(A GreenSage OP)
Ahhh; “Independence”.
Lots of people talk about it … but people lie.
A lot.
Same could be said for “liberty” and “freedom”.
People claim to support these things, claim to have them, claim to teach them, claim to offer them, claim to know them, and claim to represent them.
But I don’t think it takes very much inspection to see that many of these people are full of shit.
Many of them are, in fact, oppressors and pillagers whose notions of “independence”, “liberty”, and “freedom” depend upon taking those things away from others.
And many more are just lying to themselves.
One phenomenon I’ve noted among the community of “Buddhist”, “Non-Dualists”, and "New-Agers" (who are often really just permutations of “Nihilists”) is that they will make a lot of noise about these concepts, while basically simultaneously enslaving themselves in one way or another … often ironically.
They will attach their concepts of “independence”, “liberty”, and “freedom” to things like fantasies of “no-self”, “emptiness”, or various “practices” or “methods”.
These are the kinds of people who, when asked their favorite flavor of icecream, will balk, because they are afraid that having a “favorite” will violate one of their “free” principles.
What sort of free and independent person would be ashamed of their own favorite flavor of icecream?
What liberty is that?
If your freedom has to be obtained then it is not free.
If your liberty is empty then it is false.
If your independence is derived from “no-self” then it’s not your independence (nor “independent”).
If I try to think of good words from the Zen Record which speak upon these themes, I tend to think of LinJi first, so I’ve quoted him here for this post.
In Zen, the independence is yours, the liberty is neither full nor empty–nor granted, nor taken–and the freedom is free.
But it can’t be sought anywhere, so how will you get it?
And if you get it from anywhere (or anyone), then how could it be “independence”, “liberty”, or “freedom”?
LinJi! Speak!
I explain the Dharma differently from anyone else.
If Manjusri or Samantabhadra appear before me in some manifestation to ask about the Dharma, as soon as they open their mouths to ask for instruction, I’ve already sized them up.
I am securely seated: when you people come to meet with me, I have already sized you all up.
Why is it this way?
Because my perception is different.
Externally I do not seize upon ordinary or holy, and inwardly I do not abide in the basis.
When you see all the way through things, there are no more doubts or deceptions.
Wow.
Easy. Direct. Clear.
Is this not independence?
You people of the Path, those who leave home must learn the Path. Take me for example. In the past I was concerned with the vinaya, and I also researched the sutras and sastras.
Only later did I realize that these are [merely] medicines to cure the world; openly revealed explanations.
But then I put them aside for a time and went traveling to study Zen.
Later I met a great enlightened teacher [Huangbo] and only then did the eye of the Path become clear for me. I began to understand the world’s teachers, and to know who was misguided and who was correct.
If you do not understand immediately when your mama gives birth to you, then you need direct experiential research, refining and polishing, until one morning there’s spontaneous insight.
If you don’t understand Zen, if you haven’t been enlightened yourself, then you need to summon your own determination to find out.
But don’t get confused here: there is no one message, method, or practice which will work for you. You are the only one who can truly know what will open up the understanding for you.
Unfortunately, since you don’t know what that it is, you have to roll up your sleeves and go find out.
Fortunately, the process is pretty simple.
You just have to study Zen while you’re here.
You just have to come to know yourself, for yourself.
Good people, if you want to get your views and perceptions in accord with the Dharma, just do not accept people’s delusions.
Wherever you meet them, inside or outside, immediately slay them. [Even cherished concepts like] “buddha”,” patriarch”, “arhat”, “parents”, “relatives”, and “household”—as soon as you meet them, slay them.
Only then will you find liberation.
Unconstrained by things, you penetrate through to sovereign independence.
Throughout the country, most who study the Path try to depend on things to do so.
I start hitting from there.
If they use their hands, I hit them on the hands. If they use their mouths, I hit them in the mouth. If they use their eyes, I hit them in the eye.
Almost none of them come forth independently and freely.
Most have fallen into the traps around the free and easy teaching devices and perspectives of the people of old.
There is no fixed doctrine to give to people, only methods to cure diseases and release bonds. You people of the Path, who come from all over the country, should try to come forth without depending on anything.
I [just] want to talk things over with you.
For years on end there has been no one [independent, capable of understanding Buddhism, to communicate with]. [Those who have come] have all been wild fox spirits and ghosts haunting the forests and fields, who gnaw at random on all the lumps of shit.
These blind [false seekers] wrongly consume the faithful offerings of many people, proclaiming themselves to be leavers of home, but they adopt this kind of [dependent wild fox spirit] view.
I tell you, there is no Buddha, no Dharma, no cultivation, no realization.
What are you trying to find this way as a shallow adherent?
Blind people [who reify these concepts] are placing a head upon a head [imposing objects of seeking upon spontaneous reality].
What are you lacking?
Good people, what’s functioning right now before your eyes is no different from the buddhas and patriarchs.
Because you do not believe this, you go outside to seek.
Make no mistake about it: there are no external phenomena, and the internal too is unattainable.
Rather than seize upon my words, you had better stop and rest and be without concerns.
What has already arisen, do not continue.
What has not yet arisen, do not let arise.
This is better than ten years of wandering.
So easy. So direct. So clear.
Or is it?
There is no one who can speak for you, so if you don’t speak for yourself, then you’ll never have your own voice.
Zen can be hard.
But it can also be easy (if you let it be).
You just have to study it while you are here.
Today I wave the clear flag of Zen … but it’s not invisible.
Translucent fireworks explode over an empty sky … but those with an eye can see.
And what a show it is!
In front of you, everywhere, everything is bursting forth with the sparkles and cracks of fireworks galore.
Sitting quietly in a sunny garden, the aeonic fire of the universe roars like a lion in the chirping of the birds.
All over the land reigns sovereign freedom.
The faces of oppressors and pillagers sneer out arrogantly through cell bars.
No matter what, no one can ever take away from you, the one thing that you truly possess.
Every day is Independence Day.
Happy Birthday!
Submitted July 04, 2022 at 06:50PM by -AeonicFire- https://ift.tt/oYOKxkc
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