Hsuan-sha
From the book The five houses of zen , page 127.
The first axiom of Zen is to personally accept the completeness of present actuality. There is no other in the whole universe; it is just you. Who else would you have see? Who would you have hear? All of it is the doing of your mind monarch, fulfilling immutable knowledge. All you lack is personal acceptance of the realization. This is called opening the door of expedient methodology, to get you to trust that there is a flow of true eternity that pervades all time. There’s nothing that is not it and nothing that is it.
This axiom only amounts to equanimity. Why? It is just using words to dismiss words, using principle to chase principle, teaching people equilibrium and constancy in essence and in manifestation for their own benefit. In terms of Zen, this is still understanding what comes before but not understanding what comes afterward. This is called uniform ordinariness, the experience of partial realization of the body of reality.
Without expression beyond patterns, you die at the statement and do not yet have any freedom. If you know experience beyond patterns, you will not be compelled by mental demons; they come within your power, and you can transform them effortlessly. Your words communicate the great Way, without falling into the view of even-mindedness. This is called the first axiom of Zen.
The second axiom is returning to causality and attending to effects, not sticking to the principle of constant oneness. This is expediently called turning from state to potential, enlivening and killing freely, granting and taking away as appropriate, emerging in life and entering in death, bringing benefits to all. Transcendently free of material desires and emotional views, this is expediently called the buddha nature that goes beyond the whole world all at once. This is called simultaneous understanding of two principles, equal illumination of two truths. Unmoved by dualistic extremism, subtle functions become manifest. This is called the second axiom of Zen.
The third axiom is to know that there is a root source of the nature and characteristics of great knowledge and to penetrate its infinite vision, understanding both the negative and the positive, comprehending the universe. The enhanced function of the one real essential nature becomes manifest, responding to developments without convention. Functioning completely without any effort, totally alive without any initiative, this is expediently called the method of concentration of compassion. This is the third axiom of Zen.
Here is a model for the zen path , spoken by a zen master. You cant ignore this if you practice zen.
Maybe some of you practice some therevada meditation maybe some soto zazen maybe some tibetan mahamudra or any other kind of meditation and you stick around this place and you like it but you dont actually understand most of the talks. Most of them sound like koans . Maybe the reason is because you havent been actually working with zen ...you have been mixing it while also trying to keep zen. Keeping zen but not wanting to let go of the old stuff you carry with you. In zen it is clear what its going on , on first axiom it says It is just using words to dismiss words, using principle to chase principle.
In zen they seem to talk funny right ? Without expression beyond patterns, you die at the statement and do not yet have any freedom. If you know experience beyond patterns, you will not be compelled by mental demons; they come within your power, and you can transform them effortlessly.
Expression beyond patterns. Its something that you dont actually learn by doing vipassna or some mahamudra or many other techniques of meditation. To know expression beyond all patterns is to finally start to see into these koans . Its something wich wont happen if you sit there like a dead man ..or if you just watch the breath or do some zazen.
Then there is Baizhang with the 3 phases.
From Book of serenity page 319
"The words of the teachings all have three successive phases—the beginning, middle, and final good. At first one should just be taught to produce a good mind; in the middle, the good mind is dissolved; only the final good is really good. Thus "A bodhisattva is not a bodhisattva; this is called a bodhisattva," and "The dharma is not Dharma, nor is it not Dharma." It's all like this.
If you just expound one phrase, you cause sentient beings to go to hell; if all three phrases are expounded at once, sentient beings will go to hell by themselves. This is not the business of a teaching master. To explain that the present mirroring awareness is your own buddha is good in the beginning. Not to keep dwelling in the present mirror awareness is good in the middle. Not making an understanding of not dwelling is final good."
Then there is this talk between Mazu and Xitang , from the book Zen Letters (Thomas Cleary) page 6:
Mazu asked Xitang : "Have you ever read the scriptural teachings?" Xitang said, "Are the scriptural teachings any different?" Mazu asked, "If you haven't read the scriptures, how will you be able to explain to people in various ways? Xitang said, "I must care for my own sickness-- how do i dare to help other people?" Mazu said, "In your later years, you are sure to rise to greatness in the world." And that's the way it turned out later.
The teachings of the masters arent alien to the scriptural teachings. You dont lose anything from the scriptures. And reading can become a way of avoiding to do your work! Can become an addiction, and cause you to become obsessed. And those words will always trick your mind and you will dream of some super buddha x 1.000.000 enlightenment. And if you are reading and reading and reading ...why so much reading ? I think it is best to pick a book or two about the teachings of a zen master and work with that. Its like visiting his temple and staying there for a year or two receiving the teaching and upholding it.
Sitting Meditation.
What better way to illustrate this then the poem made by Foyan called Sitting Meditation. >http://ift.tt/2xdminT
Here is a fragment of it.
Thoughts arise, thoughts disappear;
don't try to shut them off.
Let them flow spontaneously –
what has ever arisen and vanished?
When arising and vanishing quiet down,
there appears the great Zen master;
sitting, reclining, walking around,
there's never an interruption.
When meditating, why not sit?
When sitting, why not meditate?
Only when you have understood this way
is it called sitting meditation.
Who is it that sits? What is meditation?
To try to seat it
is using Buddha to look for Buddha.
Buddha need not be sought;
seeking takes you further away.
In sitting, you do not look at yourself;
meditation is not an external art.
At first, the mind is noisy and unruly;
there is still no choice but to shift it back.
That is why there are many methods to teach it quiet observation.
Now to end my post i will leave this quote here : Yuanwu
Nowdays many people have lost the old way, and many try to usurp the style of Zen, setting up their own sects, keeping to cliche's, and concocting standardised formulas and slogans. Since they themselves are not out of the rut, when they try to help other people, it is like a rat going into a hollow horn that grows narrower and narrower until the rat is trapped in a total impasse. Under such circumstances, how can the universal teaching not decline?
Zen Letters page 15.
Are we walking the same path as our ancient teachers or are we walking our own fake personal one that we made up?
Submitted August 24, 2017 at 01:59AM by Chilltouch http://ift.tt/2vZx9Dr
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