Being stuck in my head all evening this got me out of bed, past my bedtime, to post.
The cock crows in the early morning;
Sadly I see as I rise how worn out I am;
I haven't a kilt or a shirt
Just the semblance of a robe.
My loincloth has no seat, my pants no opening --
On my head are three or five pecks of grey ashes.
Originally I intended to practice to help save others;
Who would have suspected I would become an idiot?
~Zhaozhou
This is just...wild stuff. The focal point of plethora sects of Mahayana Buddhism -- the "Bodhisattva Vow" is just tossed aside like a used rag: "I would [instead] become an idiot".
When encountered with this and "Buddha is a used shit-stick" & "[The spiritual is] a puddle of piss in the pure land" kind of stuff people either do some weird doctrinal contortions pretending that zen has something in common with their religion, or they are intrigued and study further.
Why bother making stuff up about the lineage? The lineage is oodles more interesting than the stuff people make up about it.
Submitted December 16, 2019 at 10:53AM by ThatKir https://ift.tt/2PQEr4S
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