Linji: Hospitality

Good people, in the understanding of the Zen school, death and life follow in cycles. People trying to learn must examine this closely. When host and guest meet, there is talk back and forth.

[The teacher, who should be the ‘host’, the representative of reality and channel of truth] sometimes manifests form in response to beings, sometimes functions with the whole essence, sometimes uses provisional devices to appear happy or angry, sometimes shows only half his body, sometimes rides a lion, sometimes rides an elephant king.

If the student is genuine, he or she immediately shouts [as if to say to the teacher:] ‘Already you have brought out a bowl of glue!’ If the teacher does not know this perspective, then he falls within the other one’s perspective as a rote imitator. The student then shouts [as if to say:] ‘I will not let you go!’ This is a mortal disease, beyond curing. It is called the guest observing the host [the genuine student seeing through the false teacher].

Alternatively, the teacher might not bring out anything at all. [Instead] as the student asks about things, he takes them away. The teacher never relents as everything is taken away from the student. This is called the host observing the guest [genuine teacher and beginning student].

Sometimes a student appears before a teacher in response to a pure realm [of mystic experience]. The teacher recognizes this realm, holds it fast, and hurls it into a pit. The student exclaims, ‘What a great enlightened teacher!’ The teacher says, ‘Bah! You don’t know good from bad.’ The student then bows in homage. This is called host observing host [genuine teacher and accomplished student].

Sometimes a student appears before a teacher bearing fetters and chains [of subjective views and ideas]. The teacher hangs another load of chains around his neck, and the student rejoices. Neither one can discern the other. This is called guest seeing guest [false teacher, false student].

Worthy people, when I mention things this way, it is to pick out delusions and deviations [operating in the guise of Buddhism] so that you may know what is twisted and what is correct. “People of the Path, actual sentiments are very difficult, and the Buddha Dharma is abstruse and dark. Even if you understand easily and quickly, I will refute your understandings for you all day long. Students never get to rest within their opinions. Thousands and thousands of times their feet plod through lands of total darkness, without a single form, where the solitary light is clear and distinct. Students do not have faith in themselves, so they go to words and phrases to generate interpretations. They reach the age of fifty as mere superficial adherents carrying corpses on their backs, bearing their burdens, running all around the world. Someday they will be pressed to pay back all the travel money [they have wasted in ‘seeking’ without finding].

Submitted October 23, 2019 at 02:16PM by GreenSage45 https://ift.tt/2MFhTE0