My livelihood is the marrow of all the sages; there is not a moment when I am not explaining it to you, but you are unwilling to take it up. So it turns out, on the contrary, to be my deception. But look here—where is it that I am not explaining for you?
Professional Zennists say I do not teach people to think, I do not teach people to understand, I do not teach people to discuss stories, I do not cite past and present examples; they suppose we are idling away the time here, and think that if they had spent the time elsewhere they would have understood a few model case stories and heard some writings. If you want to discuss stories, cite past and present, then please go somewhere else; here I have only one-flavor Zen, which I therefore call the marrow of all sages.
Now let me ask you something. Why do you pay respects to an icon of wisdom? Does the icon acknowledge you when you pay respects? Does it agree with you? If you say it acknowledges you, it is a clay icon—how can it give any acknowledgment? If you say it agrees, can you agree? Since you are incapable of acknowledgment or agreement, why do you pay respects? Is it social convention? Is it producing goodness from seeing a representation?
If you say it is social duty, how can there be social convention among renunciants? How can they produce good by seeing representations?
Do you pay respects as a consequence of going along with the crowd? If so, what is the logic in that?
Here you must understand each point clearly. Have you not read how the great teacher Changsha one day turned around and saw the icon of wisdom, whereupon he suddenly realized the ultimate and said, “Turning around, I suddenly see the original body. The original body is not a perception or a reality; if you consider the original being to be the same as the real being, you will suffer hardship forever.” Do you understand the logic of this?
hookdump's commentary:
So it seems Foyan defines his one-flavor Zen as “the marrow of all sages” by contrast, making it clear that it does NOT involve teaching to think, to understand, nor to study texts and stories.
I think people tend to pursue explicit teachings, techniques and texts because they are easier to digest, and more comfortable.
Think of religions and philosophies as a soup that was made with some "wisdom bones" that will infuse a bit of flavor.
Foyan, instead, would probably suggest to eat a chunk of bone marrow directly. He doesn’t fuck around.
No matter what you are studying or practicing: I believe it’s common to get distracted with the robes, the flesh, the nice packaging, and never even get to the marrow, to the fundamental principles, to the core.
It blows my mind that human history has so few Einsteins, Picassos, Hawkings, and Shakyamunis; and I believe this is the reason: most people get entertained with the surface of things, be it chess, physics, or our own nature...
We don’t bite deeply enough, and as a result we settle for a few bland thoughts and intrincate ideas, and we rarely get to the bottom of things.
I think the marrow of sages is a neat phrase to represent the Hongnzhou school. It’s pure, concentrated, raw-flesh Zen.
Other schools are a bit more gentle, more didactic and friendlier. (Not necessarily better or worse.)
As I said in a comment a couple days ago:
Zen is to Buddhism what entrepreneurship is to salaried employment.
There is nothing wrong with being an employee. In fact most working people are!
Being an entrepreneur is a whole different thing. Far riskier, and with far less external guidance for your work. Different pace, different goals. It’s just not for everyone.
Certain schools of Zen such as Soto would also be "salaried employment" in this analogy. And there's nothing wrong with that! Some schools are concentrated Zen juice, others are a 3-course meal that gradually builds up.
Anyway, to wrap up:
Our own motives are usually very disconnected from the marrow of sages. Only after releasing our grip from them can we ever expect to see our nature.
Disclamer: This commentary would not have been possible without the inspiration from the great commentary by /u/wrrdgrrl. Grrl, post your commentary here if you dare! :D
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Submitted March 26, 2018 at 03:27AM by hookdump https://ift.tt/2I2dTYR
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