This is super obvious, each Zen Master has a method.
Case 170 of Entangling Vines, Buddha’s Teaching, Bodhidharma’s Intention:
An ancient worthy said, “Buddha’s teaching is expressed through reason; Bodhidharma’s intention is expressed through devices.”
The note provided in the case reads: Present-day students who prefer teaching through principle tend to demean teaching through devices, and those who prefer teaching through devices tend to demean teaching through principle. Neither type of student understands the methods of the founding masters. If you say that teaching through devices is the superior method, would you then say that all of the masters prior to Mazu and Baizhang lacked the Zen eye? If you say that teaching through principle is superior, would you say that Linji and Deshan did not know the true meaning of Zen?… A koan is simply an upāya; if one imposes interpretations upon the different expressions of this upāya, one obscures what the masters are truly attempting to convey. A completely liberated person can take gold and transform it to dirt, and can take dirt and transform it to gold. When such people hold something in their hands, how can you possibly know whether it is dirt or gold? It is no different with the teachings. When a clear-eyed master expresses a teaching, it is impossible to define it either as “teaching through principle” or “teaching through devices.”
Zazen is a device, as is a shout, etc. Zazen is the most obvious entrance into non-duality, as it's represented in many koans, symbolized through Bodhidharma, and is the device used by the Buddha when he attained his non-dual awareness under the Bodhi Tree.
From the Axiom Mirror:
頓悟自性 發三心起四廣修萬行
佛法本根源 衆生心裏出。
先師云、一念齊修八萬行。
Suddenly awakening to one's own nature, one produces the three kinds of mind, gives rise to the four boundless states of mind, 94 and cultivates a myriad practices. The original source of the Buddhadharma comes forth from within the mind of sentient beings. An ancient master said: “In one moment of thought one cultivates myriad practices equally. ”
The 94 note on the above quote is from the translator A. Charles Muller who remarks: " I take 四廣 as 四無量心."
四廣 means "Four Vast, Four Wide, Four Broad, Four Extensive".
Don't forget Bodhidharma taught the Four Practices.
四無量心 means "Four Measureless/Immeasurable + 心 (which is 'heart; mind, intelligence; soul').
This is referring to the Four Arupajhanas, formless meditations on infinite space (which is the space element). Having cultivated Kensho and turned the light of awareness around, having cultivated the four wisdoms and thus gaining the brightness of the three bodies (pure emptiness).
This can be seen through any of Dogen's writings, such as the Vast Perfect Knowing where Dogen says perfect Knowing is to be like Vast Open Space as Space is Perfect Knowing.
Dogen says we're inherently enlightened, but fall into believing deluded views and are unaware of it, so hence, we need a device to cultivate our true nature, to realize our Buddha Nature (to obtain the 'Bright Pearl' as Dogen calls it, which is otherwise known as the Mani Jewel which represents the Space element.)
From the Axiom Mirror of the Three Teachings by Hyujeong:
Thoughts not arising is called “sitting.” One's nature remaining motionless is called “chan.” Seeing objects and not giving rise to though is called “nonproduction.” Nonproduction is called “no-thought.” No-thought is called “liberation.”
This is the same sentiment Dogen has:
If we are not the sort of fool that "despises what is near", we ought to have the strength, we ought to have the "thinking", to question sitting "fixedly".
"The master answered, 'Nonthinking'." Although the employment of "nonthinking" is "crystal clear", when we "think of not thinking", we always use "nonthinking". There is someone in "nonthinking", and this someone maintains us. Although it is we who are sitting "fixedly", [our sitting] is not merely "thinking": it presents itself as sitting "fixedly". Although sitting "fixedly" is sitting "fixedly", how could it "think" of sitting "fixedly"? Therefore, sitting "fixedly" is not the "measure of the buddha", not the measure of the dharma, not the measure of awakening, not the measure of comprehension.
Now, as I mentioned at the beginning the four immeasurables,
Therefore, sitting "fixedly" is not the "measure of the buddha", not the measure of the dharma, not the measure of awakening, not the measure of comprehension.
Dogen in Makahannayaharamitus: Vast Perfect Knowing:
The moment of Avalokitesvara's practice of vast and perfect knowing is the clear seeing with the whole body that the five aggregates are all empty. Existence is the forming of the five aggregates of form, basic reactivity, symbolization, habitual patterning, and consciousness. These are five aspects of perfect knowing because clearly seeing these is perfect knowing.
If you understand this, then you can understand the teaching that "form is emptiness, emptiness is only form" Form is form. Emptiness is emptiness. It is the hundred grasses, it is all forms.
As taught by Hyujeong: "兀然無事坐、春來草自靑。 Oblivious, sitting without concern, when spring comes, the grass turns green by itself." * (“The grass turns green by itself,” is an example for the experience wherein when one becomes enlightened, everyone around appears to be a Buddha. See Fozu lidai tongzai 佛祖歷代通載 , T 2036.49.606c8: 兀然無事坐。春來草自靑)
Dogen claimed to have Rujing's teaching, as his teaching is this.
In Vast Perfect Knowing Dogen writes:
My late Master Rujing once said:
"The whole body is a mouth, hung in space.
It doesn't matter from where the wind blows
-- north, south, east, west --
the windbell always speaks of perfect knowing:
-- rin! rin! rin!"
This is the sound of perfect knowing in the Transmission of the Lineage of Awakened Ones and Ancestors. It is the knowing of the whole body, the whole knowing of other, the whole knowing of self, the whole knowing of north, south, east, west. [...]
"It is because all of the ten wholesome activities, the four concentrations, the four formless harmonizations and the five powers of the shining beings all arise from perfect knowing."
Four concentrations would be meditations on form (rupajhanas; on the four elements). The harmonizations would be the Four Wisdoms.
As Zen Master Hakuin wrote in his song: "Wide is the heaven of boundless Samadhi, Radiant the full moon of the fourfold wisdom."
The perfection of the fourfold wisdom:
The four wisdoms are the fruit of Buddhahood and through them manifests fully the Buddha’s action. As the great Mirror which illumines all, there is nowhere he does not reach; seeing all clearly in the light of Sameness, he has no partiality; his spiritual vision is never deceived; and then out of his great compassion he brings to perfection all the candidates to perfection The manifestation of the three bodies of the Buddha is the application of the fourfold wisdom. The dharma body has to do with truth; the bliss- body, with wisdom; and the body of manifestation, with action. The Five States of the Soto sect, the Four of the Rinzai, are also only the practical application of the fourfold wisdom.
The Soto Sect Five States are mapped on the Five Wheels which show Vairocana in the center of the Four Buddhas representing the Four Wisdoms.
Vairocana is given the attribute of the Samadhi Wisdom in the Five Wheels (which Vairocana represents Emptiness, as per Case 74 of the Blue Cliff Record).
In the Ocean Seal Samadhi, Dogen wrote:
Though it is "not in east, west, north or south," it is "I come home with a fully empty boat, laden with moonlight." This true return is "immediately coming back home." Who could call it the conduct of "getting drenched"? It is realized only within the limits of the way of the buddha. We take this as the seal of "sealing water." Going further, we say it is the seal of "sealing sky"; or further, we say it is the seal of "sealing mud." The seal of sealing water is not necessarily the seal of sealing the ocean. Going further beyond this, there should be the seal of sealing the ocean. This is called the "ocean seal," the "water seal," the "mud seal," the "mind seal." Singly transmitting the mind seal, we seal water, seal mud, seal sky.
...
Anyways, it's plain as day for anyone who glances at Dogen's writing that he doesn't take Zazen as sitting and making oneself dull and stupid.
Discuss.
Submitted July 27, 2017 at 09:45PM by Dillon123 http://ift.tt/2uC52ta
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