While I continue waiting for my copy of the BCR I thought I might dig into the entirety of the Gateless Gate again and vomit my thoughts out into this space. None of the questions I have been asking have borne any fruit, I don't see why these would, and yet I'm still here. Go figure.
I guess I'll forewarn this considering comments made about me trying to teach a subject I am very green about, a persepective I don't really understand at all. None of my comments or questions following are tricks or snarky remarks, answers or me claiming understanding. If they have been in the past, it is mostly as a gauge of trust/distrust, and skepticism towards the people here and their approach, not as a way to demonstrate myself.
Therefore I should start with Wumen's warnings, since I have plenty reservations "out of the gate". Here we go.
"To follow the compass and keep to the rule is to tie oneself without a rope."
Seems straightforward enough, yet I doubt any of this is. I would gather that this is a reframing of the four statements, and simultaneously a rejection of them. Don't cling to the teachings, the word, the letters, Buddha, Mumon, The eightfold path.
"Doing what you like in every way is heresy and being among the devil's army."
Definitely my first roadblock. I can't tell if mumon is being sarcastic or not. In a way claiming heresy and being in the devil's army is in stark contradiction to other statements he has brought forward. To think good and evil is to be in Heaven in Hell. The idea of heresy in Zen itself seems laughable. There's a good chance I'm misunderstanding, but it makes me question how serious any of this shit is.
I also don't even understand the concept of doing what you like in every way. It seems an easy thing to understand. I think most people would "understand" this as some sort of moralistic judgment. And yet I haven't seen discussions of morality in Zen texts. There's no indication that "you" are in any way, shape or form capable of modulating your existence to do what you like in every way in the first place. i.e it's not even a possible proposition to follow or reject.
"To unify and pacify the mind is quietism and false Zen."
Seems like a slight at meditation as the ultimate, plenty of discussion about this here, I don't much care for this line since it's not something I'm looking to do anyway.
"Subjectivity and forgetting the objective world is just falling into a deep hole."
Can't tell what's wrong with falling in a deep hole. I'm not sure what Mumon means by forgetting the objective world. Some sort of intellectualization that since experience and things are illusions of the mind there is nothing outside of the mind, and therefore, nothing really exists? I've seen people claim that this is the basis of Zen. Why is he rejecting it? A claim to demonstrate that your experience exists objectively but it's not what you think it is subjectively?
"To be absolutely clear about everything and never to allow oneself to be deceived is to wear chains and a cangue."
Imprison yourself in certainty, you'll certainly never see clearly. That's what comes to mind.
"To think good and evil is to be in Heaven-and-Hell."
Seems a claim that Heaven and Hell are dependent on seeing good and evil in the first place. A comment about discrimination.
"Looking for Buddha, looking for Truth outside oneself is being confined in two iron Cakravala.
I don't know what the fuck a Cakravala is. Apparently there's like 20 different definitions that seem unrelated. Maybe someone can clarify it in this context, for now I'll assume it doesn't matter.
I have nothing to add for now, seems a fundamental statement.
"One who thinks he is enlightened by raising thoughts is just playing with ghosts."
Seems easy enough, don't intellectualize yourself as enlightened based on thoughts and definitions... Except who raises the thoughts? And what makes them ghosts?
Might seem like some dumbass contrarian question, but I don't think it is. I have no particular attraction for meditation but it definitely taught me that sensory experiences happen without so much of a directed, conscious effort. Thoughts, feelings, whatever. And if that's the case what can you point to that's generating them? Not the separate self that previously believed it generated the thoughts. anyway, a bit of an aside.
"Sitting blankly in Zen practice is the condition of a dead man."
Again with the dead men. A confusion arises from the seemingly laisser-faire attitude Zen Masters have about using this word.
In some cases it seems derogatory, in others it does not. Having the sword that brings life or death, etc. A dead man not being a man at all, but simply being, without discrimination or terms for itself or others.
Again, it seems like a joke. How the fuck do you even sit blankly? It never stops.
"Making progress is an intellectual illusion."
Progress is defined by your own perception. Seems simple until I read the next one.
"Retrogression is to go against our religion."
Is Zen a religion now? Again, unclear. If progression is an intellectual illusion, Retrogression is the same kind of intellectual illusion, it's inseparable. Two sides of a coin, and all.
"Neither to progress nor retrogress is to be merely a dead man breathing."
My mind originally blanks at this. Whatever that means.
I guess with reflection it brings to mind another passage; “In the beginning, mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers; later on, mountains are not mountains and rivers are not rivers; and still later, mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers.” .
If I had to guess, the illusion never stops. You don't ascend into godhood and transcend ordinary life. To be stuck there is to lie to yourself. But this is a hell of a stretch if I think about it in relation to mumon's warning, it's just what came to mind.
"Tell me now, what are you going to do?"
How would I know? I can pretend if you want, but things never go the way I plan them.
"You must make the utmost effort to accomplish your enlightenment in this life, and not to postpone it into eternity, reincarnating throughout the three worlds."
I can't tell if this is a joke or not. It seems absurd. And yet it's presented like the most important thing you can do. Thinking of context as a reaction to sectarian buddhism I might see it as a rejection of the ideas of enlightenment in later lives, reincarnation, and three worlds. But I'm not familiar enough with these concepts in the first place.
Anyway, that's enough garbage from me for today. Just putting it up here to discuss it further if someone wants to.
Submitted July 13, 2020 at 07:23PM by JazzDeath https://ift.tt/2C9m6NJ
No comments:
Post a Comment