No doctrine for you to discard.

At a lecture, Zen Master Shanhui said to the gathering, “Since the time of Buddha and the Patriarchs, people have come under a misconception which persists even today. They have modeled their lives on the sayings of Buddha and the Patriarchs, and this has turned them into fanatics and dullards. What Buddha and the Patriarchs did was to show you that there is no single doctrine to the way of spiritual enlightenment, that the Way is not limited to one doctrine. There is no Buddha for you to model your life on, no Way for you to acquire, no doctrine for you to discard. Hence the saying: there is no doctrine before us. Before us there is truth, but truth is not the doctrines before us. If we seek to learn from Buddha and the Patriarchs, we do not see with our own eyes, we rely on ways which they have used, and we are not free, nor are we at home with ourselves. After all, it is because we are bewildered by life and death, because we know we are not free, that we journey thousands of miles in search of wisdom. Therefore we must see clearly, and free ourselves from misconceptions. Know life and death for the reality and the illusion that they are. If you can see clearly, then you have broken through. Those with superior potentials will understand, and those with lesser potentials will forever run around and search in vain. Why not grasp this crucial knowledge about life and death? Why live and die vicariously the lives and deaths of Buddha and the Patriarchs, and be the laughing stock of the wise?" — Recorded Dialogues of Shanhui, from Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp, vol. 15 Trans. Lai & Cheung

Submitted August 01, 2017 at 06:16AM by WildFoxBuddha http://ift.tt/2f2TyJZ