Bodhidharma was quite clear.

To find a Buddha all you have to do is see your nature. Your nature is the Buddha. And the Buddha is the person who’s free: free of plans, free of cares. If you don’t see your nature and run around all day looking somewhere else, you’ll never find a buddha. The truth is there’s nothing to find. But to reach such an understanding you need a teacher and you need to struggle to make yourself understand. Life and death are important. Don’t suffer them in vain.

There’s no advantage in deceiving yourself. Even if you have mountains of jewels and as many servants as there are grains of sand along the Ganges, you see them when your eyes are open. But what about when your eyes are shut? You should realize then that everything you see is like a dream or illusion.

If you don’t find a teacher soon, you’ll live this life in vain. It’s true, you have the buddha-nature. But (without) the help of a teacher you’ll never know it. Only one person in a million becomes enlightened without a teacher’s help. If, though, by the conjunction of conditions, someone understands what the Buddha meant, that person doesn’t need a teacher. Such a person has a natural awareness superior to anything taught. But unless you’re so blessed, study hard, and by means of instruction you’ll understand.

Most people attribute the start of the Lanka/Chan school in China to Bodhidharma. Yet, many on /r/Zen who profess an interest in Zen and wax lyrical about quotes make endless excuses for ignoring the direct and clear words of the one attributed to be the first Chinese Chan patriarch, and likewise utterly ignore the path of all of those they quote, namely, they all sought out wise teachers and trained with great dilligence.

There is not one exception to this that I know of, and if you are honest with yourself and you look high and low, you are unlikely at best to find a single 'Zen Master' who did not train under a wise teacher and train with great diligence.

Mumon spent six years on one K'ung An, I spent a longer period perhaps (although I honestly don't remember how long it was). While sometimes frustrated at my own lack of progress, I was not disheartened by this and continued.

If you wish to, as Bodhidharma says, waste your life in vain squabbling over quotes you don't understand in the first place, it's your life and if that's the choice you make to live with it, you can. If you wish to get serious about understanding and gaining direct experiential understanding....the advice given over and over again is to go and train under the guidance of a wise teacher.

It isn't easy, and can be surprisingly difficult even if you prepare yourself well, but if you're truly interested...all you have ever had to do is go and see for yourself.

Submitted November 16, 2018 at 11:18AM by TheSolarian https://ift.tt/2PXVZya