Hesci, Zennists, likepvs cē. Your chebon here, ZoB 👋
We’ve got another long boi on deck, but we also don’t really broach much in the way of new ideas, so I tried to keep my notes to a minimum. After you!
Instant Zen #8, Stop Opinions: 🔗
“The Third Patriarch of Zen said, "Don't seek reality, just put a stop to opinions." He also said, "As soon as there are judgments of right and wrong, the mind is lost in a flurry." These sayings teach you people of today what to work on . . .”
These are quotes from the poem Xinxin Ming by Sengcan. This was one of Zhaozhou's favorite pieces, and he quoted it often. The Chinese character "心" is what is always translated as "mind" for us, but the original idea is a bit more nuanced. Like the ancient Egyptians, the Chinese held the idea for some time that intellection occurred in the heart and not the brain. This is why they took the brain out in pieces in mummies but kept the heart intact, and the Chinese character for "mind" is supposed to look like a heart but was minimalized in style over time. So you'll sometimes see it as "heart-mind", but the poem's title is usually translated to something like “Faith in Mind”.
“. . . When you read his saying, "Don't seek reality," you say there is no further need to seek—this means you are still entertaining opinions and are in a flurry of judgments; after all you have not reached a state of mind where there is no seeking, and are just making up an opinionated interpretation . . .”
We’ve gone over “secondary views” and “ordinary mind”, which is what is being broached here again. Truly, these are what the entirety of the Xinxin Ming is about. But is that what all of Zen is supposed to be about?
“. . . People who study Zen nowadays are all like this; reading a transformative saying and reaching an insight into the words, they then try to apply it to all sayings, thinking they are all the same. Keeping this in their hearts, they think of it as their own attainment; far from realizing they have lost their minds by entertaining an opinionated understanding, they cling to it and will not let go. What ignoramuses! . . .”
It’s not as simple as every single teaching meaning the same thing. That would be nice and easy, but maybe not much fun or realistic.
“. . . Would you like to attain a state of mind where you seek nothing? Just do not conceive all sorts of opinions and views. This nonseeking does not mean blanking out and ignoring everything. In everyday life, twenty-four hours a day, when there is unclarity in the immediate situation it is generally because the opinionated mind is grasping and rejecting. How can you get to know the nondiscriminatory mind then?
Thus when an ancient sage was asked if the created and the uncreated are different, he said they are not. Sky and earth, rivers and seas, wind and clouds, grasses and trees, birds and beasts, people and things living and dying, changing right before our eyes, are all called created forms. The uncreated way is silent and unmoving; the indescribable and unnameable is called uncreated. How can there be no difference? . . .”
On the Transmission of Mind (Huangbo) #31: 🔗
You people go on misunderstanding; you hold to concepts such as 'ordinary' and 'Enlightened', directing your thoughts outwards where they gallop about like horses! All this amounts to beclouding your own minds! So I tell you Mind is the Buddha. As soon as thought or sensation arises, you fall into dualism. Beginningless time and the present moment are the same. There is no this and no that. To understand this truth is called compete and unexcelled Enlightenment.
Ultimately, “ordinary mind” and “enlightenment” can become lofty ideals that we must also cast off. Don’t seek reality.
“. . . Grand Master Yongjia said, "The true nature of ignorance is the very nature of enlightenment; the empty body of illusions and projections is the very body of realities." These two are each distinct; how do you understand the logic of identity? You have to experience the mind without seeking; then they will integrate and you will get to be trouble-free.
In the ten stages of enlightenment, the fifth is the stage Difficult to Conquer, which means that it is extremely difficult to attain equality of real knowledge and conventional knowledge; when you enter this stage, the two are equal, so it is called the stage that is difficult to conquer. Students of the path should take them in and make them equal twenty-four hours a day . . .”
This is talking about the fifth of the ten bhūmis?oldformat=true) from the Daśabhūmika Sūtra called sudurjayā, in which bodhisattvas “become all the more mindful, by not forgetting the nature of things; they become wise, by certain knowledge; they become wayfarers, by realizing the hidden meanings intended by the scriptures; they become conscientious because of protecting self and others . . .”
“. . . And do you know they are drawn up by your nondiscriminatory mind? Like an artist drawing all sorts of pictures, both pretty and ugly, the mind depicts forms, feelings, perceptions, abstract patterns, and consciousnesses; it depicts human societies and paradises. When it is drawing these pictures, it does not borrow the power of another; there is no discrimination between the artist and the artwork. It is because of not realizing this that you conceive various opinions, having views of yourself and views of other people, creating your own fair and foul . . .”
I love that last bit because as an artist myself I have a personal hatred of the whole “separate the art from the artist” idea. You can’t separate the art and the artist, the sky and the earth, the rivers and the seas, and saying you can is creating a personal opinion at best, and being dishonest at worst.
“. . . So it is said, "An artist draws a picture of hell, with countless sorts of hideous forms. On setting aside the brush to look it over, it's bone-chilling, really hair-raising." But if you know it's a drawing, what is there to fear?
In olden times, when people had clearly realized this, it became evident in all situations. Once when the great teacher Xuansha was cutting down a tree, a tiger bounded out of the woods. The teacher's companion said, "It's a tiger!" The teacher scolded him and said, "It's a tiger for you."
Another time, when he saw a seeker performing prostrations, Xuansha said, "It is because of the self that one can bow to the other." These expedients are in profound accord with the intent of Buddha . . ."
Foyan likes Xuansha a lot, and enough to quote “it’s a tiger for you” again later in #23, Naked Realization. I’ll save that discussion for then since it’s probably tied with The Director as the most famous Foyan lecture and is a personal favorite.
“. . . The great teacher Fayan once pointed to a dog right in front of him and said, "An engraving." When you look at this, do not look to the dog itself for clarification; you must see it in your own experience before you can get it . . .”
This idea was touched on in #1, but to reiterate, Fayan is saying that what we experience of the dog is like a lithograph or a carving. The painting of hell might be scary, but it isn’t “hell”, it’s a depiction or projection. One’s senses extrapolate an abstraction of the original, and what the dog truly is escapes us in the depths of its seemingly infinite reality and is thus unknowable. All of existence is this way.
“. . . Only then will you understand that saying, "As soon as there are judgments of right and wrong, you lose your mind in a flurry." I hope you get the point!”
Summary:
- “Don’t seek reality” doesn’t mean “don’t try”, it means “don’t get by on your opinions”.
- Zen doesn’t have a singular atomistic teaching but is diverse.
- The heart of enlightenment is that things are unknowable.
Suggested discussions:
- Why is it supposed to be “extremely difficult to attain equality of real knowledge and conventional knowledge”?
- What does "it is because of the self that one can bow to the other" mean?
- If you seek, what do you think is to gain?
Hvtum cehecarēs 🙏
Submitted August 07, 2022 at 05:12AM by ZenOfBass https://ift.tt/EyFJOL6
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