Nanquan's "Very Difficult"

Someone asked Nanquan, "How does one cultivate practice?"

Nanquan replied, "It cannot be thought up. To tell people to cultivate in such and such a way, or to practice in such and such a way, is very difficult."

The questioner now asked, "Then will you let students cultivate practice at all?"

Nanquan answered, "I cannot stop you."

"How should I practice?"

Nanquan said, "Do what you have to do; don't just follow behind others."

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So we get a few things going on with here with the stranger and Nanquan that comes up here and is...frustrating, to say the least, to lots of people who claim interest in Zen but really just want more and more Buddhism.

1. Zen practice isn't cultivation dependent on a particular doctrine or practice dependent on a specific method.

2. Nanquan can't stop people from searching for 'cultivating practices'.

3. "Do what you have to do; don't just follow behind others."

This 'doing what you have to do'...did Nanquan manifest that?

Submitted May 19, 2020 at 06:40PM by ThatKir https://ift.tt/2zbufjb