It is only in contradistinction to greed, anger and ignorance that abstinence, calm and wisdom exist. Without illusion, how could there be Enlightenment? Therefore Bodhidharma said: 'The Buddha enunciated all Dharmas in order to eliminate every vestige of conceptual thinking. If I refrained entirely from conceptual thought, what would be the use of all the Dharmas?' Attach yourselves to nothing beyond the pure Buddha-Nature which is the original source of all things.
Suppose you were to adorn the Void with countless jewels, how could they remain in position? The Buddha-Nature is like the Void; though you were to adorn it with inestimable merit and wisdom, how could they remain there? They would only serve to conceal its original Nature and to render it invisible.
Huangbo Xiyun, On the Transmission of Mind, translated by John Blofeld, 1958
__________________________________________________________________
Where is your mistake? Fundamentally not understanding, you then seek understanding. Since you basically do not understand, what are you capable of doing? Look to see where the not understanding comes from. Do you want to know? This non-understanding of yours basically comes from nowhere. Since it comes from nowhere, how could this not understanding be? And when you understand, the non-understanding goes nowhere.
Foyan Qingyuan, Instant Zen: Waking Up in the Present, translated by Thomas Cleary, 1994
__________________________________________________________________
Delusion: A mental factor that arises from inappropriate attention and functions to make the mind unpeaceful and uncontrolled. There are three main delusions: ignorance, desirous attachment, and anger. From these arise all the other delusions, such as jealousy, pride, and deluded doubt.
[From kadampa.org: reference and glossary of Buddhist terms]
__________________________________________________________________
Wandering Ronin commentary: Many of us here in the forum are studying Zen entirely on our own without teachers or masters to guide us, practicing in many different ways and with many different levels of understanding. This independent path aimed towards being self-sufficient in Zen can cause some great complications to arise, many of which I've perceived upon myself and on others over time. A common delusion apparent here in the forum is for one to quickly come to think that they have 'gained something', almost like a conceptual territory in Zen, which they then defend with even more binding concepts from the incoming conceptual assaults of others. That all is merely the delusional ego in full control of the situation; why hold on to or defend a single thing, when that way is obviously the antithesis of the teachings of Zen?
Furthermore, the path of Zen involves the dropping of delusions in some way, but where can one turn if all is delusion and illusory in nature? Huangbo teaches above to attach yourselves to nothing beyond the pure Buddha-Nature which is the original source of all things, which is yet again another form of dropping all conceptual thinking and letting go of the myriad things. This takes great sustained and continual effort over time, to say the least. To accomplish this, we must let go of all that we may treasure and hold dear, including the comfort of delusions and conceptual territories.
Regarding this matter, Foyan teaches that this non-understanding of yours basically comes from nowhere. Since it comes from nowhere, how could this not understanding be?, which yet again is quite illuminating. Due to the nature of the delusions inherent in relying on the mind itself, we cannot rely on the mind fully. One must bear in mind that the mind resides and is still an inescapable part of the myriad things, as it was born from them. The mind tends to want to create comfortable delusions, such as splitting all things into self and other, allowing ego to reign supreme. These conceptual habits create turmoil that can draw us further away from the calm and wisdom that Huangbo speaks of. Basically, there is nothing to hold on to or defend, because all is One Mind. There are really no problems here, or any reason to debate and argue any matter whatsoever.
Submitted May 30, 2019 at 07:28PM by WanderingRoninXIII http://bit.ly/2YYTk8d
No comments:
Post a Comment