Ahoy. Do I have some grapeshot for you folks tonight. Grapeshot and one of those two-cannonball doohickeys with a chain strung between that ya fire at the mast, as it were, in the form of the quotes in this OP and my explosive video commentary on them—found at the end. (A real whizbang affair featuring a daring performance by your favorite Kung Fu dog, and more Ch’an study than he could shake a stick at!)
But first, the Case—continuing a theme that struck up in conversation earlier today with u/astroemi, about something Huineng said about knowledge and “one practice”, but rolling it forward to a Case that touches on my content for this post:
Treasury of the Eye of True Teaching #603
Meditation master Cheng served meditation master Shenxiu at Jade Spring in Xingnan. Later, because the teaching activity of both schools was flourishing, Shenxiu's followers slandered the southern school from time to time, saying that the great teacher Huineng was illiterate, and questioning his excellence. Shenxiu said, "He has attained the knowledge that has no teacher, and profoundly understands the supreme vehicle. I am not as good as he is. Moreover, our fifth patriarch personally entrusted him with the robe and the teaching - how could this be for no reason? My regret is that I cannot go away to associate with him. I am vainly receiving the benevolence of the nation. You should not remain here, but go to Caoqi to ask him about what you doubt; come back some day and explain to me."
Cheng then respectfully took leave and went to Shaoyang, where he participated in inquiry along with the community, not saying where he'd come from. At that time the sixth patriarch announced to the community, "Now there is someone stealing the teaching hidden in this congregation." Cheng came forth and told the whole story. The patriarch said, "How does your teacher direct the community?" Cheng replied, "He always instructs the community to still the mind and contemplate quiescence, perpetually sitting without lying down." The patriarch said, "Stilling the mind and contemplating quiescence is illness, not Chan. Perpetual sitting binds the body - what use is it in principle? Listen to my verse:
”Living we sit, not lie;
Dying, we lie, not sit.
Basically it is stinking bones -
How can virtue or fault be established for it?"
Cheng said, "What do you teach people?" The patriarch said, "To say I have a doctrine to give people would be to deceive you. I just untie bonds by whatever means, provisionally calling this samadhi. Listen to my verse:
"Not minding at all is inherent discipline;
Having no obstruction at all is inherent wisdom.
Not increasing, not receding, is inherent indestructibility.
A body goes, a body comes - fundamental samadhi."
—Translated by Thomas Cleary
Did you see the part I emohasized? About “attaining the knowledge with no teacher”? That’s what astroemi and I were talking about. We can talk about that because we have studied Ch’an texts together. Literature is useful like that, especially to people who are capabale of having conversations (which some aren’t).
The rest of the case contains a lot of what this post is about. A Ch’an story that Ch’an students and Ch’an masters read, that helps them understand Ch’an teachings and/or discuss them or how to discuss them, etc & so on. This story contains the “lofty” aristocrat Channist Shenxiu accurately describing his relationship to Huineng for the Ch’an audience. This particular story was written down by Dahui in his collection Treasury Eye of the True Teaching [Linseed: you get that it gives you the actual ‘treasury eye’ of the teaching—right? So use it!] …so for the purposes of this text, we can say that it was Ch’an master Dahui who showed us this story—and wanted students of Ch’an to see it.
(I personally love the story in the Platform Sutra, myself. One of the funniest things in Ch’an history is that the Platform Sutra keeps on getting passed around in Ch’an comnunities no matter what the book police try to do—as can clearly be seen in the emminent-but-failed views of a very small number of users here.)
Do you know how useful it is having stories like these when you are studying Ch’an under a military dictatorship like I have been doing for over a decade? It is very useful. For one, having stories and cases like these in your back pocket makes it very easy to have conversations with buddhists. And in some places (ie: not Reddit) it is of course very practical, and even a part of one’s Ch’an study, to have conversations with buddhists. Those conversations are always very beneficial to Ch’an study. How could they not be? They are also exactly as fun as you’d imagine it would be for some Ch’an monk in the early Tang dynasty to walk into town and chat with all the Tientai social workers and health care professional lay people on the Bodhisattva path, etc and so on. Ch’an monks could no doubt pull funny pranks on those folk all day long—just like today.
This is a very useful communication network for a Ch’an community and students of Ch’an—one that operates on simple knowledge of and references to Ch’an literature and the buddhist literature that the Ch’an Masters quoted. Literature which talks about buddhist arts and sciences and disciplines (as well as containing self teaching materials).
This isn’t a religion.
This is a higher culture than people can read or understand under a military dictatorship. With sciences like economics and history, teachings like sudden enlightenment, disciplines of psychology, excercise, and meditation—and arts—that don’t even fucking register in our illiterate military dictatorship educations. They’re existence is literally denied outright. “That’s crazy talk.” or “Magic.” or even “Religion.” But never, ever, ever can it be art, science, profession, economics, history or literature. Those things don’t exist. Everyone knows that. Just ask anyone who has been forced to slave away for a bank their entire lives—they’ll tell you!
But they do register with buddhists, notably. Buddhists arts and sciences and literature and buddhist disciplines like being a lay student of Ch’an. No matter who’s in charge of the temporal government—those things register with buddhists.
That is precisely how things were back then, too. Of course the corrupt priests and religious instituions. and authorities were against the Ch’an students—persecuted them, derided them, slandered them & even killed them. But the peasants and laity who actually read and appreciated and liked and studied the buddhist texts weren’t. They were the ones who went: “You’re right, Ch’an masters—fuck those guys in their Land Rover Palanquins and Patagonia Robes! I’ve actually read the Diamond Sutra and can see through those ninnies ten li away!”
Here are some snippets from the introduction to the Book of Serenity. Did you know Thomas Cleary died last year? In my opinion, that is a good reason to go back and take another look at a lot of his commentary, which I have found useful as a student of Ch’an. His Treasury Eye of the True Teaching releases in hard copy this October 11. It was my number one hoped for Ch’an book, and look at that—Thomas Cleary might actually get it into my hands before I’m dead. What a neat guy. I hope his books will be around for awhile. I will buy a couple of these for my local bookstore for sure. I loan them my 20 volume OED, and get to put a couple books on the shelf on occaision. A very functional approach in a community where you know a lot of buddhists who read buddbist books. (This is the kind of fun you learn to have by dicussing buddhist books with other buddhists, btw. Tactical Ch’an text insertion into the longterm community library via shelf-hacking the local bookstore. Some buddhist literary disciplines can be scary real!)
Snippets of BoS introduction by Thomas Cleary:
The commentaries to the core cases and verses featured in The Book of Serenity were composed by Wansong Xingxiu (1166-1246), another famous master of the Cao-Dong school. Wansong was particularly distinguished for his broad learning in addition to his Chan enlightenment; he is said to have read the entire Buddhist canon three times, and worked on the comprehensive Flower Ornament scripture all his life. His vast erudition also extended to the classics of Confucianism, Taoism, and other philosophies, enabling him to identify and elucidate the many literary allusions in Tiantong’s poetry.
…
Each case of The Book of Serenity is introduced by Wansong with brief pointers to orient the reader. These introductions are supplemented by his interlinear interjections within each case and verse, here represented in small print. These pithy remarks have multiple functions, sometimes paralleling the content of the cases and verses, sometimes providing counterpoints, sometimes posing questions to ponder. Cases and verses are then followed by Wansong’s commentaries, generally elucidating the content while also providing keys to understanding the underlying message of the entire collection and its practical interactive application.
And look at that, right there—we are at the end of the knowledge that people who only have the kindle version have. The next three quotes I have to copy from the hard copy book’s introdcution by hand. (This was of course the edition I was reading this morning, as a book reader. My kindle versions are only for online Ch’an commentary purposes.)
On Yang-Shan:
There are akso hints of some occult connection between Yang-shan and adepts somewhere to the west, which may help explain his use of visual symbols to an extent greater than any other Ch’an master, so far as is known.
On Guishan:
Guishan also wrote a short treatise describing the degeneration of comtemporary Chan, brought about by the great infkux of students with faulty intentions and insudficient grounding in the classical Buddbist sciences and disciplines. Contrary to popular notions of Chan Buddhists as freethinkers and iconoclasts with no regard for scripture or precept, Guishan lays emphasis on the foundation of conduct and the careful study of the principles of Buddhism. He especially emphasizes scripture study for those who cannot achieve the sudden transxendence of the Chan mystic method, which means, in other words, for most people. [Linseed: see that, u/Transmission_of_Mind?]
(Emphasis mine)
On Yantou & Xuefeng:
Deshan’s most famous successors were the extrodinairy Yantou (d.887) and the great teacher Xuefeng (d. 908). Yantou is one of those Chan masters who is already enlightnened when he appears of the scene of Chan lore and often plays the role of idol breaker. In particular, he opposed quietism, apparenlt a fairly common degenerstion of Chan, and stressed the importance of complete mental freedom, fluidity, and resilience. Xuefeng, on the other hand, whose final enlightenmnent is said to have actually taken place through the impact of Yantou’s guidance rather than Deshan’s tutelage, represents the dikigent, indefatiguable seeker who matures slowly and finally becomes s skillful teacher of vast experience snd expertise.
Woooo, boy! That was no-shit the hardest physical work I have had to do in a long time for r/zen content…retyping that. Thank goodness for the current tech revolution—I simply wouldn’t be able to write the same kind of Chan commentary if doing so gave me Arthritis.
But it also have me an idea. Do you know why I like introductions like Cleary’s introduction to the Book of Serenity? Look at how much we learned about those four Chan masters, and the Lineage of Bodhidharma right there. And this introduction is huge…with a wealth of knowledge about Chan attached to it. You r/zen users out there do realize that an introduction like this basically answers all of the inane questions about Chan and buddhism you argue about here all the time, right? Like makes them totally obsolete?
Just checking.
But u/jungle_toad gave me an idea. He sent me an audio reading of one of his posts (about trusting heart mind) another user made. it was fucking awesome. You cats like podcasts, don’t ya? I’m going to record an audio reading Thomas Cleary’s introduction to the Book of Serenity and upload it for r/zen users. Seems like that is useful work I can actually do.
Until then, here is my video commentary on the quotes and passage in this OP about studying Chan successfully under a military dictatorship—it’s definitely Calypso’s best work to date:
One Parrot Ch’an (or: Calypso Takes It In The Face)
Va va va voom!
—golden eyebrow
Year of the Tiger
Submitted July 15, 2022 at 03:05PM by golden_eyebrow https://ift.tt/tN8jhru
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