tdlr: A friend asks you about your interest in Zen and what Zen is all about, what do you answer?
I think we all get into the situation from time to time to explain Zen to someone who has never heard of it and wants to know what it's about. Just saying "read the Wumenguan" isn't really a good answer, it's just a way to avoid the conversation, right? Don't talk to me, ask Wumen instead. Maybe that's fine, but Dongshan says we should be capable of a bit of conversation, I think.
Zhaozhou was also faced by this question:
Another day a monk bowed.
Joshu said, "Ask well, ask well."
The monk asked, "What is Zen?"
Joshu said, "Today it is cloudy, so I will not answer."
But the context is very different. It's an "inside the monks hall" question, brought forward by a monk who is already studying Zen. So in our outside-the-gates context, answering with just a cryptic "Zen" reply has the same problem as pointing to a book, in my opinion. It's not really a conversation.
One approach would be to start with the 4 statements and go from there. Maybe that's the best?
How do you go about it? A friend who knows nothing about Zen asks you what it is all about, what do you say?
Submitted August 03, 2022 at 10:01PM by moinmoinyo https://ift.tt/5JgzH9Z
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