A single gulp

Recently, there was a GS OP about cultivation losers. He asked the provocative question - "Who would take advice on how to win from losers?" It was rhetorical, obviously, but it did make me think of how that's basically inevitable. This post takes up the question of cultivation in Zen, and hopes to open up some kind of dialog or way of understanding the dilemma - on one hand - the cultivators, and the other, well...the hand - not making a sound in vain.

​

Case 23 Mazu’s “West River” (Entangling Vines)

Layman Pang Yun called upon Mazu Daoyi and asked, “Who is it that doesn’t keep company with the ten thousand things?”

Mazu answered, “I’ll tell you when you swallow the water of the West River in a single gulp.”

At that moment Pang was deeply enlightened. He composed a verse:

All in the ten directions are of the same assembly,

Each and every one learning nondoing.

This is the place where buddha is chosen.

Mind empty, exam passed, I’ve returned home.

To me, the problem of cultivation is at the core of Zen and us. This moment of enlightenment of Layman P’ang is illustrative of the paradox. In the story, seemingly, there was a moment where Layman P’ang was not enlightened, then there was a moment when he was. A bit closer in, we might say that there was a moment where he was not aware of his enlightenment, and then there was a moment where he was.

A personal sense of this gap between enlightened and not enlightened is what brings people not only to cultivate, and to sit in meditation, but also to read books, talk things over with trusted friends, seek counselors, take drugs, dominate others, subjugate themselves, seek praise, attainments, virtues, rewards, and success. I’m saying that cultivation is a natural human impulse that honors a deep sense, or faith that there is really something we don’t see yet, and that somehow, we can “better our lot”.

This contradiction of doing something is at the heart of Zen study. The original person stands when you stand. Linji and all the rest make it very plain. But – even Linji had a time where he was not awake. It’s a paradox – even if there is no before an after, the day begins and ends. “If we are enlightened from the beginning then why do I feel so…(shitty, bored, lonely, closed, etc)?” This question pulls at our sense of honesty, and integrity, but also a faith that there is such a thing as enlightenment. Our ancestors have given us these amazing cases to test and check the extent of that integrity in a dance of faith and doubt. The literature that we study is all just a footnote to our honesty, which asks (to paraphrase Leonard Cohen) – “are your lessons done”? The enlightenment of Zen isn’t just some kind of cool aphorism collection, philosophy, or way. It is no less than seeing exactly what the Buddha saw that morning when he looked up at the North star. As Wumen says "wouldn't that be wondrous?". I have no doubt that Case 1 of the Wumenguan outlines a practice, and it is very useful.

So, I would be very hesitant to chastise cultivators – they are earnest, trying, trying to get it done, just sitting there. As a religious practice, prayer, accumulating merit, ‘experiences’ – all that is obviously not so good – what did Dahui say “sitting like rows of corpses”? Nanquan - "Knowing is delusion, not knowing is blankness.."

Let’s not forget there’s equal scorn in the record for book-learning – Deshan, Jiashan, countless sutra-masters, lecturers. Huineng’s story shows it is entirely possible that someone can hear a glimpse of the Diamond Sutra being chanted in a market and wake up, but also it is also possible that someone can sit and study for thousands of kalpas and still not get enlightened. We need not use one of our hands to subdue the other – what a waste of time.

What remains is the cases, book upon book of them, which are so genius that they can literally (as above) test the waters and can be used to spur us on, encourage us, challenge us, and to make sure that when someone asks us to grab hold of all the water in the West River, see if we’re up to the task, or if we will spill a drop.

Submitted June 06, 2022 at 12:38PM by bigSky001 https://ift.tt/9gZSuRD