked the monk again. The master just  kept fanning himself. The monk bowed deeply.
The actualization of the buddha-dharma, the vital path of its correct transmission, is like
 this. If you say that you do not need to fan yourself because the nature of wind is
 permanent and you can have wind without fanning, you will understand neither
 permanence nor the nature of wind. The nature of wind is permanent; because of that,
 the wind of the buddha’s house brings forth gold of the earth and makes fragrant the
 cream of the long river.