The Impression Remains

After months of bumming around, and years of working online because of the pandemic (which is still ongoing), I finally returned to México City. I found myself a nice, cushy job in order to save money for my future venture into the north of the continent.

If you can believe it, my job heavily relies on writing in English and on having empathy. I’m still getting used to the fixed work hours and the hour and change it takes me to get there in the morning and back home in the afternoon. In those trips on the public transport system, I’ve been reading the 29th case from the Book of Serenity,

When Fengxue was staying at the government headquarters of Ying province, he said in an address, "The mind seal of the Patriarchs is like the workings of the Iron Ox; when it's removed, the impression remains; when it's left there, the impression is ruined. Just suppose it's neither removed nor left--is sealing right or is not sealing right?"

At that point a certain elder Lupi came forth and asked, "I have the working of the Iron Ox; I request the master not to impress the seal."

Fengxue said, "Used to fishing whales, scouring the ocean, instead I regret to find a frog crawling in the mud."

Lupi stood there thinking. Fengxue shouted and said, "Elder, why don't you speak further?"

Lupi hesitated. Fengxue hit him with the whisk and said, "Do you still remember the words? try to quote them."¹

As Lupi tried to open his mouth, Fengxue hit him again with the whisk. The governor said, "The buddhist law and the law of kings are the same."

Fengxue said, "What have you seen?"

The governor said, "When you do not settle what is to be settled, instead you bring about disorder there." Fengxue then got down from the seat.²

¹ Wansong interrupting: "When you help someone, do so thoroughly; when you kill someone, be sure to see blood."

² Wansong interrupting: "When you’re fully satisfied, that’s a good time to stop.

It made me think of two things. First, how does it look for the impression to remain? Or, a more grounded way of saying it would be, I’ve been publicly studying Zen with all of you for almost three years now. What do I have to show for it? Can you discern?

Let’s try it the other way around as well. What is your practice like? What makes you a student of Zen aside from the fact that it says Zen on the top there of this website? What do Zen Masters say about it? When you help someone, do you do so thoroughly? When you kill someone do you make sure to see blood?

Second, what sort of disaster is there? This has been a challenging week, since I've had to solve a lot of problems I've never had to solve before. That meant it was also a fun week. And a tiring week. What is there to settle there? From what I've seen in this forum, it seems to me instead of talking like ordinary people, a lot of people want to try to prove they understand Zen. People have even told me they see a lot of what goes on in this forum as a sort of popularity contest, where people try to say stuff that will get them likes and appreciation. I hope I don't have to explain to anyone why that is a complete waste of time for any student of Zen that comes in here looking for conversation.

I think we should take the governor's words and extrapolate some advice: Settle what is to be settled, otherwise every time you come here it'll bring about disaster. It's not really new advice, I think it just comes down to being honest.

Submitted August 14, 2022 at 11:06PM by astroemi https://ift.tt/ye6ZIdR