Speaking about the book itself, there are just a few thing that stand out:
Why exactly Dr. Mario Poceski decided to publish this work under the name Cheng Chien Bhikshu, I am clueless. He doesn't seem to ever have been any sort of monk and he only does it in one other of his books so maybe a mid-life Buddhist crisis or marketing gimmick.
The contents of the book include assorted stuff from Mazu as well as the Hongzhou lineage.
He gives us a basic gestalt on the sources of the text but almost a third of the book is his un-elucidating "Introduction". If reissued, pinyin would be nice.
Huairang asked [Mazu], "Why are you sitting in meditation?"
[Mazu] replied, "Because I want to become a Buddha." Thereupon Hauirang took a brick and started to polish it in front of [Mazu]'s hermitage. [Mazu] asked him, "Why are you polishing that brick?"
Huairang replied, "Because I want to make a mirror."
[Mazu] asked, "How can you make a mirror by polishing a brick?"
Huairang said, "If I cannot make a mirror by polishing a brick, how can you become a Buddha by sitting in meditation?"
[Mazu] asked, "Then what shall I do?"
Huairang asked, "When an ox-carriage stops moving, do you hit the carriage or the ox?" [Mazu] had no reply.
Huairang continued, "Are you practicing to sit in meditation, or practicing to sit like a Buddha? As to sitting in meditation, meditation is neither sitting nor lying. As to sitting like a Buddha, the Buddha has no fixed form. In the non-abiding Dharma, one should neither grasp nor reject. If you try to sit like a Buddha, you are just killing the Buddha. If you attach to the form of sitting, you will never realize the principle."
Upon hearing this [Mazu] felt as if he had tasted ghee.
Changed The Master to Mazu in this case so no one is confused who is talking to who.
This is the stuff of legends here; all the famous stuff people talk, including: "polishing bricks", "hitting the carriage or the ox", "meditation is neither sitting nor lying", "the Buddha has no fixed form". And more!
Here's the question that sends the multitudes scrambling:
Why are you sitting in meditation?
Submitted January 18, 2020 at 11:07PM by ThatKir https://ift.tt/2sHntP2
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