Unordinary in the Ordinary

Unordinary in the Ordinary
I n a meeting to prepare for setting up a meditation
center, a monk was sitting next to the Grand Master
and started to examine the Grand Master’s face carefully.
He thought in his mind, “The face of the Grand Master is
full of wrinkles, and from that he is no different from any
ordinary old man. Then why are these prestigious people
so respectful of him?”
After the meeting, when all the lay disciples had left, the
Grand Master talked to the monks and nuns, “No
conceptual thought in the awareness; awareness is
without attachment. When, through practice, one has
attained a very high level, in outward appearance he or
she will look just like any other ordinary person, but his
or her mind will be totally different. This is what we call
covering the illumination and being in harmony with the
ordinary.”