If not practice, then what?

It's easy to see that Zen masters are not fans of methods and practices:

Names cannot be obtained, forms cannot be obtained. Since ancient times, purity has not been contaminated, and completeness does not require cultivation or verification. - Hongzhi

So, if you students of the Way are mistaken about your own real Mind, not recognizing that it is the Buddha, you will consequently look for him elsewhere, indulging in various achievements and practices and expecting to attain realization by such graduated practices. But, even after aeons of diligent searching, you will not be able to attain to the Way. -Huangbo

I always tell you that what is inherent in you is presently active and presently functioning, and need not be sought after, need not be put in order, need not be practiced or proven. All that is required is to trust it once and for all. This saves a lot of energy. - Foyan

So that's settled. It's not about practice. Is there any instruction that Zen Masters actually give then? Let's look to Huangbo and Foyan again:

If they would only eliminate all conceptual thought in a flash, that source-substance would manifest itself like the sun ascending through the void and illuminating the whole universe without hindrance or bounds. - Huangbo

In a flash. That's not practice. That's just doing.

How about Foyan:

All that is required is to trust it once and for all. This saves a lot of energy.

Our recent practice pusher in the forum also tried to argue that practice was related to the Zen concept of saving energy. We can see this is also just silly. Foyan says trust. You don't practice trusting. Once again it's something you either do or don't do.

Foyan also says "step back and look". You don't practice looking. You just look.

This isn't about gradual practice. This is about doing or not doing in a flash.

Bonus Linji:

There are a bunch of blind shavepates who, having stuffed themselves with food, sit down to meditate and practice contemplation. Arresting the flow of thought they don’t let it rise; they hate noise and seek stillness. This is the method of the heretics. A patriarch said, ‘If you stop the mind to look at stillness, arouse the mind to illumine outside, control the mind to clarify inside, concentrate the mind to enter samādhi—all such [practices] as these are artificial striving.’ This very you, the man who right now is thus listening to my discourse, how is he to be cultivated, to be enlightened, to be adorned? He is not one to be cultivated, he is not one to be adorned. But if you let him do the adorning, then everything would be adorned. Don’t be mistaken!

Submitted May 07, 2023 at 07:07PM by koancomentator https://ift.tt/NW28DZY