Dahui's Shobogenzo sums up most of the /r/zen discussion in a few paragraphs

From the second "chapter":

Haven’t you read the saying, “Set aside views, set aside 
formulas —don’t let anything outside in, don’t let anything inside out”? 
Cut off both, and you will be spontaneously illumined, not being a partner to
anything at all. This is absorption in noncontention.
If you want to attain understanding easily, just clarify the
fundamental. When you couldn’t leave it even if you wanted to, then
you should turn around and bite through in one snap; afterward,
don’t pursue that which goes and stays—far or near, just go and be
naturally unveiled.
Don’t keep on thinking about it dully; as soon as you esteem
something, it becomes a nest. This is what the ancients called
clothing sticking to the body, an affliction most difficult to cure.
When I was traveling in the past, I called on the adepts in one or
two places. They just taught sustained concentration day and night,
sitting until you get calluses on your behind. Mouths drooling, from
the outset they go to the pitch-black darkness inside the belly of the
primordial Buddha and say, “I am sitting in meditation to preserve it.”
At such a time, there is still craving there.
Haven’t you read the saying that Shakyamuni Buddha was so
because he depended on nothing and craved nothing? An ancient
said, “Put poison in milk, and even ghee can kill.”

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First we have "don't let anything outside in, don't let anything inside out. Cut off both, and you will be spontaneously illumined.

Reminds me a lot of Zhaozhou's "Have nothing inside, seek nothing outside"

Already, this is all encompassing, but Dahui doesn't stop there.

"When you couldn’t leave it even if you wanted to, 
then you should turn around and bite through in one snap"

What a whammy! When you couldn't leave it even if you wanted to - the strongest attachment! Then you turn around and bite through in one snap. Sever even what you treasure the most. What is it for you? Your relationship with your spouse? Your children? Your church? Your Faith? Your god? Your job? Your car?

Your enlightenment?

What if Zen is the most important?

Don’t keep on thinking about it dully; as soon as you esteem something, it becomes a nest.

A nest - a cliché, something to hold on to. See how nobody seems to esteem anybody in the Zen stories? You can see from this that that's just good manners.

When I was traveling in the past, I called on the adepts in one or
two places. They just taught sustained concentration day and night,
sitting until you get calluses on your behind. Mouths drooling, from
the outset they go to the pitch-black darkness inside the belly of the
primordial Buddha and say, “I am sitting in meditation to preserve it.”
At such a time, there is still craving there.
Haven’t you read the saying that Shakyamuni Buddha was so
because he depended on nothing and craved nothing? An ancient
said, “Put poison in milk, and even ghee can kill.”

Quoting the whole last bit. And that's it for the Buddhisms I guess. Boom. Slam dunk! "Sitting in meditation to preserve it"! Bah! Spiritual materialism. Cultivation of self. Nothing could ever make you more dependant than that.

Submitted May 01, 2023 at 05:38PM by dota2nub https://ift.tt/qUrhKzv