Zen communities are unique

I told a gal to go to /r/zen and meet the community with her questions, she complained that she wasn't ready--I pointed out how Zen Masters aren't engaged with in private, behind closed doors.

Which... is pretty much the same issue churchers struggle with except on a far more megalithic and humiliating scale: religions rely on everyone adhering to a set of common scripted responses to certain questions to avoid doubt while Zen Masters not only reject the faith those religions are commanding but feel totally at ease challenging people to doubt.

For that reason, we don't have any Zen Masters who didn't have a public career of Q/A...even during times of unyielding persecution by fanatical governments the transmission wasn't cut off. This is due to the fact that secret teachings that stay between private parties aren't the same as openly testing a demonstration that understands Buddha.

In contrast to how, in churches, proclamations from a pulpit when questioned lead to heresy; the Zen tradition itself is a constant overturning of what was said before, a re-appraisal of what some Zen Master or another said, and a disregard for anyone who insists they have an understanding that is more authentic.

Foyan has plenty to say about the differences between a Zen community and a religious congregation:

If you talk about equality, nothing surpasses [Zen]. [Zen] alone is most egalitarian. If one says, "I understand, you do not,"this is not [Zen]. If one says, "You understand, I do not, " This is not [Zen] either. In the Teachings it says, "This truth is universally equal, without high or low—this is called unexcelled enlightenment." My perception is equal to yours, and your perception is equal to mine.

Of course, Cleary mistranslated it as 'Buddhism'.

In Zen it's all a matter of equals: Bodhidharma, Buddha, Foyan, you: if you try to think of a reality to strive to beyond that, you are preaching something incompatible with the unexcelled, inherent, enlightenment of Zen.

Submitted June 06, 2022 at 03:07AM by ThatKir https://ift.tt/2wKzQbi