Mazu:
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"...(you should also) not rely on either of the two extremes of purity and defilement."
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淨穢兩邊、俱不依。
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How do you relate, in the Zen discussion, on the idea of 'purity' compared to being 'defiled'?
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In most world religions, they focus on various methods, rituals, systems, and practices to increase 'purity' or cleanliness, and decrease 'defilement', or dirt, the supposed 'stains' on the mind or soul.
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We know that Shen Hsiu, of the Northern school, in his famous poem opposite Hui Neng's poem , made focus the idea of always 'cleaning away' the 'defilements' or 'dust' so that the mirror of mind could become and stay ever 'pure'.
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To forever engage in that laborious practice, endlessly.
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Haungbo was asked why Shen Hsiu did not receive the Robe and Bowl to become the 6th Patriarch. His answer was:
"Because he still indulged in conceptual thought--in a dharma of activity. To him, 'as you practice, so shall you attain' was a reality."
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"A dharma of activity"....Shen Hsiu thought there was something to do.
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To move from 'dirty' to 'clean'. 'Defiled' to 'Pure'. 'Unenlightened' to 'Enlightened'. 'Sentient being' to 'Buddha'.
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He could not get rid of his conceptual idea of duality that way. He relied on and became addicted to staying in 'cleanliness/purity'. Understand?
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Alright! Now to Mazu!
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R-r-r-r-Round 5 time!
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A. 淨
- pure; clean; unspoilt
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This one is very straight forward.
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B. 穢
- dirty; filthy; unclean
- immoral; obscene
- (dialectal Hakka, Malaysian Mandarin) disgusting; revolting
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Also very straight forward.
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C. 兩
- two
- some, few
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This is very basic, but it does potentially have some interesting etymology:
Borrowing from Tai-Kadai; compare Proto-Tai *rawᴬ (“we”) > Thai เรา (rao, “we”), Zhuang raeuz (“we (inclusive)”); Proto-Kam-Sui *hra¹ (“two”) > Southern Kam yac (“two”), Sui xgaz (“two”).
Or
Cognate with Tibetan སྲང (srang, “balance; scale; weight; unit of weight”).
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D. 邊
- edge; border; side
- border; boundary
- (geometry) side
- side (of a family)
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Now...this is where it gets interesting. Purity and Defilement, Two. And yet...how do they relate to each other?
They share a border, an edge. Two sides of the same coin. Of the same family.
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.E 俱
- all; together
- to accompany
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All of it.
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F. 不
- not
- No
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...We know remember this one well, don't we? Just an ancient 'negation'.
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G. 依
- to lean on
- to rely on; to depend on 3 to obey
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Powerful, isn't it?
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"Dirty" is Delusion. "Clean" is Delusion.
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Wanting to get 'Clean' while thinking you are 'Dirty'? Boy, you better believe That is the same Delusion.
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But wait! How does one get beyond Delusion!? Oh Noes!
I don't want to be in Delusion anymore! I want to be Enlightened!
...Yep, you guessed it. That is also equally the same Delusion.
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Cults want more than anything to give you something to do.
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"You are dirty/sinful/deluded, do exactly what we tell you, and you *might one day get clean.""
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These cults try to hijack Zen and make it about their 'purification addictions'. They hate themselves and they want you to hate yourself too.
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Most of them do mean well. They do!
They want to 'help' you in the same way they wanted to 'help' themselves...by going deeper and deeper and round and round the Merry-Go-Round of OCD-like 'rituals of 'purification' they adopted from whichever cult they hail from.
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That is why in Zen we ask "What do they teach where you come from?"
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So, when a door-to-door Con-man tries to sell you a "You are dirty and must get clean" style of dogma...what does Mazu say you should do?
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"Don't Obey/Rely!"
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Bankei: "As long as you deliberately try to stop your rising thoughts, the thought of trying to stop them wars against the continually arising thoughts themselves, and there's never an end to it. To give you an example, it would be like washing away blood with blood. Of course, you might get out the original blood; but the blood after that would stick, and the red never go away."
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https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%B7%A8 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%A9%A2 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%85%A9 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%82%8A https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E4%BF%B1 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E4%B8%8D https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E4%BE%9D https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/Poceski-Mazu.pdf (P. 247)
Submitted November 15, 2018 at 05:53PM by Pikkko https://ift.tt/2QKecwa
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