There are quite a few Zen teachers in the world, talking about Zen, talking about Tao. Do you think they are self-deceived, or not self-deceived? Do you think they are deceiving others, or not deceiving others? It is imperative to discern minutely.
Foyan
Do not be someone who finally cuts off the seed of enlightenment. If you do not discern the ultimate within yourself, whatever you do will be artificial.
Foyan
Those who claim to be Zennists must trust in what people who know say before they will attain it. If you do not believe, you make all talk useless. If you just listen without believing to the talks of people who know, how can you be called Zennists?
Real Zennists understand it all when the grass bends in the breeze, when dust rises in the wind; they discern immediately before any signals have occurred, before falling into trains of thought, before anything stirs. Only then can one be called a Zennist.
Why? This thing is used against birth and death, so you have to be someone who’s not far off in order to get it.
Foyan
Zen students today are totally unaware of truth. They are like foraging goats that pick up whatever they bump into. They do not distinguish between the servant and the master, or between the guest and the host. People like this enter Zen with distorted minds and are unable to enter effectively into dynamic situations. They may be cailed true initiates, but actually they are really mundane people.
Those who really leave attachments must master real, true perception to distinguish the enlightened from the obsessed, the genuine from the artificial, the unregenerate from the sage.
If you can make these discernments, you can be said to have really left dependency.
Professional Buddhist clergy who cannot tell obsession from enlightenment have just left one social group and entered another social group. They cannot really be said to be independent.
Now there is an obsession with Buddhism that is mixed in with the real thing. Those with clear eyes cut through both obsession and Buddhism. If you love the sacred and despise the ordinary, you are still bobbing in the ocean of delusion.
Linji
Zen teachers need first to distinguish false and true, then they must clearly understand the time.
Fayan
“If you really have not yet attained, for now follow principle to gain discernment.”
Yunmen
"When ordinary and sacred feelings are forgotten, Being is revealed, real and eternal. Just detach from arbitrary involvements, and you awaken to Being as it is."
Although these are the leavings of an ancient Zen master, there are many people who cannot partake of them. I've lost considerable profit just by bringing them up.
Can anyone discern? If you can, you will recognize the disease of "Buddhism" and the disease of "Zen."
Huanglong
When you are empty and spontaneously aware, clean and spontaneously clear, you are capable of panoramic consciousness without making an effort to grasp perception, and you are capable of discerning understanding without the burden of conditioned thought. You go beyond being and nothingness, and transcend conceivable feelings. This is only experienced by union with it—it is not gotten from another.
Hongzhi
In ancient times Vasubandhu asked Asanga, “Elder brother, when you went to the inner palace, what teaching did Maitreya expound to you?” Asanga replied, “He expounded this teaching.” Now tell me, what teaching is this? You must be able to discern it before you can realize it.
Don’t fix recognition on this. Many people have been fooled by the term this. That is why they speak of illness as if it were medicine. Therefore we say they are pitiful.
Foyan
Just discern the things perceived; you cannot see the mind itself.
An ancient said, “The knife does not cut itself, the finger does not touch itself, the mind does not know itself, the eye does not see itself.” This is true reality.
Foyan
When you had not come here, I had not seen you and you had not seen me. If you do not see me and I do not see you, how can there be discernment and clarification? If you can attain clarification, what else is the matter?
Before Buddha appeared in the world, it was thus; after Buddha appeared in the world it was also thus, and after Buddha passed away it was still thus. If you arrive at this state of thusness, there is really nothing the matter at all.
Foyan
Association with good companions is a serious recommendation of the ancient sages. Students today should follow the words of the Buddhas and Patriarchs by finding a teacher to attain discernment. Otherwise, how can you call yourselves students?
Foyan
About this lecturing and listening right now—is there actually lecturing and listening, or is there no lecturing and listening? If you say you are standing there while I am sitting here, I am lecturing and you are listening, any villager can say such things— how can you call yourselves students? If you say there is no lecturing and no listening, still he made the statement “from birth to death, it’s just this person.”
Therefore, when you get to this point, you need to find a realized individual to discern precisely.
Before I had understood, I was totally helpless, so I asked of my teacher. As soon as I’d ask a question, my teacher would just say, “I don’t understand. I don’t know. I’m not as good as you.” I also asked if Zen is ultimately easy to learn or hard to learn. He just told me, “You’re alright; why are you asking about difficulty and ease? Learning Zen is called a gold and dung phenomenon. Before you understand it, it’s like gold; when understood, it’s like dung.” I didn’t accept this at the time, but now that I’ve thought it over, although the words are coarse the message in them is not shallow.
Foyan
People nowadays talk about certain discernment, but how do you discern with certainty? It is not a matter of declaring, “This is an initiatory saying, this is a saying for beginners, that is a saying for old-timers.” It’s not like this at all. As a matter of fact, letting go all at once is precisely how to discern with certainty— there will be no different focus at any time.
Foyan
Now if you have not managed to understand clearly, it is because your enlightenment is not true; like someone ignorant of medicine claiming to be a doctor, you cannot discern when people understand, and you cannot tell whep they do not understand— you cannot discern at all whether or not they have any insight. Then how can you help people? How can you teach people? You must examine reality through and through before you can.
Foyan
I see through everyone. If I’ve seen people, I know whether or not they have any enlightenment or any understanding, just as an expert physician recognizes ailments at a glance, discerning the nature of the illness and whether or not it can be remedied. Once who knows all this only after a detailed inquiry into symptoms is a mediocre physician.
Foyan
My discourse on dharma is different from that of every other man on earth. Supposing Mañjuśrī and Samantabhadra were to appear before me, manifesting their respective bodily forms for the purpose of questioning me about dharma. The moment they said, ‘Venerable Priest, what...’ I would have discerned them through and through. And if a follower of the Way comes for an interview as I sit quietly here, I discern him through and through. Why is this so? Just because my way of viewing things is different; outside, I make no distinction between the secular and the sacred; inside, I do not dwell in the absolute; I see right through, and am free from all doubt.
Linji
A monk asked an old woman, "What is the way to Taisan?"
The old woman said, "Go straight on."
When the monk had proceeded a few steps, she said, "A good, respectable monk, but he too goes that way."
Afterward someone told Jõshû about this.
Jõshû said, "Wait a bit, I will go and investigate the old woman for you."
The next day he went and asked the same question, and the old woman gave the same answer.
On returning, Jõshû said to his disciples, "I have investigated the old woman of Taisan for you."
Mumon's Comment
The old woman only knew how to sit still in her tent and plan the campaign; she did not know when she was shadowed by a spy.
Though old Jõshû showed himself clever enough to take a camp and overwhelm a fortress, he displayed no trace of being a great commander.
If we look at them, they both have their faults.
But tell me, what did Jõshû see in the old woman?
Mumon's Verse
The question was like the others,
The answer was the same.
Sand in the rice,
Thorns in the mud.
Mumonkan Case 31
As for me, whoever comes here, whether monk or layman, I discern him through and through. Regardless of where he comes from, his words and phrases are all just dreams and illusions. On the other hand, it’s obvious that one in control of every circumstance [embodies] the mysterious principle of all the buddhas. The state of buddhahood does not of itself proclaim, ‘I am the state of buddhahood!’ Rather, this very man of the Way, dependent upon nothing, comes forth in control of every circumstance.
If someone comes and asks about seeking buddha, I immediately appear in conformity with the state of purity; if someone asks about bodhisattvahood, I immediately appear in conformity with the state of compassion; if someone asks me about bodhi, I immediately appear in conformity with the state of pure mystery; if someone asks me about nirvana, I immediately appear in conformity with the state of serene stillness. Though there be ten thousand different states, the person does not differ.
Linji
To expound the vehicle to the source and bring out the great teaching, it is necessary to attain thorough clarity of the objective eye; only then can you perceive the distinction between the initiate and the naive. Because reality and falsehood have the same source it's hard to tell them apart, like water and milk in the same vessel. I always use the eye in my heart to observe external appearances. I keep observing until I discern the true from the false. How could anyone who doesn't do this be called a teacher?
Dongshan
Submitted August 21, 2016 at 11:24PM by tostono http://ift.tt/2b7X4B3
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