Zen Authorities (ewk & Wansong) vs Faith-based Authorities ( can't write High School)

Who's the Boss?

I have called Book of Serenity, the Zen instructional text written by Soto Zen Master Wansong, the Modern Zen Bible. Why?

Wansong doesn't tell people he's enlightened in the book... so what makes Wansong an authority?

The answer to this question, and the argument for why I, ewk, am an authority on Zen, lies in definition of authority... and interestingly, it is this definition that is the focus point of denigration of Zen by Buddhists and new agers and Dogenists.

• Authority on Brain Surgery*: Somebody who trained to be a brain surgeryer, did lots of surgerying, and knows more about it than everybody else, and can produce book report evidence until the cows come home.

vs

• Jehovah, Buddha-Jesus, and Internet Guru Experiencers: People who claim supernatural knowledge gives them authority that requires no book report evidence.

Let's Get Physical in the Dharma Seat

Here's how Wansong starts Book of Serenity, which, tbf, reads like a really looong high school book report:

CASE: One day the World Honored One ascended the seat. Manjusri struck the gavel and said, "Clearly observe the Dharma of the King of Dharma; the Dharma of the King of Dharma is thus."

The World Honored One then got down from the seat.

Why is getting down from the dharma THRONE a Case? What's going on?

Dharma Kings, not Troll vs

We all know that trolls can't write high school book reports... but this is part of their larger inability to say what they think. They want attention (they even want attention for being hermits who don't hermits, or ewkfans who can't stay on topic) but this means trolls don't want to talk about any other topic. Trolls want what they say to be the topic.

Trolls want to make the topic "Troll vs" because they can't talk about the text.

Zen Master Buddha gets down from the seat without saying anything in the first Case in BoS, because... why? Is there nothing to say? Or is getting down, itself, the text he wants to discuss?

Church fake to the left

Church people want the authority to be supernatural. They want a designated person who "KNOWS", and everybody else bows down.

Zen Master Buddha leaves an empty Dharma Throne to make the point that he isn't the person who knows.

So when somebody asks who the book report authority is, you know the answer is Wansong or ewk. Right away. No contest.

But when somebody asks "what makes you an authority", the only answer in this forum is book reports and book report questions.

Wansong knows it.

Wansong knows it so hard he ends his first paragraph with a question:

Before you people come to this teaching hall and before I leave my room, when will you attain realization?"

Oh, look... the book report won't save you.

Submitted March 03, 2023 at 07:32AM by ewk https://ift.tt/qAzQa5U