The Real Shobogenzo: Do you want to know? An Idler digging hells awaits you!

Dahui's Real Original, the First Shobogenzo:         

409 . Master Yaoshan said to an assembly...

Someone asked, “How about when one does not comprehend the afflictions in one’s person?”

The teacher said, “What are afflictions like? I want you to consider. There is even a type who just memorize words on paper; most are confused by scriptures and treatises. I have never read the books of scriptures and treatises. You have fluctuating minds simply because you are confused by things and go through changes, at a loss, inwardly unstable. Even before you have learned a single saying or half an expression, a scripture or a treatise, already you talk this way about ‘enlightenment,’ ‘nirvana,’ the mundane and the transmundane; if you understand this way, then this is birth and death. If you are not bound by this gain and loss, then there is no birth and death.

You see teachers of rules talking about stuff like ‘naihsargika’ and ‘dukkata’—this above all is the root of birth and death. Even so, when you examine birth and death thoroughly, it cannot be grasped. From the Buddhas above to insects below, all have these differences of excellence and inferiority, good and bad, big and small. If it doesn’t come from outside, where is there some idler digging hells to await you?

Do you want to know existence in hell? It is boiling and broiling right now.

Do you want to know existence as a hungry ghost? It is presently being more false than true, so people can’t trust you.

Do you want to know existence as an animal? It is presently disregarding justice and humanity and not distinguishing friend from stranger—isn’t this wearing fur and horns, being butchered and hung upside down?

Do you want to know humanity and divinity? It is present pure conduct. You should guard against falling into these states.

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(Welcome link) (ewk's note^who?): What if you are willing to accept that you are a hungry ghost? What if you feel like you are in hell? How can you be saved by someone else? Who is going to drag you out of your ghost cave? Who is going to put out the fires of hell? "I want you to consider."

Submitted May 14, 2020 at 05:44PM by ewk https://ift.tt/2WsHiWa