~ Why Are You Here? ~

^{(From the Record of YunMen ... thanks Zen Marrow!)}

^{(A GreenSage OP)}

 

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Having entered the Dharma Hall for a formal instruction, Master YunMen said:

"Get out, get out of here! You're fooling each other without end!"

Then Master YunMen asked the assembly: "Is even to say what I just said a mistake?"

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Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

But if we're all fooling each other, was YunMen right or wrong?

 

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One day Master YunMen said, "If you're sitting [in the meditation hall] underneath your robe and bowl, I'm tying you up deadly. And if you come running up [to the Dharma Hall], I have you run to death. What is a phrase that'll get you out of this fix?"

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This is like when FoYan says, "If you don't ask, you won't get it; but if you ask, in effect you've slighted yourself. If you don't ask, how can you know? But you still have to know how to ask before you can succeed."

 

"Enlightenment" means understanding that there is no enlightenment.

But once you learn that "there is no enlightenment", how can you go about understanding that?

If Zen is "outside of words" how can you study it?

If there are no "teachers of Zen" and if teachers "only serve to bury you further", how will you confirm for yourself that you understand the words of Zen Masters?

If there are no methods or practices, how can you even deal with Zen?

If there's nothing that you can do, how could you possibly utter even a single phrase? How could you respond to YunMen?

 

No one can force you to study Zen and there is not any particular reason why you "should" study it.

So why study it while you're here?

Why come to this forum?

Aren't you just fooling yourself?

If you don't have a reason to be here, shouldn't you leave?

Submitted June 10, 2022 at 06:24PM by -AeonicFire- https://ift.tt/v4pMkRb