"Even if, in order to make progress, you sorted out all Chan teachings with their thousand differences and myriad distinctions, your mistake would still consist in searching for proclamations from other people’s tongues." (Yunmen, App, 84-85, 1994)
Zen ain't found reading old kooky dook fairy tales.
"You must avoid turning to the words for your subsistence. Why? What moisture is there in unleavened bread? People often fall back into conceptual consciousness. You must obtain your understanding before the words arise; then the great function will become manifest and you will naturally see it. This is why after old man Shakyamuni had attained the Path in the land of Magadha, he spent three weeks contemplating this matter: "The nature of all things being quiescent extinction cannot be conveyed by words; I would rather not preach the Dharma, but quickly enter nirvana." When he got to this point, even Shakyamuni couldn't find any way to open his mouth. But by virtue of his power of skill in technique, after he had preached to the five mendicants, he went to three hundred and sixty assemblies and expounded the teachings for his age. All these were just expedients. For this reason he had taken off his bejewelled regal garments and put on rough dirty clothing. He could not but turn towards the shallows within the gate of the secondary meaning in order to lead in his various disciples. If we had him face upwards and bring it all up at once, there would hardly be anyone in the whole world (who could understand)."(BCR, Cleary, pg 42, 2005)
4 noble truths and all the sutras were expediants.
"In the summer of the first year of Jõtei, Mumon was in Ryûshõ Temple and as head monk worked with the monks, using the cases of the ancient masters as brickbats to batter the gate and lead them on according to their respective capacities." (Mumonkan)
Mumon used kooky dook fairy tales to lead people.
Huai-jang asked, "When an ox-carriage stops moving, do you hit the carriage or the ox?" The Master had no reply. Huai-jang continued, "Are you practicing to sit in meditation, or practicing to sit like a Buddha? As to sitting in meditation, meditation is neither sitting nor lying. As to sitting like a Buddha, the Buddha has no fixed form. In the non-abiding Dharma, one should neither grasp nor reject. If you try to sit like a Buddha, you are just killing the Buddha. If you attach to the form of sitting, you will never realize tile principle." (Sun-Face Budda, pg 59-60, 1992)
Meditation is a mental activity.
"Never allow yourselves to mistake outward appearance for reality. Avoid the error of thinking in terms of past, present and future. The past has not gone; the present is a fleeting moment; the future is not yet to come. When you practice mind-control (zazen), sit in the proper position, stay perfectly tranquil, and do not permit the least movement of your minds to disturb you. This alone is what is called liberation." (Huangpo, Blofeld, pg 131, 1958)
Bunch o junk.
"Now, in zazen, it's a matter of the Buddha-mind sitting at rest. It's the Buddha-mind doing continuous zazen. Zazen isn't limited to the time you sit. That's why, around here, if people have something to do while they're sitting, they're free to get up and do it. It's up to them, whatever they've a mind to do. Some of them will do kinhin for one stick of incense. But they can't just continue walking, so then they sit down and for another stick of incense they do zazen. They can't be sleeping all the time, so they get up. They can't talk constantly, so they stop talking and do some zazen. They aren't bound by any set rules." (Unborn, Waddell, pgs 64-65)
ANY SET OF RULES geeeeet out
One day, Yakusan was doing zazen. Sekito asked him, “What are you doing?" “Not a thing,” replied Yakusan. “Aren’t you sitting blankly?" said Sekito . “If I were sitting blankly, I would be doing something,” retorted Yakusan. Sekito said, “Tell me, what is that you are not doing?” Yakusan replied “A thousand sages could not answer that question.”(Blyth, Zen and Zen Classics VOL II - History of Zen, pg 80, )
zazen
Submitted July 18, 2017 at 05:00AM by Hip2BS http://ift.tt/2vbmBhL
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