From the Record of Tung-shan:
Shen-shan said to the Master, "There is nowhere that a friend would be unwilling to go for the sake of friendship. Could you express the essential point of this in a few words?"
"Uncle, with such an idea how could you ever succeed!" replied the Master.
As a result of the Master saying this, Shen-shan was suddenly awakened, and from then on his manner of speaking became unusual. Later, when they were crossing a log bridging a stream, the Master preceded Shen-shan across, picked up the log, and said, "Come on over."
"[Teacher]!" called Shen-shan.
The Master threw down the log.
.
ewk book note index - The people who most struggle with the Reddiquette and can't seem to quote a Zen Master, what do they want to talk about? What do they want to talk about instead? Meditation and the Eightfold Path, usually. But they don't want to AMA about meditation and religious doctrines, they want to impose those topics on other people without too many meddlesome questions.
Why do they have this preference? What do meditation and religious doctrines have in common that could be jeopardized by some old foreigners?
Dongshan is particularly brutal in this dialogue with Shen-shan. The payoff is of course that Shen-shan is enlightened.
But how much brutality did Shen-shan have to endure first? How many unrecorded Shen-shan-gets-pwnd dialogues are there? These terrified people don't see a light at the end of the Zen-study tunnel. These people are getting the faith-based (re)assurance they want in the kool-aid pit of meditation and/or religious doctrines.
What do Zen Masters offer that can compete with believing in a messiah, a messianic practice, or a church choir?
Submitted December 29, 2017 at 02:02PM by ewk http://ift.tt/2zKGDB5
No comments:
Post a Comment