Hsueh Tou's verse from the second case (BCR, Cleary, Cleary):
The Ultimate Path is without difficulty:
The speech is to the point, the words are to the point.
In one there are many kinds;
In two there's no duality.
On the horizon of the sky the sun rises and the moon sets;
Beyond the balustrade, the mountains deepen, the waters grow chill.
When the skull's consciousness is exhausted, how can joy remain?
In a dead tree the dragon murmurs are not yet exhausted.
Difficult, difficult!
Picking and choosing? Clarity? You see for yourself!
When Chao Chou states, "The Ultimate Path is without difficulty," Hsueh Tou notes "Not hard, not easy." What is that about? What, then?
Foyan (Instant Zen, p.18):
The Third Patriarch of Zen said, “Don’t seek reality, just put a stop to opinions.” He also said, “As soon as there are judgments of right and wrong, the mind is lost in a flurry.” These sayings teach you people of today what to work on.
Some alternative translations:
The Ultimate Path is without difficulty;
Just avoid picking and choosing.
Just don't love or hate,
And you'll be lucid and clear.The Great Way isn’t difficult
for those not holding to views.
Let go of passion and aversion,
and everything will be perfectly clear.The Great Way is not difficult
for those not attached to preferences.
When not attached to love or hate,
all is clear and undisguised.
Separate by the smallest amount, however,
and you are as far from it as heaven is from earth.
If you wish to know the truth,
then hold to no opinions for or against anything.
So I'm still working on this. "Stop", "avoid", "let go"... these phrases don't do much for me.
"Hold to no opinions for or against anything." That works. This feels like where I started my study in the first place. It keeps cropping up. I keep starting.
There are these dangers, of course misunderstood. Apathy, carelessness, an abundance of worry. Without opinion, I wouldn't worry. I do worry. What is right?
Don't worry. More Foyan:
When you read this saying, “Don’t seek reality,” you say there is no further need to seek--this means you are still entertaining opinions and are in a flurry of judgments; after all you have not reached a state of mind where there is no seeking, and are just making up an opinionated interpretation.
This hits the nail on the head. Have I caught myself? I've been tricking myself, seemingly. Something like that.
Foyan, addressing seeking (p.78-79):
There is something in each of you that you will only be able to perceive when you turn around. So how does one turn around? By nonseeking seeking, seeking without seeking. This is precisely what people find hard to deal with or get into.
How can you seek if you are not seeking? How can you not seek if you are seeking? If you only seek, how is that different from pursuing sounds and chasing forms? If you do not seek at all, how are you different from inert matter?
You must seek, and yet without seeking; not seek, yet still seek. If you can manage to penetrate this, you will then manage to harmonize seeking and nonseeking. ...
!
A seeker asked Yangshan, “What special pathway do you have? Please point it out to me.”
Yangshan said, “If I said there is anything in particular or nothing in particular, I would confuse you even more. Where are you from?”
The seeker said he was from such and such a place. Yangshan asked, “Do you still think of that place?”
The seeker replied, “I think of it all the time.”
Yangshan said, “What you think of are the buildings, towers, and habitations, of which there are a variety. Now think back to what thinks— is there a variety of things there?”
The seeker replied, “There is no variety of things there.”
Yangshan said, “Based on your perception, you have only attained one mystery. You have a seat and are wearing clothes; hereafter see for yourself.”
Only one mystery? Aw man...
This seeker said that the object of thought is varied, while the thinker is not varied. This view is biased; this is what prompted Yangshan to say he had only attained one mystery— his perception of the path was not accurate.
If you ask me, the object of thought, with a variety of buildings and houses, is in fact not various, while the unvaried thinking subject is in fact various. This can be demonstrated. Right now there is a variety before your eyes; there are not so many of these. There are, similarly, many types of the unvaried.
I'm looking for direction, perhaps. The other mystery...
Would you like to attain a state of mind where you seek nothing? Just do not conceive all sorts of opinions and views. This nonseeking does not mean blanking out and ignoring everything. In everyday life, twenty-four hours a day, when there is unclarity in the immediate situation it is generally because the opinionated mind is grasping and rejecting. How can you get to know the nondiscriminatory mind then? ...
The great teacher Fayan once pointed to a dog right in front of him and said, “An engraving.” When you look at this, do not look to the dog itself for clarification; you must see it in your own experience before you can get it. Only then will you understand that saying, “As soon as there are judgments of right and wrong, you lose your mind in a flurry.” I hope you get the point!
This is getting long, but I want to look to the dog briefly for when I return here:
A monk asked Zhaozhou, "Does a dog have a buddha-nature or not?" (He blocks the alley chasing a clod of earth.)
Zhaozhou said, "Yes." (Yet it's never been added.)
The monk said, "Since it has, why is it then in this skin bag?" (Checking once, he beckons, coming out with what pertains to himself.)
Zhaozhou said, "Because he knows yet deliberately transgresses."(Don't assume he's not talking about you.)
Difficult, difficult!
This turned into a real party.
Yuanwu doesn't get it,
and Yuanwu's words won't do it.
Until I stop my opinions,
I'll keep seeking.
Would you think
of an interpretation?
Submitted November 08, 2018 at 05:43AM by i-dont-no https://ift.tt/2DaYR46
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