Beware of Clinging to One Half of a Pair

The Zen Teaching of Huang Po, Trans. John Blofeld (p.130)

When the lotus opened and the universe lay disclosed, there arose the duality of Absolute and sentient world; or, rather, the Absolute appeared in two aspects which, taken together, comprise pure perfection. These aspects are unchanging reality and potential form. For sentient beings, there are such pairs of opposites as becoming and cessation, together with all the others. Therefore, beware of clinging to one half of a pair.

Those who, in their singleminded attempt to reach Buddhahood, detest the sentient world, thereby blaspheme all the Buddhas of the universe. The Buddhas, on manifesting themselves in the world, seized dung-shovels to rid themselves of all such rubbish as books containing metaphysics and sophistry. My advice to you is to rid yourself of all your previous ideas about studying Mind or perceiving it. When you are rid of them, you will no longer lose yourselves amid sophistries. Regard the process exactly as you would regard the shovelling of dung.

[...]

On no account make a distinction between the Absolute and the sentient world. As a real student of Ts'ao Hsi Zen, you must make no distinctions of any kind.

wrrdgrrl: 1) In what ways do sentient beings reveal that we "detest the sentient world"? 2) I'm purging my cache of various texts. Which ones should I burn? Which to keep?

Submitted March 25, 2018 at 05:03PM by wrrdgrrl https://ift.tt/2GbtPaD