Instant Zen

Foyan says:

Those who are now on the journey should believe that there is such a thing as instant enlightenment. In other places they also should say that there is such a thing as instant enlightenment; if they have no instant enlightenment, how can they be called Zen communities?

It’s just because what they have inherited and transmit is only the practice of looking at the model cases of the ancients. They may contemplate one or two examples and get a rough bit of knowledge, a bit of interpretation. If there is any point they cannot understand, they seek a gap to bore into, seeking understanding. Once they have understood, they say the matter is only like this, and then they immediately go on to circulate it in the Zen communities. None of them have ever spoken of what instant enlightenment is. If there is no such such thing as instant enlightenment, how can you free your mind of the twenty-five states of being in the three realms? How can you free your mind of the sensation of uncertainty?

Instantly. I approach the cases as if I will learn everything this time, and next time I can look at how I was wrong, and what I missed. Maybe I get half admonitions from Foyan.

 

Now there have already been professional priests coming here saying, “Perception is unobscured,” totally accepting perception and claiming that is right. That means they do not see what is not obscured. When I ask them about other worlds, they do not know; and when I question them about the senses and objects, it turns out they have not broken through. How can they imag­ine that the feelings and perceptions of ordinary people are exactly the same as instant enlightenment?

I've heard it said that regular people get it; it's us stupids that need to think about it for 10 or 20 years. Not to say one can or should not study Zen after seeing what is not obscured.

 

Today I say to everyone, just trust that there is such a thing as instant enlightenment. It is like a farmer finding an alchemical pill as he plows the fields; after taking it, the whole family goes to heaven. It is also like a commoner being appointed prime minister.

Completely taking the reins.

 

In the Teachings it says that those ordinary feelings and perceptions of yours are like unbaked clay, which is useless before it has been fired. You have to bake it in a hot fire before it is useful; that is like an instant enlightenment.

I am not super doubtful at the moment. I'm looking forward to being full of doubt again!

 

When I came out of Szechwan, I only called on one person. I know this person’s talk was the same as the ancients. I once asked my teacher, “I’ve heard it said that there is enlightenment in Zen; is that so?” My teacher said, “If there were no enlightenment, how could it be attained? Just investigate in an easygoing way.” So I studied in a relaxed frame of mind. There was a certain Elder Fu, whose insight was so luminously clear that I used to go to him with questions. But he just used to tell me, “You must make a living on your own; don’t come questioning me.”

I like Elder Fu; very compassionate. No provisional teaching; just straight to attained Zen.

 

One day he recited a story to me: Zhaozhou showed some fire to a student and said, “Don’t call it fire. What is it?” I wondered deeply at this: obviously it is fire— why not call it fire? I contemplated this for three years, always reflecting, “How dare I use the feelings and perceptions of an ordinary man to ask about the realization of sages?”

IT'S AN INCENSE STAND! WHY WONT ANYONE BELIEVE ME! I FEEL LIKE I'M TAKING CRAZY PILLS!

(How old is that reference now?)

 

I have also heard what it says in the Lotus Scripture, “This truth cannot be understood by the discriminations of discursive thought,” and have always kept this in mind. Today when you say you are right just as you are, that is because you have produced an interpretative understanding, and so do not understand.

Keep Evolving!

 

Once my teacher went to the residence of Judge Li, who invited him into the library. After lighting some incense, the judge picked up a copy of Transmission o f the Lamp and said to the teacher, “Although I am a man of the world, I have always taken an interest in this path. Whenever I read this book I find many points I do not understand.” My teacher said, “This matter is not understood in that way. You need to have realization of enlightenment first. If you have enlightenment, you naturally need not ask others about whatever you do not understand. If you have no enlightenment, even what understanding you do have is not yet right either.” The judge remarked, “My teacher, you have spoken rightly.”

It amazes me that a lot of these books today on Zen are about becoming enlightened; the path to enlightenment. Foyan says these things can't even be understood until after someone has experienced enlightenment.

Dahui says:

But you must know that to make it clear is exactly to make it not clear. If you can pierce through one [koan] , you won't be concerned to ask others whether you understand clearly or not.

 

Foyan says:

As for me, since I was the superintendent of guests, I attained understanding at the fireside; after that, there was nothing I did not understand. You must see the reality of instant enlightenment yourself before you can attain it. No one in the Zen communes of the present time tells of it.

Submitted September 21, 2020 at 04:19AM by surupamaerl https://ift.tt/3mGQG3s