"There are a bunch of blind shavepates who, having stuffed themselves with food, sit down to meditate and practice contemplation. Arresting the flow of thought they don't let it rise; they hate noise and seek stillness. This is the method of the heretics. A patriarch said, 'If you stop the mind to look at stillness, arouse the mind to illumine outside, control the mind to clarify inside, concentrate the mind to enter samadhi -- all such [practices] as these are artificial striving'.
"This very you, the man [Or woman!] who right now is thus listening to my discourse, how is he to be cultivated, to be enlightened, to be adorned? He is not one to be cultivated, he is not one to be adorned. But if you let him do the adorning then everything would be adorned. Don't be mistaken!
The Record Of Linji, University of Hawaii Press 2009 pg. 17
I'm posting this for anybody who came here like I did and was told to first read the Gateless Gate (Not even told about Wumen's 10 caveats either until 2 years later) and wanted to throw that text through a F#$@ing wall!
ROOOOOAR!
Ahem. Apologies. Moving on.
Linji's words remind me of this convo (paraphrasing cuz I cant remember the names):
Someone said, "How do you practice (zen)?"
The ancient said, "All day long I tend to an ox. If he gets into the weeds I pull him back. If he gets into the flowers I pull him back."
The other said, "What kind of practice is that?"
The ancient said, "You tell me. What am I doing all day?"
The other replied, "You really do tend to an ox!"
So! Who here tends to their oxes? Oxen! Ox...i?
If you don't speak up you deny your true nature! If you do speak up your ox is in the weeds! Come! Come! Who here can say a word of zen for this heretic (I do so love sitting with my ears stuffed and my hair on fire)?
(Edited because I canny spell)
Submitted May 26, 2020 at 05:07PM by johnjonesthrownaway8 https://ift.tt/2X3Os3K
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