When I started reading zen I had to read across multiple books to get the idea that Zen Masters gave different/conflicting answers to the same questions...but now Hengchaun makes it easy for anyone. This section is about three of the answers Zhaozhou gave to a question.
case
A monk asked Hengchuan what Zhaozhou meant when he said a dog has no buddha-nature. Hengchuan gave a great laugh. The monk said, "I do not understand why you laugh." Hengchuan said, "I'm laughing because you are slow-witted, abucket of dark ignorance." The monk went on, "Zhaozhou was also asked, 'All sentient beings have buddha-nature: why not the dog?' Zhaozhou said, 'Because he has karmic consciousness.' Is this really true or not?" Hengchuan said, "What is there that's not really true about this?"The monk went on, "Another time Zhaozhou was asked if a dog has buddha-nature, and he said it does. How could he have said both things?" Hengchuan said, "The Zen elders everywhere are like this." The monk went on, "When he was asked why we go into this leather bag [of ignorance], Zhaozhou said, 'We knowingly offend.' Please, master, explain this clearly." Hengchuan said, "[It's as if you're saying] 'Look how many Zen stories I've memorized!"" Then Hengchuan said, "The Bird's Nest Monk blew on the fuzz of a cloth, and his attendant awakened." Then he held up his staff and said, "Beyond the sky, the clouds end. In the grass, the snakes are startled."
My notes
It's easy to play around with ideas like no doctrine, or no fixed point, or nothing holy, but it's much harder to realize that the implications of no docrtine means you constantly would confront any practice you have as not related to awaking.
"in the grass, the snakes are startled."
When you find your practice, are you a slave to it, or is it easily startled by your stomping?
Submitted June 09, 2022 at 06:49PM by TFnarcon9 https://ift.tt/hdYNgTk
No comments:
Post a Comment