In the book, The Zen Teachings of Huang Po: On Transmission of the Mind, the question is asked on pg. 68. of the Jon Blofeld translation on Terebess.
Q: Allowing that the enlightened man who achieves cessation of conceptual thought is Buddha, would not an ignorant man, on ceasing to think conceptually, lose himself in oblivion?
A: There ARE no Enlightened men or ignorant men, and there IS no oblivion. Yet, though basically everything is without objective existence, you must not come to think in terms of anything non-existent; and though things are not non-existent, you must not form a concept of anything existing. For ‘existence' and ‘non-existence' are both empirical concepts no better than illusions. Therefore it is written: ‘Whatever the senses apprehend resembles an illusion, including everything ranging from mental concepts to living beings.' Our Founder 1 preached to his disciples naught but total abstraction leading to elimination of sense-perception. In this total abstraction does the Way of the Buddhas flourish; while from discrimination between this and that a host of demons blazes forth!
Is there anything to expand upon this? A discussion perhaps? Are we ignorant to think conceptually? Is it useful to use concepts as a frame of reference, or for being able to relate to one another? Do concepts have their place?
Thank you and i hope you are all having a wonderful day.
Submitted May 08, 2020 at 11:59PM by GooberNeefnus https://ift.tt/35HfaBC
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