If you’re unable to arouse the Doubt when practicing Zen, you may seek intellectual understanding through the written word. Stringing together with a single thread the various phrases and teachings of Buddhas and patriarchs, you stamp them all with one seal. If a koan[公案] is brought up, you are quick to give your interpretation. Unable to arouse your own Doubt concerning the koan[話頭], you don’t like it when someone probes you with serious questions. All this is simply your wavering mind[生滅心]; it is not Zen. You may respond at once to questions by raising a finger or showing a fist. Taking up ink brush you promptly pen a verse to show off, hoping to guide[参究] unwitting students to your level. Fascinated with all this, you refer to it as the gate of enlightenment. You don’t realize that such karmic consciousness[識心] is precisely what prevents this Doubt from arising. If only you would straight off see the error of your ways, then you should once and for all let go of all and seek out a good teacher or Dharma friend[善知 識] to help you find an entrance. If not, your wavering mind will prevail, you’ll become as if demon-possessed, and release will be very difficult. (Emphasis is mine.)
— Chinese Master Boshan (1575-1630)
Submitted June 22, 2017 at 07:56PM by Dhammakayaram http://ift.tt/2rGwHFc
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