Here are some quotes from the book I enjoyed, in no particular order.
These old men are not anything more than old men, and when I say “one of the old men says,” I mean, “Are you talking about what they were talking about, or are you talking about your faith/practice/religion?” The only authority in these old men is their reporting of what they said, that they said it, and that they didn’t say something else. That they said anything doesn’t make it true.
Seeing yourself clearly is the idea, not seeing the self when it is doing something like studying scriptures, not seeing the self when you are doing something like pretending to be “not doing” something like meditation. Not seeing the self in terms of past or future or dreams or interests or desires or opinions. We are speaking of the self before your parents were born. That self.
The problem for most of us is that there is no agreement about what a Buddha is among the many Buddhisms, and of course no one will say among the old men.
Without these old men to guide you, you are just a sheep of ignorance wandering around among wolves who know things. Ha! The old men will give you some medicine for this knowing sickness.
Bankei replied, "Perhaps your fox can perform that trick, but that is not the manner of Zen. My miracle is when I am hungry I eat, and when I am thirsty I drink." Bankei was himself quoting another Zen Master. They are always quoting each other, such jokers! The part about it being a miracle though, that’s serious.
Many Buddhists will talk about their practice, which is the special or specific things they do as part of their religious exercise or observance. Even back in Joshu’s day monks wanted to know about the personal habits of Zen Masters, part of their idea being that if you do what a Zen Master does then you can experience their enlightenment. Enlightenment doesn’t come from doing anything in particular, even if you meditate and pretend that you aren’t doing anything to confuse everyone. Anything you do every day that is not ordinary is practice, and there is no practice in Zen. You can’t make something ordinary by pretending for long enough, but it might seem like it.
Still, even if you don’t think about it, what you do on your religious path is still you doing something for religious reasons.
Whenever there are symbols of attainment, this is not Zen. Whenever the teacher distinguishes himself from the students, this is not Zen. Often there was a place for the Master to sit when he received people. Was it a throne? Often there was a podium used by speakers to address the monks, but some Zen Masters never used it. The same robes, the same food, the same work. Zen Masters were just like everyone else. Nowadays, many Buddhists and Dogen Buddhism followers like to have certificates and badges and all the trappings of organized religions. This is not Zen. It’s not a reason to hate, but it’s not Zen.
Relinquishment of everything is the Dharma, and he who understands this is a Buddha, but the relinquishment of all delusions leaves no Dharma on which to lay hold. -Huang Po
Who ever talked this way to you? Some will say this, but then teach you a dharma anyway. This is called, “mouthing the words.”
Not only is “Buddhism” an English word and a Western idea, but more to the point Zen is not a religion or a philosophy, nor is the group of religions and philosophies called “Buddhism” definite enough to make a claim on Zen beyond the use of common cultural words and ideas or geographic origins.
Look at all the Buddhisms, telling you what to value, what to think in terms of how to see the world. Some of these Buddhisms will say that this sort of instruction is just for novices, but then they will tell you to follow it anyway. But in Zen there are only those that don’t know what to follow. Nothing else. What I mean is there is only one teaching in Zen. “Saying that there is no Dharma to be explained in words is called preaching the Dharma.”
Of course the distinction is either nonsense or nonsensical to people who don’t see the “trying to be” in the “being in.” Even if you think you aren’t trying because you are busy being in, you still started off in the wrong direction and thus are unlikely to not get anywhere.
Certainly Zen Masters manifest this in the spontaneity that they display. Once again though this mistakes the effect for the cause. Someone who is free is likely to be very here and now. Someone who is trying to be very here and now is likely not free. They are bound by their trying, bound by the desire to be here and now. Bound by their own idea of what Zen should be.
This idea that the mind is a dog to be trained and commanded is from the Buddhisms, specifically, but from all the religions in general. It is nonsense of course, just another desire born of the endless engine of desire, just another attachment.
Many Zen Masters practiced some form of mental cultivation, some refer to the cultivation of the ordinary, day-to-day mind that chops wood and carries water. Some Zen Masters certainly did sitting cultivations, who knows what they were thinking? None of the Zen Masters taught sitting contemplation as part of any path to enlightenment. There are no koans from Zen Masters which involve sitting meditation or Zazen meditation as an element of enlightenment, there are no lectures by Zen Masters encouraging enlightenment.
Huang Po is brought back to this question again and again, as other Zen Masters were, because of the prevalence and seductiveness of meditation as a means to enlightenment. Zen Masters were after freedom of mind, a freedom even beyond the desire for meditation as an escape from suffering
The context Shunryu chooses for himself is purity. There is no purity in Zen, there is nothing to be pure, but for Shunryu purity is essential. Shunryu wants us to pursue mental purity which is clouded by our thinking, so we must “calm” and pacify our minds to experience this purity. He says, “When your practice becomes effortless, you can stop your mind.” This is not Zen.
Special knowledge is a fundamental element of all of the religions, religions that pose as the authority necessary to understand their holy text. Since none of us were there when these koans were uttered all of it is hearsay. When someone tells you they have secret knowledge that explains the true intent or the true meaning or the real point of a case or koan, then nod politely and say “not Zen.” If you want you can add, “Likely one of the Buddhisms.”
Mumon's Warnings;
To follow the compass and keep to the rule is to tie oneself without rope.
To unify and pacify the mind is quietism, and false Zen.
Sitting blankly in Zen practice is the condition of a dean man.
For Huang Po, “meaningless practices” are more or less anything you do in the name of enlightenment, chanting, praying, meditating, memorizing sacred texts, and so on. There is an idea in some of the Buddhisms that this sort of thing is helpful, or even meritorious. There is nothing meritorious or helpful in Zen, not even talking to Zen Masters. Huang Po has some suggestions, they all do, although all of them involve seeing, rather than doing or not doing
Submitted September 10, 2020 at 05:10AM by surupamaerl https://ift.tt/2ZpHiHw
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