I have selected a few choice (apocryphal) quotes from Zen Master Buddha for your consideration:
“Once that person (who made a wooden raft to cross a river) has crossed to that shore, they again think, ‘This raft has been quite helpful to me; because of it, I was saved from that peril. I went from that fearful place and reached this untroubled place. I won’t discard this raft now. I’ll take it with me and make use of it.’ How is it, monks? Once they’ve reached that place, will they be able to use this raft when they take it with them, or will it be impossible?”
The monks replied, “No, Bhagavān. That person has reaped the reward that they wanted. What further use would the raft have if they took it with them?”
The Buddha told the monks, “Even the good teaching is dispensable, so why wouldn’t what’s not the teaching?”
There was then a monk who asked the Bhagavān, “How is it that we should dispense with the teaching as we would with what’s not the teaching? Wouldn’t we then not be training for awakening as its derived from the teaching?”
The Bhagavān told him, “It’s based on conceit that conceit, arrogance, overconfidence, self-conceit, wrong conceit, conceitedness towards superiors, and boastful conceit are ceased. When there’s no conceit, arrogance ceases, the lack of conceit and right conceit cease, and wrong conceit and boastful conceit cease. All four conceits are ceased.
Elsewhere he describes the mind's mirror-like equanimity thus:
"Maintain your mind as though it were the earth. Like the earth, accept what’s pure and what’s impure. Whether it’s feces, urine, trash, or ugliness, it accepts everything, and the earth doesn’t produce an uplifted or lowered mind. It doesn’t say, ‘This is lovely,’ or ‘This is terrible.’ ... As it was with earth, it’s likewise with water, fire, and air [the four elements]. They accept what’s bad and what’s lovely, but there’s never any uplifted or lowered mind. Produce kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity towards all sentient beings.
He goes on to describe his battle with the demon God of desire, Māra Pāpīyān, during his enlightenment moment under the bodhi tree:
“Māra asked, ‘Who is your enemy?’
“Again, I replied, ‘It’s conceit. Overconfidence, self-conceit, wrong conceit, conceitedness among superiors, and boastful conceit.’
“Māra said to me, ‘What’s your reason for destroying these conceits?’
“I replied, ‘Pāpīyān, you should know, there are the concentration of kindness, concentration of compassion, concentration of joy, and concentration of equanimity [the four immeasurables] and the concentration of emptiness, concentration of wishlessness, and concentration of signlessness [the three gates to liberation]. From the concentration caused by kindness, the concentration of compassion is discerned. Conditioned by the concentration of compassion, the concentration of joy is attained. Conditioned by the concentration of joy, the concentration of equanimity is attained. From the concentration of emptiness, the concentration is wishlessness is attained. Because of the concentration of wishlessness, the concentration of signlessness is attained. Using the power of these concentrations, I will do battle with you. When their practice is complete, then suffering is ended. When suffering is ended, then the bonds are ended. When the bonds are ended, then I’ll attain Nirvāṇa.’
“Māra said to me, ‘Ascetic, you’ll destroy the teaching with the teaching?’ “ I replied, ‘It’s possible to destroy the teaching with the teaching.’
“Māra asked me, ‘How do you destroy the teaching with the teaching?’ “I then told him, ‘With right view, wrong view is destroyed. With wrong view, right view is destroyed. Right control destroys wrong control, and wrong control destroys right control. Right speech destroys wrong speech, and wrong speech destroys right speech. Right action destroys wrong action, and wrong action destroys right action. Right livelihood destroys wrong livelihood, and wrong livelihood destroys right livelihood. Right method destroys wrong method, and wrong method destroys right method. Right mindfulness destroys wrong mindfulness, and wrong mindfulness destroys right mindfulness. Right concentration destroys wrong concentration, and wrong concentration destroys right concentration.’ [this refers to the Eightfold Path]
“Māra said to me, ‘Ascetic, although you say this today, it’s a difficult thing to do. Get up right now, and I won’t throw you into the ocean.’ “I again to Pāpīyān, ‘You made merits that have granted you only one thing. You’ve become the Māra King of the desire realm. In the past, I created virtues that cannot be described. To do what you’ve said now is something that’s difficult.’
“Pāpīyān replied, ‘You now are a witness to the merits that I’ve made. You claim that the merits you’ve made are countless, but who can bear witness to that?’
“It was then, monks, that I reached down with my right hand and touched the ground, and said, ‘The earth is a witness to the virtues that I’ve made.’
“When I said that, the earth spirit rose up out of the ground with its palms together, and said, ‘Bhagavān, I will bear witness to it!’ “When the earth spirit had finished saying this, Māra Pāpīyān felt dejected and miserable. He retreated and disappeared.
So, let's be honest, this whole passage is a conceit. This interaction between the Buddha and these monks likely never happened. This passage is taken from a Chinese translation of a translation of a collection of Agama sutras called The Numerical Discourses, which likely were injected with some Mahayana elements as they were copied and passed down through the ages. But I don't care if this is fiction, because isn't that the whole point? Battling conceit with conceit? Teachings to destroy teachings? Hopefully holding up something honest and expansive like the Earth spirit would do? And, no, I don't believe in literal earth spirits or a desire demon, but I don't believe in The Force and the Dark Side either, and that doesn't stop me from understanding Star Wars.
Was this post NOT ZEN TM because I only quoted a fictionalized account of a now retconned zen master originally written before the start of the zen tradition?
What a fun Buddha tale though! He let's you know that the whole thing is a conceit to undue conceit. Isn't this outside of the written words? So does it actually point to something true? How would you know? How thorough is the conceit and where is it? His whole teaching kind of collapses on itself, even taking out the noble Eightfold Path in the process, just to realize a desireless mind with an all-encompassing equanimity that no longer is concerned with right or wrong, or true or false; that is no longer picking and choosing.
But, is Māra really gone, or just dejected and bound to return? How many rivers are there? Will you build a new raft every time? Or maybe you need that raft to go back to where mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers, and then you can discard it? Perhaps a new fanfic will have the answer! Who could say? A writer, perhaps...
Submitted May 06, 2021 at 12:50AM by jungle_toad https://ift.tt/3o2eT5L
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