Welcome, and remember to wipe your feet, r/zennists! It’s your own personal Rod Sterling, ZoB here 👋
Foyan has already covered the idea of this lecture/sermon but does so in greater rigor/higher fidelity this go around. Never one to back out of the batter’s box, he sallies forth for all to see.
Instant Zen, Not Knowing: 🔗
“Sometimes when I question students, they all say they do not know or understand; they just say they eat when hungry and sleep when tired. What redemption is there in such talk? You even say you are not cognizant of whether the month is long or short, and do not care whether it is a leap year; who understands this affair of yours? . . .”
Though I’ve given a previous example from Zhaozhou, this business of “not knowing” is again something we may attribute to Bodhidharma.
Blue Cliff Record #1: 🔗
Emperor Wu of Liang asked the great master Bodhidharma, "What is the highest meaning of the holy truths?" Bodhidharma said, "Empty, without holiness." The Emperor said, "Who is facing me?" Bodhidharma replied, "I don't know."
“Eat when hungry” is one play on a trope common to Zen: when “x” do “y”.
Treasury of the Eye of True Teaching #178: 🔗
Master Guanxi Xian said to an assembly,
There are no walls in the ten directions, and no gates in the four quarters; bare, naked, there is nothing to grasp.
Q: "Why did the founder of Chan come from the West?"
A: "A bowl full of rice, a container full of soup."
Q: "I don't understand."
A: "When hungry, eat; when full, stop." . . .
Treasury of the Eye of True Teaching #333: 🔗
Master Ciming said to an assembly,
"The body of reality is formless; it manifests forms in response to beings." (holding up his staff) This is a staff - what is the reality body? Leaving this complication aside, the communal hall and Buddha shrine have gotten into your nostrils, the waters of the four great oceans are on your heads, the dragon kings are under your fingernails - do you feel them? If you feel them, you go three thousand by day, eight hundred by night, smoke rising under your feet, fire rising on your heads. If you don't know, eat when hungry, sleep when tired . . .”
If this is something Zen masters say, why does Foyan think the monks doing it is problematic?
“. . . Now I ask you, how do you explain the logic of not knowing? You hear others say this, so you say it yourselves; but have you ever understood that principle of not knowing? . . .”
As always, Foyan hates a copycat. Are the monks saying they do not know because they have the same understanding as those who came before them, because they want to have that same understanding, or because they think it is what is expected of them by tradition? Foyan seems to be able to tell the difference.
“. . . An ancient said, "Not knowing means nothing is not known, nowhere not reached". This is called unknowing so that you people today may reach that unknown state. This is the realm of the sages—how could it be like the blindness and nonunderstanding that people today call not knowing? . . .”
“Not knowing means nothing is not known” is a tremendous and wonderful Mobius strip of a phrase that I could not find the origin of. Not knowing does not mean one knows nothing. One cannot know nothing, but can not know nothing.
“. . . If you go on like this always declaring you don't know and are not concerned, how will you communicate if someone questions you? There might be no one to continue on the road of Zen! It won't do to be like this. Make your choice carefully!”
Some think Zen masters were free-spirited comedians who did not believe in anything, and they go about acting foolishly as such. If you play as a contrarian every minute of every day, how will you ever talk to someone about Zen? Will you ever be able to have a genuine conversation with anyone about anything at all?
Sayings of Joshu #119: 🔗
A monk asked, "When I am completely void of understanding, what then?"
[Zhaozhou] said, "I understand even less."
The monk said, "Master, do you not know what is?"
[Zhaozhou] said, "I am not a log. Why shouldn't I know?"
The monk said, "What a fine lack of understanding!"
[Zhaozhou] clapped his hands and laughed.
Summary:
- Talking in the manner of speech you think Zen masters did is not what Zen is about.
- “Not knowing” and “eat when hungry,” while common tropes in Zen, cannot and should not just be invoked without understanding what they really mean.
- The tradition of Zen could one day die out completely, and one cause may be such empty behaviors being allowed to run rampant.
Suggested Discussions:
- What is “not knowing” or “unknowing”?
- How is that different from “blindness and nonunderstanding”?
- If you are void of understanding, what then?
Submitted July 03, 2022 at 05:05AM by ZenOfBass https://ift.tt/JZNEzaY
No comments:
Post a Comment