The Real Shobogenzo: Not Like That

Dahui's Real Original, the First Shobogenzo:

[Master Xuansha continued] It cannot be said that you will hit the mark by fasting, discipline, constant sitting without reclining, stopping the mind, meditating on emptiness, freezing the spirit, or entering concentration—what connection is there? Cultists in India can go into trances lasting eighty thousand eons, freezing the spirit in utter silence, closing their eyes, mortifying their bodies and annihilating their intellects; but when that period is up, they cannot escape repeating mundane routines, all because their perception of reality is not clear and they have not broken through the root source of birth and death.

The unattached are not like this.  They cannot be the same as those cultists; all of them truly understand and have great knowledge and vision, able to penetrate like the Buddhas, silently aware, forgetting conceptual knowledge, taking in myriad forms without resistance.  Right now, where is not you?  Where is not clear?  Where is not evident?  Why don’t you understand this way? Without this state, what can you do about the various kinds of impulse?  It all turns into falsehood—where is your everyday empowerment? If you really haven’t had an awakening yet, then you need to be urgent about it at all times, even if you forget to eat and lose sleep, as if you were saving your head from burning, as if you were losing your life. 

Concentrate deeply to liberate yourself—cast aside useless mental objects...

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ewk note: Can't AMA? Can't claim to have cast aside useless mental objects... AMAs are great at helping people identify their mental objects. Can't talk of "practice" without talking of fasting, disciplines of any kind, or "constant sitting"? Can't claim to practice Zen.

Without this state, what can you do about the various kinds of impulse?  Religious people struggle with their impulses all the time it seems... denying their impulses out of shame... lying to themselves about "feelings"... where is the freedom in that?

Xuansha sure didn't like cultists though.

Submitted February 14, 2019 at 05:51AM by ewk http://bit.ly/2SPxmVM