(A GreenSage post)
Recently, a troll posted under another troll's (very good) OP, and I could not respond because the second troll has me blocked.
So I guess I'll have to make my own OP.
Here's what was said:
I'm a qualified Zen teacher in the Chinese tradition. There's so little accurate information in this post that I'm not going to debate it. Please be assured that Zen Buddhism is a thing and it's fairly Orthodox. People who are from other schools or are casual Buddhists often get hung up on superficial differences that are actually about wording and teaching methods. Ive had many conversations with qualified teachers and monks of other traditions, North and South. I never found anything to argue about in the dharma.
Now, this is laughable, and I'd like to break down why, so that we can all, hopefully, share a good chuckle together. (But if you learn something, that's on you!)
First, what does it mean to be a "qualified Zen teacher in the Chinese tradition"?
HuangBo was a Chinese master in the Zen tradition. Is that the same?
He famously said the following:
You people are just like drunkards. I don't know how you manage to keep on your feet in such a sodden condition! Why, everyone will die of laughing at you!
It all seems so easy, so why do we have to live to see a day like this?
Can't you understand that in the whole Empire of Tang there are no 'teachers skilled in Zen'?"
The Tang Empire was Chinese. HuangBo was a Zen Master.
HuangBo said that there were no Zen teachers in the whole Empire!
So how could this guy be a "qualified" anything in the same tradition as HuangBo?
FoYan (also of the Zen tradition) said the following:
Have you not redd how the Second Patriarch of Zen used to expound the teaching wherever he was, and everyone who heard him attained true mindfulness? He did not set up written formulations and did not discuss practice and realization or cause and effect.
At the time, a certain meditation teacher heard about the Zen patriarch and sent a senior disciple to spy on his lectures. When the disciple didn't come back, the meditation teacher was enraged. When they met at a major convocation, the teacher personally said to his former disciple, "I expended so much effort to plant you; how could you turn your back on me this way?"
The former disciple replied, "My vision was originally right, but was distorted by teachers."
This is what Zen study is like.
If this is what Zen study is like, then what is this "qualified" guy teaching???
(Not Zen, obviously)
Why would someone ignorant of the Zen tradition, claim to be teaching "Zen methods"?
FoYan again:
Nowadays there are many public teachers whose guiding eye is not clear. This is very wrong! How dare they mount a pulpit to try to help others? Showing a symbol of authority, they rant and rave at people without any qualms, simply pursuing the immediate and not worrying about the future. How miserable! If you have connections, you should not let yourself be set up as a teacher as long as you are not enlightened, because that is disaster! If there is something real in you, "musk is naturally fragrant."
See how many phony "Zen masters" there are, degenerating daily over a long, long time! They are like human dung carved into sandalwood icons; ultimately there is just the smell of crap.
Oh! I see now!
Over 1,000 years later, and so little has changed.
This troll proudly brags about never debating "the dharma", while claiming to be "qualified" in a tradition that questions people to death!
This guy isn't even qualified to wash LinJi's underwear, much less preach to people about a "dharma" that they themselves haven't perceived and don't understand.
From the Record of HuangBo:
Q: The Sixth Patriarch was illiterate. How is it that he was handed the robe which elevated him to that office? Elder Shên Hsiu ( a rival candidate ) occupied a position above five hundred others and, as a teaching monk, he was able to expound thirty-two volumes of Sūtras. Why did he not receive the robe?
A: Because he still indulged in conceptual thought--in a dharma of activity.
To him ‘as you practice, so shall you attain' was a reality.
So the Fifth Patriarch made the transmission to Hui Nêng. At that very moment, the latter attained a tacit understanding and received in silence the profoundest thought of the Tathāgata. That is why the Dharma was transmitted to him.
You do not see that the fundamental doctrine of the Dharma is that there are no dharmas, yet that this doctrine of no-dharma is in itself a dharma; and now that the No-Dharma Doctrine has been transmitted, how can the doctrine of the Dharma be a dharma?
Whoever understands the meaning of this deserves to be called a monk, one skilled at "Dharma-practice".
What were the qualifications of HuiNeng, the 6th Patriarch of the tradition which our troll here claims to be qualified to teach?
What do Zen Masters say?
Lung Ya said to his community, "Those people who penetrate the study must pass beyond buddhas and patriarchs. (Tung Shan) the Master of Hsin Feng said, 'If you see the verbal teachings of the buddhas and patriarchs as if they were your mortal enemies, only then will you have the qualifications for penetrating the study.' If you can't pass beyond them, then you will be deceived by the patriarchs and buddhas."
At the time there was a monk who asked, "Do the patriarchs and buddhas have any intention to deceive people or not?"
Lung Ya said, "Tell me, do rivers and lakes have any intention to obstruct people or not?"
He went on to say, "Although rivers and lakes have no intention to obstruct people, it's just that people now can't cross them. Therefore, rivers and lakes after all become barriers to people. You cannot say that rivers and lakes do not obstruct people. Although the patriarchs and buddhas have no intention to deceive people, it's just that people now cannot pass beyond them. So patriarchs and buddhas after all deceive people. Again, you cannot say that patriarchs and buddhas do not deceive people. If one can pass beyond the patriarchs and buddhas, this person surpasses the patriarchs and buddhas. Still, one must completely realize the intent of the patriarchs and buddhas: only then can one be equal to those transcendent people of old. If you have not yet been able to pass through, if you study the Buddhas and study the Patriarchs, then you'll have no hope of attaining even in ten thousand aeons."
The monk also asked, "How can I be able to avoid being deceived by the Patriarchs and Buddhas?"
Lung Ya said, "You must be enlightened yourself."
~ BCR, c. 31
Haha, how do you like them qualifications?!
XD
Submitted July 21, 2022 at 09:02AM by -AeonicFire- https://ift.tt/SzXJqIw
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