Why don’t you open the door first, silly?
Zen, in the Bodhidharma Lineage, is really just a record of sayings, interactions, questions, answers, and gestures of a very long line of enlightened humans — interactions between themselves and other monks, students, masters, situations, and environments stretching all the way back to Shakyamuni Buddha.
Compiled into anthologies, like Gateless Gate and Blue Cliff Record, with added pointers and commentaries by other enlightened humans, their stories form about all we have in the study of enlightenment to present day.
You want to study and/or practice zen?
Then study zen masters and study yourself.
Introduction to Gateless Gate, by Shūan:
All koans, including the forty-eight cases in this book, are barriers set up by the Buddhas and the patriarchs of the past. It is impossible for the ordinary person to pass through them. If you want to pass through these barriers, you must realize your own self-nature. This is called self-realization or enlightenment, satori or kensho in Japanese. When you once attain true self-realization, these barriers disappear in an instant as though they were nothing but mirages, and you will find that from the very beginning you have always been in a world where there is neither inside nor outside. That is what “gateless” means. Therefore, all koans are impassable barriers for those who are unenlightened, but for the enlightened there is no gate at all. They can come in and go out quite freely.
Preface to Gateless Gate, by Shūan:
If it is called “gateless,” everybody on the great earth will be able to enter within. If it is said that “there is no gate,” our dear master should not have chosen this title. He dared besides to add several footnotes, which is like putting one hat on top of another. He also urged old Shū to praise it. This would mean to press the sap out of dried-up bamboo and spread it on a children’s book such as this one. Throw it away without waiting for me to throw it away myself. Don’t let even a drop of it fall on the world. Even Usui who gallops a thousand miles would never be able to pursue it.
Introduction to Gateless Gate, by Mumon:
For the practice of Zen, you must pass the barrier set up by the ancient patriarchs of Zen. To attain to marvelous enlightenment, you must completely extinguish all thoughts of the ordinary mind.”
Original Preface Blue Cliff Record:
You should know that the jewel of Chao was flawless to begin with; Hsiang Ju brazenly fooled the king of Ch’in. The ultimate path is in reality wordless; masters of our school extend compassion to rescue the fallen. If you see it like this, only then do you realize their thoroughgoing kindness. If, on the other hand, you get stuck on the phrases and sunk in the words, you won’t avoid exterminating the Buddha’s race.
Forward to Blue Cliff Record, by Taizan:
There are numerous ways to read a book: skimming, memorizing, careful study, quiet reading, reading aloud, reading with the body, reading with the mind, and reality-reading. It is this last kind of reading which The Blue Cliff Record requires. In this mode, you yourself become the case, and in so doing, the Blue Cliff of ancient China stands revealed as your very life, right here in this time and place.
Knock at any door—there’s one who will respond.
In zen, you are the koan. It is you who must see your true nature and answer with your own zen, as all the buddhas, masters, and patriarchs before you
You must see your true nature. That is the transmission of the Mind Seal and True Dharma and the reason Bodhidharma went east to China.
The rest you see is nothing but clever and unclever words.
Submitted May 09, 2019 at 12:21AM by chadpills http://bit.ly/2Y9lnl0
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