Mazu's 'Zen is not freezing your mind or controlling your thoughts'

Mazu:

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"Even if you are able to freeze the mind and control your thoughts, that is still not the ultimate (realization)." (Poceski, P. 251)

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縱使凝心斂念作得、亦非究竟。

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Square Eleven-ty First Birthday!

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A. 縱

1. loose; relaxed
2. to shoot an arrow
3. to send out; to deliver; to issue
4. to let go; to set free; to set loose; to give free rein to
5. to indulge
6. to let off; to let slip
7. to jump up; to jump over
8. even if; even though

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B. 使

1. to order to do
2. to send; to dispatch
3. to let; to make; to cause to
4. to use; to employ
5. to play; to play with; to resort to; to dally with
6. to indulge

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C. 凝

1. to coagulate; to congeal; to freeze
2. to focus; to concentrate
3. (Teochew) cold; (of weather) chilly

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D. 心

1. Heart
2. Mind
3. thought; idea
4. intention
5. center; core

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E. 斂

1. to draw back; to fold back
2. to collect
3. 35th tetragram of the Taixuanjing: "gathering" ⇒ 𝌨

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F. 念

1. to miss; to long for; to think of; to recall
2. to consider; to contemplate
3. Alternative form of 廿 (niàn, “twenty”).
4. to worry; to be anxious about
5. to feel compassion for; to pity
6. to show tender affection for
7. to commemorate; to memorialise; to pay tribute to
8. idea; thought
9. (Buddhism) memory

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G. 作

1. † to get up (from a place)
2. † to get up (in the morning) and go to work
3. † to begin to grow; to come into being
4. † to arise; to come about; to happen; to occur; to break out
5. to do; to perform; to carry out
6. to work; to exert oneself
7. to make; to manufacture
8. to compose; to write

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H. 得

1. **to get; to obtain; to gain, to acquire((
2. to result in; to produce
3. to be ready; finished
4. to suit; to fit
5. fit; proper _

I. 亦

1. also; too; likewise
2. only

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J. 非

1. not be; is not; not
2. wrong; incorrect

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K. 究

1. to reach the end or limit; to exhaust
2. to study intensively; to research
3. to investigate; to scrutinise
4. after all; actually; in fact

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L. 竟

1. finally, after all, at last

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Do you understand what is meant by 'freezing' one's mind?

Through effort, one can achieve and cultivate states where no thoughts or emotions arise by the use of a passive tension: That is to freeze.

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During the period of T'ang Dynasty (713- 742) Master Mazu was practicing samadhi at Ch'uan-fa Monastery in Hengyueh.

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There he met Venerable Huai-jang, who immediately recognized him as a Dharma-vessel.

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There he met Venerable Huai-jang, who immediately recognized him as a Dharma-vessel.

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Huai-jang asked him, "Why are you sitting in meditation?"

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The Master replied, "Because I want to become a Buddha."

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Thereupon Huai-jang took a brick and started to polish it in front of the Master's hermitage.

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The Master asked him, "Why are you polishing that brick?"

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Huai-jang replied, "Because I want to make a mirror."

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The Master asked, "How can you make a mirror by polishing a brick?"

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Huai-jang said, "If I cannot make a mirror by polishing a brick, how can you become a Buddha by sitting in meditation?"

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(SunFaced Buddha, P. 59)

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https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%B8%B1 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E4%BD%BF https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%87%9D https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%BF%83 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%96%82 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%BF%B5 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E4%BD%9C https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%BE%97 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E4%BA%A6 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%9D%9E https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%A9%B6 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%AB%9F https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/Poceski-Mazu.pdf https://terebess.hu/zen/SunFace.pdf

Submitted November 22, 2018 at 01:15AM by Pikkko https://ift.tt/2Kpb32D