The Blue Cliff Record: The Diamond Cutter Scripture's Scornful Revilement [97th case]

POINTER

If you take up one and let two go, you are not yet an adept; even to understand three corners when one is raised still goes against the fundamental essence. Even if you get heaven and earth to change instantly, without rejoinder from the four quarters, thunder rolling and lightning flying, clouds moving and rain rushing, overturning lakes and toppling cliffs, like a pitcher pouring, like a bowl emptying, you have still not raised up a half. Is there anyone who can turn the polar star, who can shift the axis of the earth? To test, I cite this to see.

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CASE

The Diamond Cutter scripture says, "If one is scornfully re­viled by others,¹ this person has done wicked acts in previous ages² which should bring him down into evil ways, but be­cause of the scorn and vilification by others in the present age,⁴ the wicked action of former ages⁵ is thereby extinguished."⁶

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NOTES

1. It lets out a pathway. And what is wrong with that?
2. Assloads, horseloads.
3. He's already fallen.
4. Paying off the roots has effects that extend to the branches. He
   can only accept it with forbearance.
5. Where can you seek for it? Planting grain will not produce beans.
6. This is adding another layer of frost upon snow. It's like boiling
   water melting ice.

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Wandering Ronin commentary and questions: Use your own eyes, and see the actions of others in this very forum. Pay close attention to who is doing what. Question why they are doing what they are doing, and to what end? Has this person discerned the authentic and original teachings of the Ch'an patriarchs, and are they trying to promote the Way? Or have they merely come to a half-understanding, using the little they've learned of Zen in order to further fortify the ego and build up self-centered foundations around what the patriarchs warned against? One must be diligent against people like this at all times.

If one isn't mired in great delusion or bound entirely to their attachments and aversions, Zen actually lessens the hold of the ego on the mind. The true Dharma doesn't allow room for self-oriented behavior, or for people to commit evil in the name of the teachings. Seeing beyond the world of form isn't an excuse to do bad things, as there are consequences for actions. Would the Zen masters tolerate even one bit of what tends to go on here in the forum when ego and selfishness is obviously at work? No, the masters were Buddhist priests teaching monks in monasteries, working from Buddhist scriptures and sutras that went back to the teachings of the Buddha. People who know the Way will generally want to help others follow the Way, without ego getting in the way. Don't fall prey to false prophets.

Submitted June 16, 2019 at 07:48PM by WanderingRoninXIII http://bit.ly/2XR3kAi