The Real Shobogenzo: How is it when it is not Nihilism?

Dahui's Real Original, the First Shobogenzo:

337.  Master Jingshan Yin was asked by a monk, “How is it when shutting down to be like ashes?”  He said, “This is still the work of people at the time.” 

The monk asked, “What about after it’s done?”  The master said, “The plowman’s field is not seeded.” 

The monk asked, “What about the ultimate end?”  The master said, “When the grain is ripe, not managing the field.”

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^(Welcome) ...ewk note: The two sticky points being "field is not seeded", in that a) what is this seed? and b) how is the field seeded? These seem like sort of nitpicky questions until we consider that religions and philosophies and Zen all answer these questions very very differently.

Submitted December 15, 2019 at 05:11AM by ewk https://ift.tt/2EhxHHV