This started as a response to /u/rickletickle69's [OP] but ended up being long enough and (I think) interesting enough that I figured it should maybe be an OP instead.
So, the general theme of this is:
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The author of the book about [MaZu DaoYi], Sun-Face Buddha, Mario Poceski aka "Cheng Chien Bhikshu", is an intelligent but extremely biased Buddhist practitioner (first) and academic (second)
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MaZu never said you should "cultivate" anything
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Zen has nothing to do with "cultivation"
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Poceski's bias is clear, instructive, and, overall, embarrassing and pathetic
"Cheng Chien Bhikshu" aka Mario Poceski, is an obviously biased academic.
He's an interesting character because he's clearly an intelligent academic professional, but he's also clearly biased towards a "Buddhist" interpretation of Zen.
As u/Ewk pointed out before, any reference to "cultivation" in Zen is suspect (and we'd need to have a discussion on the original texts to really get to the bottom of it) but, more importantly, even where the term is an appropriate translation, it's not what modern-day MindfulPhiles assume it is.
For example, the context for MaZu's statement "If one says that there is no need for cultivation, that is the same as the ordinary people" is as follows:
A monk asked, "What is the cultivation of the Way?"
The Patriarch replied, "The Way does not belong to cultivation. If one speaks of any attainment through cultivation, whatever is accomplished in that way is still subject to regress. That is the same as the Srvakas."
"If one says that there is no need for cultivation, that is the same as the ordinary people."
MatZu said "The ordinary mind is the Way." There is no need for cultivation.
Next line:
The monk also asked, "What kind of understanding should one have in order to comprehend the Way?"
The Patriarch replied, "The self-nature is originally complete. If one only does not get hindered by either good or evil things, then that is a person who cultivates the Way. Grasping good and rejecting evil, contemplating anyata and entering samadhi of these belong to activity."
"If one seeks outside, one goes away from it. Just put an end to all mental conceptions in the three realms. If there is not a single thought, then one eliminates the root of birth and death and obtains the unexcelled treasury of the Dharma king."
Poceski's bias is clear, as he gets pwned by his own translation.
So when he writes:
Ma-tsu himself points that "if one says that there is no need for cultivation,'then that is same as ordinary [ignorant] people.'" While the Way is not to be approached through cultivation, its realization is not outside of cultivation.
.. it's clear that Poceski is either an idiot or he is dishonest. Unfortunately, his own obvious intelligence forces us to go with the latter.
MaZu literally says "The Way does not belong to cultivation." He says, "your ordinary Mind is the Way." So, how do we then jump to "ordinary people are 'ignorant'"?
If you do a CTRL+F on the PDF of Sun-Face Buddha for "cultivat" you'll get 53 results. The first 34 of those come from Poceski's introduction. Then we finally hit MaZu's text and we get about 11 from him directly and they are all him talking about how cultivation has nothing to do with the Way ... then the rest are Poceski's work. So roughly 20% of the usage of the word "cultivation" actually came from MaZu himself and 99% of those are literally saying "Nothing to do with Zen."
This is called "bias".
It's why you get garbage like this:
Ma-tsu is quoted by Yung-ming Yen-shou (904-975) in his Tsutg-ching lu (Record of the Mimr of the Teaching): "If you wish to know your mind, this very one that is talking now is your mind. This is what is called the Buddha, and is the true dharma of the Buddha, and is also called the Way."
However, due to beings "not knowing how to return to the source, they follow names and attach to forms, from which confusing emotions and falsehood arise, thereby creating all kinds of karma." It follows that "ignorance is to be ignorant of one's original mind," and enlightenment consist in simply "awakening to one's original nature.''
Since the True Mind is already present in all beings, it is not something to be approached through cultivation, which implies a process of gradual progress through stages, and inevitably leads to dualistic thinking which is the very cause of ignorance. And yet, the painfully obvious fact of our ignorance and suffering makes it plain that there is need for some form of cultivation. "To attach to original purity and original liberation, to consider oneself to be a Buddha, to be someone who understands Ch'an, that belongs to the way of those heretics who deny cause and effect, and hold that things happen spontaneously," says Ma-tsu's disciple Pai-chang Huai-hai (749-814). Ma-tsu himself points that "if one says that there is no need for cultivation,'then that is same as ordinary [ignorant] people." While the Way is not to be approached through cultivation, its realization is not outside of cultivation.
"The painfully obvious fact of our ignorance and suffering makes it plain that there is need for some form of cultivation."
No, Mario, I'm sorry, it's painfully "obvious" to you, because you are in pain.
You reed MaZu's words and conclude correctly (because you are intelligent) that "Since the True Mind is already present in all beings, it is not something to be approached through cultivation, which implies a process of gradual progress through stages, and inevitably leads to dualistic thinking which is the very cause of ignorance" but you've dedicated your life to a Buddhist cult ... so much so you've adopted an Indo-Asian name as a Macedonian man in order to lend yourself an air of authority and now when your life's work brings you the words of an ancient man you respect, telling you that you've been misleading yourself for years, you recoil in pain and write a 55 page introduction to a 155 page book wherein you torture the text in vain to try and wring out some nugget of validation for your meditative practices.
I WILL BET YOU, /u/RickleTickle69, $5, TO BE DELIVERED IN A MANNER OF YOUR CHOOSING ...
... that the context for BaiZhang's quote ("To attach to original purity and original liberation, to consider oneself to be a Buddha, to be someone who understands Ch'an, that belongs to the way of those heretics who deny cause and effect, and hold that things happen spontaneously") is in a context where he's saying something like "on the one hand, seeking enlightenment through cultivation is misguided, but so is thinking you're already an 'enlightened being'" ... because, in general, "the whole point" is not to see yourself as an "enlightened Buddha" in contrast to "ignorant", "unenlightened" beings.
Which Poceski clearly struggles with.
Only religious thinking can get someone to say "dualistic thinking is the very cause of ignorance" and then go on to claim that a man who was famous for saying "ordinary mind is the Way" meant that "ordinary who don't cultivate are ignorant."
When MaZu tells Poceski "your Mind is Buddha, get to know it" he responds with, what I think is, a literal confession of his own misunderstanding:
However, due to [my] "not knowing how to return to the source, [I] follow names and attach to forms, from which confusing emotions and falsehood arise, thereby creating all kinds of karma."
[Because I can't accept this, I assume] that "ignorance is to be ignorant of one's original mind," and enlightenment consist in simply "awakening to one's original nature.''
Now that he has asserted a dualistic paradigm, he goes on to say "Yeah, even though I know it's dualistic, I still can't resist it. Now I'll just misquote BaiZhang and the very guy I'm about to fully translate to you following this introduction that is 1/3 of the book and hope you don't notice ... just like I hope you didn't notice that I'm not actually an Asian Buddhist monk!"
After painfully noting the painfully obvious conclusion from MaZu's very clear words that "the Way is not to be approached through cultivation", Poceski, in the same sentence, shamelessly says:
... its realization is not outside of cultivation.
Lol WHHHATTTTT??
He just made that up. Point blank.
And now--get ready--here comes the "Guru Pivot."
Cultivation, as Ma-tsu sees it, consists of not defiling our true nature.
BAM! And now we're off to the Guru races!
MaZu said cultivation had nothing to with Zen, but now Poceski not only said "yeah but it still does", he's now started a whole line of discussion about "MaZu's cultivation" and goes on and on trying to fabricate a cultivative practice out of MaZu and Zen.
It's absolutely flabbergasting.
So, to recap what we've seen from Poceski in his introduction: he visibly struggles with the words of Zen Masters who invalidate his lifetime achievements of a cultivative "Buddhist" practice, misquotes Zen Masters to then form an erroneous conclusion about their rejection of such practice, and then proceeds to use that erroneous conclusion as a platform for an awkward and lengthy attempt at re-validating his lifetime achievements of Buddhist meditation practice with the corpses of the Zen Masters as macabre ventriloquist dummies.
What is the imagined end game for MindfulPhiles and meditators like Poceski and anyone else?
Zen has nothing to do with "meditation" as a "cultivative" "practice."
There is an interesting discussion to be had about "dhyana" and the focus of one's attention in "practicing"/"studying"/"doing" Zen ... but it never has been, and never will be, about mental quietude and institutional practice.
If a (legitimate) HuangBo text were dug up that said "Ya'll should totally meditate yo!" I would just turn and walk away. "So long 'Bo and thanks for all the fish!"
"Zen" has pointed me to something awesome and real. Because of what I've already redd, I am extremely confident that no such "meditative smoking gun" will ever be found ... it just wouldn't make any sense that the guys (and gals) who were part of the Zen tradition, would say things like that.
Regardless though, if such a smoking gun were unearthed, I'd just say "guess the Zen Masters just didn't get Zen after all" and I guess that would mean that everyone else that sees Zen as exclusive of cultivative practices had actually been following a new tradition all along.
But that's not reality; that's obviously an extreme stretch of the imagination. Despite all the historical caveats, the records of HuangBo and LinJi are clear.
DongShan is clear.
YuanWu and XueDou are clear.
How many "smoking guns" would it take to invalidate what is already there?
So, once again, what's the end game, MindfulPhiles and Gurus? That everyone converts to your meditation religions?
Because it's just not gonna happen.
There is no essay or book that you are going to write, no YouTube video you are going to record, no magical upaya phrase that you are going to utter, which is going to get me ... or people like me ... to join your cultish practices.
So why do all the Bhikshus keep trying so hard?
It's like ... they're not even thinking this shit out ... just acting out emotionally, based in blind hope and magical thinking. (/s)
Just cut that shit out.
Why not study Zen while you're here?
Submitted May 15, 2020 at 05:24PM by GuruHunter https://ift.tt/362nQmh
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