Zhaozhou keeps it simple

A double case deal from Green's Recorded Sayings, two for the price of one today, clearly today's deal is a good deal.

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#190

A monk asked, "What about it when I seek to be Buddha?"

The master said, "What a tremendous waste of energy."

The monk said, "What about it when I'm not wasting any energy?"

The master said, "In that case, you are Buddha."

A monk comes to the master asking about his own seeking for enlightenment and Zhaozhou straight up tells him that the act and entanglements of seeking are a waste of energy. When the monk enquires about not expending all that energy seeking, Zhaozhou tells him that this would be equal to having attained his goal.

Should the monk run to his sutra collection to make sense of this? Google some more sayings on the topic?

Zhaozhou says that a person who does not waste energy is enlightened and that those who seek enlightenment are wasting energy. It's the typical 'where are my glasses' kind of search whilst they are riding on your head through the whole house, maybe they are in the car, did I leave them at the cafe? Did I check the garden table? Searching that which one already has is obviously a waste of energy, and whilst one 'has' the glasses, one does not use them to see clearly whilst one is busy searching for them everywhere else with blurry vision. Only when the seeking stops can one feel the subtle pressure of the temples and adjust them down for clear vision. Only perhaps that this metaphor would work better if we say the glasses are already in position but there's a whole lot of conditioned squinting going on to keep the vision blurry. Master says: stop squinting you idiot. Monk squints harder as he tries to process the meaning.

Anyone here to disagree? I am seeking a better interpretation for my glasses are smudged and I need to buy a new pair. Already googling optometrists!

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#191

A monk asked, "I am chaotically adrift and drowning; how can I get out of it?"

The master just sat motionless.

The monk said, "I'm asking you sincerely."

The master said, "Where are you 'adrift and downing'?"

Another monk approaches him (I like to think they all come up to him in sequence and he one-glance diagnoses their afflictions and dishes out prescriptions on a 9 to 5 basis, double booking every slot causing a long line) and laments about the torment of his incessant waste of energy, tossing him from left to right and recently sucking him rather downwards.

The master just chills a moment to assess the speed of the current and depth of the abyss and it does not take long before the monk's desperation fires up again. Zhaozhou then takes all his shit away at once and the monk finds himself high and dry, like waking up a from a dream, like running into a glass door, like stomping on the ground thinking there was another stair to the case.

Now that the monk is on dry land and walking more freely, how can he avoid seeing fata morganas?

Submitted September 16, 2020 at 07:37AM by Coinionaire https://ift.tt/3izEb7J