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Shu-shan 90 arrived just when the Master was giving his morning lecture. He came forward and asked, "Please instruct us using terms that have yet to exist."
"I won't reply. No one would accept it."
"Nonetheless, would it be of any value?" asked Shu-shan.
"Do you value it now?" asked the Master.
"I don't value it, and so there is no point in shunning it," answered Shu-shan.
Commentary
90. K'uang-jen of Shu-shan (837-909) established his temple on Mt. Shu, which is located in Fu-chou. TTC8, CTL17.
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The master gave morning lectures. What does this mean? Is a routine morning lecture a ritual? Is it organization? Is it “living your life according to rules instead of freely”?
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The request is absurd "Please instruct us using terms that have yet to exist." Is it if the same absurdity as Zen? If you pray or say a mantra but do not understand the words you are saying, is this close to what is being recommended by Shu-shan? A teaching that is not understood, not even in the words, much less in the sentences is that close enough to a wordless teaching? Do the words even matter?
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"I don't value it, and so there is no point in shunning it," Here the same negation - what should be the attitude to things according to the dharma? If you don’t have an attachment to it, and don’t have an attachment to rejecting it, then it might be good?
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“No one would accept it” Is it important for a teaching or instruction that it be accepted? Can it have value without acceptance? Can anybody really be said to have accepted the Buddha path of dharma-less dharma? I am reminded of the psychoanalyst Lacan saying “I’d like to meet a Lacanian psychoanalyst” at a meeting and nobody daring to declare themselves one. I wonder how high would be the opinion of the Buddha or of other Zen Masters of most people who “like zen” or “buddhism”. I really doubt the point of these men was to "convert" everybody or to gain fans.
Submitted May 11, 2020 at 09:09AM by 2bitmoment https://ift.tt/3dwhxKk
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