Can't Gatekeep What You Already Have

The 467th case from Dahui’s Treasury,

Master Wuzu Yan said to an assembly

The grandee Lu Geng asked Nanquan, "There is a stone in my garden; it has sat up, and has lain flat. I want to sculpt it into a Buddha - can I?" Nanquan said, "You can." Lu said, "Can't I?" Nanquan said, "You can't." To be a teacher, one must clarify choices; why does he say it's possible when someone else says it's possible, and say it's impossible when someone else says it's impossible? Do you know where Nanquan is at? I do not spare my eyebrows to give you an explanatory footnote. Who says it's possible, and who says it's impossible? If you still don't understand, tonight I'll make a similitude for you. (raising his hand) Take the triple world and twenty-eight heavens and make a Buddha's head; with the sphere of metal and region of water make the Buddha's legs; with the four major continents make the Buddha's body. Though you've made this Buddha, you are still living therein. Do you understand yet? I'll make a second similitude. Take the eastern continent to make a Buddha; make the southern continent a Buddha; make the western continent a Buddha; and make the northern continent a Buddha. Plants, trees, and forests are a Buddha; animate creatures are a Buddha. This being so, then what do you call sentient beings? Do you understand yet? Better to return the eastern continent to the eastern continent, return the southern continent to the southern continent, return the western continent to the western continent, return the northern continent to the northern continent, return plants, trees, and forests to plants, trees, and forests, return animate creatures to animate creatures. This is why it is said, "These phenomena abide in the normative state; the features of the world are always there." This being so, then what do you call Buddha? Do you understand? If this fellow suddenly comes forth and says I should stop talking in my sleep, let everyone remember this recital.

I think it is actually pretty funny when people come into this forum with their practices and doctrines and when I tell them Zen doesn't have anything to do with that, they say I'm a gatekeeper. What's there to gatekeep? Look at what Wuzu said, the whole world is Buddha!

Also worth noticing, he mentions the word "Buddha" quite a bit here. But you are not going to find any mention of what Buddhist claim makes Zen a kind of Buddhism. No four noble truths. No eightfold path. No practices. No karma. If that upsets you, maybe Wuzu is too much for you to handle right now.

Submitted May 10, 2023 at 04:41AM by astroemi https://ift.tt/PXlzHon