Master Guanghui Lian said to an assembly,
There's originally nothing to Buddhism; the sages since time immemorial have all been hoking up wonders, creating programs, oppressing free people and making them menials, burying their posterity. Then there were Yunmen, Zhaozhou, Deshan, and Linji; deadly dull, they suffered injustice all their lives.
Here I am not that way. Even if old Shakyamuni Buddha were to show up, I'd banish him to another world, so there would be no trace of him. Why would I do this? So I wouldn't have to worry about losing my posterity.
When I speak this way, how do you people understand? If you can understand here, won't that be joyous? It will get you to shed your hair shirt so you can be clean and free. If you don't understand, next year there will be more new stipulations, disturbing the spring wind, with never an end.
A monk asked for more instruction in a private interview, saying, "The master just said that even if old Shakyamuni Buddha came up you'd banish him to another world..." Before he had finished quoting, Lian said, "If you understand this way, you'll go to hell like an arrow." The monk said, "Then how should I understand?" Lian hit him. The monk hesitated, trying to think of something to say. Lian said, "Understand?" The monk said, "No." Lian said, "Today I have explained to you without trying to avoid being censured everywhere; to serve infinite lands with this profound heart is called requiting the blessings of Buddha."
Dahui cited this and said with scorn, "Decent people are unwilling to do it; you have to lie in your piss."
- Treasury of the Eye of True Teaching 234 (Cleary)
Bring back hair shirts! And bell bottoms!
Lying in piss is something I've seen unconscious drunk people manage without even trying.
Bonus Zhaozhou:
An old woman asked, "I am an ignorant and sinful creature. How can I be delivered [from the world of suffering]?"
Joshu said, "May all human beings be reborn in heaven; may this old woman descend into hell forever."
These excerpts are not necessarily related.
Submitted September 09, 2020 at 08:22PM by sje397 https://ift.tt/3hhwdhQ
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