Dogma or experience

There's been some talk here lately on the irrelevance of personal experience as if zen does not point to something that must be directly experienced. The dogmatic insistence on only discussing what the Zen masters of old said totally misses the point. May as well sit in meditation until you die of thirst or starvation, it would be just as useful. Don't believe me? Take the words of Linji into consideration

Worthy people, right now it is through lack of any alternative that I give verbal assessments and come out with so many unclean things. You should not mistake what I say. In my view, these many kinds of truths [I provisionally offer here] do not really exist. When I must use them, I use them; if not, I stop.

Doesn't get much clearer. The words are a useful tool, but they are not the point.

Submitted October 30, 2019 at 12:26AM by vaalkaar https://ift.tt/2MZc2JL