I was looking at the Historical Dictionary of Chan Buddhism by Youru Wang. Finding this phrase Fashuo Bu'er particularly of interest, it is shared below with its definition.
Fashuo Bu'er - A much neglected classical Chan notion on the use of language, as found in Huangbo Xiyun's Wanling Lu. This Chinese term translates as "Buddha-dharma and speaking are non-dualistic." This notion is in sharp contrast with the more one-sided but orthodox Song dynasty Chan emphasis on the inadequacy of language and the ineffability of Buddha-dharma as promoted by the transmission of the lamp literature. The transmission of the lamp literature canonizes the legend that the Buddha transmits the wordless dharma, simply by holding a flower without speaking, to a smiling and understanding disciple, Mahakasyapa. This canonized legend and its generalized interpretation establish a privileged hierarchy of silence over speaking and identify the true dharma with the negation of language. Such an oversight contradicts the classical Chan Buddhist, especially Huangbo Xiyun and Hongzhou School's, perspective of non-duality and their advocacy of the inseperableness between Buddha-dharma and everyday activities. For Chan masters, everyday activities, including speaking, are necessary conditions and could be skillful means for triggering enlightenment. Furthermore, enlightenment can be verified in all everyday activities, including speaking. The non-duality between Buddha-dharma and speaking, or between silence and speaking, avoids seeing these opposites as isolated, independent and exclusive of each other, seeing them instead in a dynamic interrelationship, as mutually conditioned, involved, and exchangeable. As a result, Chan masters are able to use language more differently, more creatively, and more effectively rather than simply abandoning language or staying in silence forever. The inadequacy of language is acknowledged by these masters in its relative context as the inadequacy of the conventional, purely cognitive, or descriptive use of language. Silence is regarded as silencing or negation of all dualistic pairs, including silence and speaking themselves.
That's rather interesting, and I've looked for further texts referencing Fashuo Bu'er, which oddly only pulls up one other published book in Google Book search, which is by Youru Wang as well, it is titled Linguistic Strategies in Daoist Zhuangzi and Chan Buddhism: The Other Way of Speaking. In addition to this, I see it in a 1997 International Philosophical Quarterly: IPQ., Volume 37 by Fordham University Press, but can't access the specific page.
Linguistic Strategies in Daoist Zhuangzi and Chan Buddhism: The Other Way of Speaking states three points about this non-dual language:
1 - Tathagatha's preaching (fa jishishuo); the Dharma and the preaching are non-dualistic (fashuo buer)
2 - You just speak anytime and can speak of either events (shi) or the principle (li) without being hindered. The fruit of enlightenment is also like this.
3 - The enlightened person's letters and words all come from the great wisdom and serve the great function right now and right here, having never been trapped by emptiness.
While there is too much information to put in this post, I'd recommend checking out the book. I'll provide one more short passage:
"By sustaining the position that their words are not different from silence, and that no word has been spoken about any hypostatizable reality, the Chan masters move away from entifying and thereby help people to detach from their words. On the other hand, by underlining the non-saying or silence, by treating their saying as something like the finger pointing to the moon (as they always say), pointing to what is absent within language, pointing to what has not been spoken or what cannot be adequately spoken, Chan masters actually say a great deal. In this way, Chan masters play on and around the boundary of language without being obstructed. As shown in Huangbo Xiyun's well-known maxim "walking all day long without touching the ground," Chan masters walk on the boundary of language without falling to either side. They therefore achieve their great flexibility and skillfulness in the use of language. Thus the Chan masters' radical objection to reliance on words and their creative use of language can be placed within one framework of the liminology of language without contradiction. These are simply two sides of one single coin. "
Of course, there are living, and dead words according to the Historical Chan Dictionary. Reverting back to it for one last definition,
Dead Words - This is an English translation of the Chinese words siju (alternative translation, "dead sentences") or siyu (alternative translation, "dead speech"). The Chan notion of dead words is opposed to the Chan notion of living words (huoju or shengyu). When words cannot help to eschew fixed binary distinctions, cannot open the mind to flowing reality and unique situations, and cannot serve Chan soteriological purposes well, they are considered dead words. Therefore, living words are those that can help to shock Chan students away from conventional ways of thinking, to be responsive to or in tune with flowing reality, and to trigger enlightenment. Living words are those that can point to what is outside language or what is not spoken. Chan texts involve numerous examples of using living words, including poetic words, paradoxical words, and even tautological expressions.
Notes:
We often see people who decide to eschew language in their approaching Zen. Perhaps they should examine Zen Master Bankei's words where he insists of his students to use their ordinary language (so that they speak from a place of understanding themselves). Perhaps a text-based medium isn't entirely futile afterall, should we view language as the Zen Masters view it.
Has anyone got further information about Fashuo Bu'er?
Has anyone got living words to offer?
Submitted March 09, 2018 at 05:20AM by Dillon123 http://ift.tt/2Fma0RM
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