The Disease of an Intellectual Understanding of Zen

If you’re unable to arouse the Doubt when practicing Zen, you may end up speculating with your karmic consciousness over the koans of old, sloppily scratching the surface. Then you declare it to be the whole truth, or at least half, as absolute, as relative, this as lord and that as vassal, unity attained[兼帶], clear and simple words, and so on, all the while praising yourself for your superior understanding. Even if you could interpret and explain away each and every one, spewing out the words of old as your own, this too is simply your wavering mind; it is not Zen.

You don’t realize that you’re merely taking the words and phrases of old and chewing them like balled-up cotton thread, unable to either swallow them or spit them out. How can such things create paths of liberation for others? How can they lead others to genuine insight? On the other hand, if you arouse this Doubt and throw yourself into it, then without waiting until the end of your life, karmic consciousness will cease of its own accord and entangling interpretations will naturally be put to rest.

-Wuyi Yuanlai

Planetbyter^Wiki

Note: Nothing more to add. Wash your bowls, friends.

Submitted January 28, 2018 at 03:26AM by planetbyter http://ift.tt/2DK9oVr