Huangbo Xiyun: It is only in contradistinction to greed, anger and ignorance that abstinence, calm and wisdom exist.

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.

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Huangbo Xiyun, On the Transmission of Mind, translated by John Blofeld, 1958

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Wandering Ronin commentary and questions: There's quite a lot of drama surrounding me and a few others in the forum right now, so I thought I would point something so that people don't get confused about what's really important beyond petty squabbles. As Huangbo teaches here, without greed, anger and ignorance, then calm and wisdom exist. To explain, the greed going on right now in the drama of the forum can be seen as the greed of the gaining ego. The ego wants what it wants at any cost. Some people's egos lead them to think that they are the next messiah, for example.

Then, when the ego is directly challenged or prevented from getting what it wants, there is anger. How dare this Wandering Ronin character think he can challenge me?! Doesn't he know that he should bow down to my will? Greed and anger are already a pretty potent and binding combination, but there is a glimmer of hope. The hope is that these people are basically deluded and ignorant of their own minds and actions. If they are simply ignorant, then there is always a chance at breaking through their ignorance with a truly earnest study and practice of Zen.

Submitted June 12, 2019 at 02:32AM by WanderingRoninXIII http://bit.ly/2Iz2XEa