One thing has become very clear about this forum. Most people just don’t want to talk about the books of instruction Zen Masters wrote. And I’m not even talking about the trolls who are here for attention and not to study Zen. I’m talking about the people who, from my perspective, are trying to engage this tradition.
So what’s the problem?
On the one hand, we have the people who don’t yet trust that they are fundamentally complete in every respect and need a Zen Master to constantly remind them that they are. All of you can skip the case talk, but I did make you a video so you won’t feel left out.
Then we have this other type, whose conversations capacities extend only as far as correcting someone else will get you. No matter if you think they are good students or not, the fact is, they won’t talk for anything other than to teach someone else. The know how to push down. Do they know how to lift up?
So today’s case is the 28th case from the Book of Serenity starts with this introduction from Wansong,
One who doesn’t wear even an inch of thread is truly a naked heretic; one who doesn’t chew even a grain of rice surely returns to the burnt-faces ghost king. Even being born in a holy situation, you still don’t escape the dangerous fall of the pole-top. Is there anywhere to hide disgrace?
What do you consider holy? Is it meditative states? Keeping the precepts? Shying away from your brain’s capacities because it’s easier to never learn how to use them?
A monk asked Huguo, "How is it when a crane stands on a withered pine?" Hugo said, "An embarrassment on the ground below." The monk asked, "How is it when a drop of water's a drop of ice?" Hugo said, "An embarrassment after the sun comes out." The monk asked, "At the time of the purge (of Buddhist establishments) in the 840s, where did the good spirits who guard the Teaching go?" Huguo said, "An embarrassment for the two of them at the temple gate."
Whatever it is that gets you to the top of the pole-top, there’s no way of staying there, and from the ground, it looks really embarrassing.
Forcing yourself to keep in mind that you are complete and that mind is buddha is not the instruction of the Zen Masters. Come to the ground, there’s poetry here,
The mature man, dignified and imposing, his temples are not yet grey:
The youth, if he doesn’t bestir himself, won’t be eneoffed.
I think back to the inheritors of a pure family tradition,
And to not watering the ox in the stream where ears were washed.
Let’s not pretend anyone here understands what any of those words mean without reading Wansong’s commentary.
I’m looking for someone to prove me wrong. Prove me wrong.
That, or bring out Wansong’s commentary, either way we can talk a bit.
Submitted August 06, 2022 at 07:09AM by astroemi https://ift.tt/L1D298O
No comments:
Post a Comment