The formal forms that zen might take should not be considered the main course. Your life is the main course. Zen books, zen teachers, zen students, they have no more significance than anything else. They can inform, they can entertain, but not exclusively.
Life is too big to be contained. All that falls under the name zen is just a side show of the totality of your surround, which cannot be contained in what is called zen. If you let that take center stage, if you take your eyes off of life as it is, you will be sidetracked.
Anyway, back on topic, Seng-ch'ou (480-560) was a very prominent Buddhist teacher who lived during the time of the Second Patriarch. Zen Masters, particularly after Hui-neng, mention his teachings. What Seng-ch'ou meant by dhyana can be compared with Hui-neng's use of the word, and provides some perspective on the different menings of dhyana at the time.
D.T. Suzuki wrote a book called The Zen Doctrine of No Mind which examines Hui-neng's use of the word dhyana.
This excerpt, taken from the Tun Huang texts, is thought by scholar Jin Yun-hua to belong to Seng-ch'ou's teachings.
Q: What is called dhyana?
A: Dhyana is concentration.
Q: When dhyana is called concentration, does it mean the concentration of mind or body?
A: Sitting cross-legged concentrates the body, mental controlling concentrates the mind.
Q: The mind is formless, how can it be looked upon and be controlled?
A: It is like wind having no form itself; one can determine it through the wavering of things [blown by the wind]. Likewise, the mind is formless, but it is immediately knowable when it contacts things. When the mind is controlled and ceases contact, it is called concentration.
Q: Five Stops on 18 realms are called concentration. When the eyes see material objects the mind experience mental objects, how can this be called concentration?
A: The mind arises when objects are seen, and things waver when the wind blows. When the wind stops, objects will be peaceful; and when objects vanish, the mind will rest. When the mind and objects are all vanished, concentration and peace will be achieved spontaneously.
This passage was taken from a book of essays called Early Ch'an in China and Tibet.
Submitted June 28, 2017 at 04:19AM by AnPrimeExample http://ift.tt/2tVl1Ah
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