The True Person of No Rank
On this mass of red flesh there is a true person of no rank, ever going in and out through your face.
If I stripped away every title and reputation, who is the "me" that remains beneath?
📝Reflection
Linji said there is a "true person of no rank" within us — the original self with no business card, no title, no name-tag handed out by others. All our lives we stack up ranks: director, doctor, someone's parent. Yet Linji points to the one who lives each day, hearing with the eyes and seeing with the ears, in the very place where all those labels fall away. This is no mystical tale of a soul. The very awareness reading these words right now — that is the true person of no rank. The bigger our titles grow, the more we forget that person. That is why Linji's cry holds for a lifetime: look past the label, to what lies beneath.
🌱Apply It Today
When someone asks "What do you do?" today, answer with your title, then add inwardly: "That is my label; the person beneath it is someone else."
This verse is read as universal humanistic wisdom, not religion — no faith is promoted, and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.
