Supreme enlightenment is not for oneself, not for others, not for fame, not for gain. To nevertheless seek unexcelled enlightenment wholeheartedly and single mindedly, preserving without regression, is called, “awakening the mind for enlightenment.”
Once you get this mind to appear, it is not even for the sake of enlightenment that you seek enlightenment; this is the true mind of enlightenment. Without this mind, how can you really practice the way to enlightenment?
Those who are single mindedly seeking the mind of enlightenment must not weary of this quest; they must not give up. Those who have not yet attained the mind of enlightenment should pray to the Buddhas of former ages, and should also dedicate their good works to the quest fo the mind of enlightenment.
Someone once asked a great Zen master, “All things return to the One. Where does the One return?”
The Zen master said, “When I was living in such-and-such a place, I made a cloth shirt that weighed seven pounds.”
This is how an ancient illuminate spoke. If someone asked me, “All things return to One; where does the One return?” I would say it all returns to transcendence.
If asked why I say this, I would say I am within, making offerings to billions of Buddhas.
Eihei Koroku
from Universal Book of Eternal Peace