Yes, an old and well worn koan. I bring it up again because it is often referenced with regard to sudden vs. gradual.
A monk told Joshu: “I have just entered the monastery. Please teach me.”
Joshu asked: “Have you eaten your rice porridge?”
The monk replied: “I have eaten.”
Joshu said: “Then you had better wash your bowl.”
Some people seem to interpret it this way:
A monk told Joshu: “I have just entered the monastery. Please teach me.”
Joshu asked: “Have you realized non-duality (experienced kensho, seen your true nature, whatever you call it)?”
The monk replied: “Yes.”
Joshu said: “Your realization is imperfect. Continue to work on it.”
Another reading:
A monk told Joshu: “I have just entered the monastery. Please teach me.”
Joshu asked: “Do you claim any progress or insight?”
The monk replied: “Yes.”
Joshu said: “Pffft!”
The Zen stories abound with 'sudden enlightenment'. Beyond words and without anywhere to rest, how can a person 'make progress', let alone talk about enlightenment using something as absolute as a 'yes'?
Whoever talks about affirmation and negation
Lives in the right and wrong region.
This isn't simply, 'if you think you've got it, you don't'. That is mixing what is, and what is thought to be. It would be more accurate to say, "If it is, then it isn't. If it isn't, then it is". Are we out of the right and wrong region now? Don't say yes or no!
Nansen said: "The path does not belong to the perception world, neither does it belong to the nonperception world. Cognition is a delusion and noncognition is senseless...."
Can you take it on faith that if you stop searching for enlightenment, you've already found it, since there is nothing to be found? You can't know there's nothing to be found until you've looked everywhere, or unless you believe someone else. Who could have started this rumor?
If you want to study Zen, you must study it with your heart. When you attain realization, it must be true realization. You yourself must have the face of the great Bodhidharma to see him. Just one such glimpse will be enough. But if you say you met him, you never saw him at all.
(Quotes from a random internet translation of The Gateless Gate)
Submitted February 15, 2018 at 07:57PM by sje397 http://ift.tt/2EtbRQe
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