Saturday 30 May 2020

Patriarch's Hall Collection: National Teacher pwns Buddhist Preacher

Anderl's 祖堂集 Zutang ji, Patriarch's Hall Collection, https://terebess.hu/zen/Zutangji.html

Once there was an abbot1793 who came for a visit and the master asked him: "What is your occupation'? "

He answered: "My occupation is lecturing on the Diamond-sütra.

The master said: "What are the first two Chinese characters [of the scripture]'?' '

He answered: "Like this".

The master said: "Like what'?"

1793: "A study director is a high-ranking monk of some sect other than Ch'an who devotes himself to the study and teaching of Buddhist scriptures. "

 

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(Welcome link) (ewkwho?) note: What is this point of this? Is this Dharma Combat/Testing? What are we to conclude about the meaning of this instruction?

I think most of us here recognize that this dialogue illustrates a profound failure on the part of the Buddhist Preacher... what is the failure? Why doesn't everyone see this as a failure? How could such a failure presume to teach anyone about Zen Master Buddha's awakening?

I think most of us here would agree that this failure is not a failure of textual study, and that more textual study is unlikely to improve upon the failure. What is the point of textual study then?



Submitted May 30, 2020 at 04:46PM by ewk https://ift.tt/3ex7o0r

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