FI always sadly say that as we see the life we rely on today, it depends on a

grain of rice, a bit of vegetable to eat—if we do not get food from time to time
we starve, if we do not get water we die of thirst, and if we do not have fire we
freeze to death.  If we lack for one day we aren’t living, yet if we lack for one
day we don’t die either—we are in the grip of the gross elements.  

This is not comparable to our predecessors who entered fire without burning
and went into water without drowning, yet burned if they wanted to burn and
drowned if they wanted to drown.  They lived when they wanted to live, and
died when they wanted to die—they were free to go or to stay. 

Such people have their share of freedom.  If the mind is not disturbed, there is
no need to seek Buddha, to seek enlightenment, or extinction of suffering.  If
you seek with attachment to Buddha, this is in the province of greed, and
greed makes it a disease.  That is why it is said, “The disease of ‘Buddha’ is
most difficult to cure; only by slandering the Buddha and repudiating the
Dharma can you take food.”  Food means your own purely aware essence—the
meal of non-indulgence, the food of liberation.  These words cure the ailment
of the bodhisattvas of the tenth stage.