Enlightenment: Not Knowing is Not the Way

I’m currently speedrunning Cleary’s translation of the Book of Serenity and doing so while on pilgrimage around Europe, so this case really caught my attention,

Dizang asked Fayan, “Where are you going?”

Fayan said, “Around on pilgrimage.”

Dizang said, “What is the purpose of pilgrimage?”

Fayan said, “I don’t know.”

Dizang said, “Not knowing is nearest.”

There’s a certain type of Zen student who reads about this “not knowing” and thinks that they’ve found the way to enlightenment. “If I stop reading and numb my brain enough, I’ll surely get it,” they think to themselves. When, predictably, they don’t get enlightened, they resort to lying to themselves. “No, I am definitely enlightened. These people that read books surely are doing so because they think they lack something. I’m not doing anything so I definitely get it. No one reads books for fun, what a stupid idea.” And so they come to take refuge in the comments, where they can tell people who like to read and talk about these awesome books from the Zen tradition, that reading is not gonna get them anywhere, as if it was ever supposed to. Here’s what Wansong says about them,

Now when people hear it said that not knowing is nearest, and that this is where Fayan was enlightened, they immediately go over to just not knowing, not understanding—“Just this is it.” They hardly realize that a phrase of the ancients covers everywhere, like the sky, supports everywhere, like the earth. If not knowing is nearest, then what about Heze’s saying, “The one word ‘knowing’ is the gate of myriad wonders.” Just affirm totally when affirming, but don’t settle down in affirmation; deny totally when denying, but don’t settle down in denial. Passing through all the five ranks, absolute and relative, how could you die under a phrase?

If your Zen is repeating the same phrase over and over, you have died under that phrase. Fayan got enlightened when Dizang spoke the words, yet Fayan never taught “not knowing is nearest.”

The enlightenment of the Zen Master has nothing to do with what you know. It also has nothing to do with not-knowing. Nanquan said the Way is not in either. Knowing is illusion. Not knowing is lack of discrimination. Listen to Tiantong’s verse,

Now having studied to the full, it’s like before—

Having shed entirely the finest thread, he reaches not knowing.

Let it be short, let it be long—stop cutting and patching;

Going along with the high, along with the low, it levels itself.

The abundance or scarcity of the house is used according to the occasion;

Roaming serenely in the land, he goes where his feet take him.

The purpose of ten years’ pilgrimage—

Clearly he’d turned his back on one pair of eyebrows.

As a novice student of Zen I think tying yourself with any dependance restricts your movement. If you depend on knowledge, you are tied to always looking for more of it. If you depend on not knowing, you are tied to your ignorance. From Wansong’s commentary,

Zhang Wujin said, “Myriad kinds of preparations are a waste of time. Adapting to everything becomes a fine skill.” Thus one speaks freely and acts freely, goes where his legs go; in the spring moon the flowers bloom, in the autumn the leaves fall. If you can understand in this way, what donkey legs would you move?

If you don’t depend on either you can go anywhere.

If you don’t understand I have a little fable for you,

Mouth asked nose, “Eating is up to me, speaking is up to me—what good are you that you are above me? Nose said, “Among the five mountains, the central one occupies the honored position.” Nose then asked eyes, “Why are you above me?” Eyes said, “We are like the sun and moon—truly we have the accomplishments of illumination and reflection. We dare ask eyebrows, what virtue do they have to be above us?” Eyebrows said, “We really have no merit; we are ashamed to be in the higher position. If you let us be be below, let the eyes look from the above—what face-holes are you?”

Who are you when you are beyond knowing and not knowing? Beyond what is useful? Beyond what you consider holy or moral? Beyond it all, a (useless) true man of no rank.

An ancient said, “In the eyes it’s called seeing, in the ears it’s called hearing’—but tell me, in the eyebrows what is it called? (a long silence). In sorrow we grieve together, in happiness we rejoice together. Everybody knows the useful function, but they don’t know the useless great function.”

edit: a disclaimer

Submitted June 16, 2022 at 01:19AM by astroemi https://ift.tt/78IK4Et