Whenever I hear someone saying that “the real Zen” is not in the books, I wonder what they think the world is.
Humanity has this amazing technology that allows for people who are alive today to communicate with people long gone. We, as the alive ones, get to hear about the conversations Zen Masters where having through the texts we read. We get to ask them questions, to compare them between each other, to answer with our own art and OPs that get discussed between all the other students of Zen in a worldwide platform where anyone can theoretically come in to read and talk with whoever else is interested.
The problem we keep running into, I think, is that in regards to the particular thing the Zen tradition is about, Zen Masters can’t teach us. Does that mean their words are useless and, as someone suggested, we should delete this entire sub? Heck no!
Not only are their words of some of the highest literary quality around, but of an outstanding philosophical brilliance, with a plethora of lucid insights into religious questions.
Granted, none of that is gonna teach you how to see what your nature is, but why should it! It’s your nature! So if we can all accept that, maybe we can get to a point where we can listen to what the masters of the tradition we supposedly study say. Let’s take this little nugget from Linji,
If your mind entertains a moment of doubt, it becomes obstructed by the element earth. If your mind entertains a moment of craving, it becomes drowned in the element water. If your mind entertains a moment of anger, it is seared by the element fire. If your mind entertains a moment of delight, it is tossed about by the element air. If you can understand that this is so, however, you will not be swayed by the environment but can utilize the elements wherever you may be.
See how interesting and useful this is? It’s using a way of describing reality that you are already familiar with (the four elements) and explaining to you how you can use that paradigm to observe your own mind. It’s telling you you can use them instead of them using you.
And, even more than that, it’s telling you that you can use all of them. That goes against the commonly held assumption that you shouldn’t use all the elements because fire can burn you and water can drown you. You are the avatar ffs, why should you confine yourself to only one element?
I wonder if you can utilize the elements, or if you are so afraid they’ll sway you that you won’t even touch them. I also wonder if you see how in the midst of the elemental powers, though the outside appears to change, the great function is unchanging.
What the Zen communities did for their entire history was sending us all of these words to us from far away through the immensity of time and the vastness of space. The treasury has been there, waiting for you to use it for yourself, and when the time comes, to pass it along appropriately.
Master your ~emotions~ elements. Learn from the Zen record. Observe your mind and your nature. What else is more important than that?
Pd. As conversations develop and change, I think it’s important to find new ways of engaging in conversations. Our favorite alaskan hermit, linseed, has started to experiment with chirping and I’d say he has been doing a pretty great job at it. If anyone wants to talk about Zen there, I leave you my twitter where I recently completed a quest for him. Take care.
Submitted June 25, 2022 at 07:29PM by astroemi https://ift.tt/We507UH
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