Huineng: words are just pointers

Subhuti, what is called Buddhism is not Buddhism.

All verbal and literary expressions are like labels, like pointing fingers. Labels and pointers mean shadows and echoes. You obtain a commodity by its label, and you see the moon by way of the pointing finger – the moon is not the finger, the label is not the thing itself. Just get the teaching by way of the sutra – the sutra is not the teaching. The sutra literature is visible to the physical eye, but the teaching is visible to the eye of insight. Without the eye of insight, you just see the literature, not the teaching. If you do not see the teaching, you do not understand what Buddha meant. If you do not understand what Buddha meant, then reciting sutras won't produce buddhahood.

---

From Huineng's commentary on the Diamond Sutra

With which eye are you reading posts on reddit?

Submitted December 15, 2017 at 04:25AM by KeyserSozen http://ift.tt/2BoJRyR