Measuring Tap 34: Now it's gonna get ugly

34... The ancestral teacher's six sense data

Case

An ancestral teacher said, "The six sense data are not bad-rather, they are the same as true awakening."

Xuedou's Teaching on the Case

Xuedou: "The staff is a sense object-what's wrong with that?

Yuanwu's Teaching on the Case

Yuanwu: (Eyes see, ears hear-what's wrong with that?)

Yuanwu's Teaching on Xuedou's teaching:

Yuanwu's teaching on Xuedou's teaching: (This old fellow wants a second ladle of foul water.)

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Welcome! ewk comment: As my post on the time period context of texts that was removed by the mods pointed out, Zen's record isn't just from a LONGER period of time than Western new agerism books from the 60's and 70's, Zen texts also have hundreds of years of derisive discussive debate to contextualize them.

This is perhaps less clear in sayings texts, but the books of instruction written by Zen Masters bring it home hard: Zen is a body of teachings about teachings about teachings. In this Case we have Xuedou picking out a piece of history to teach about, Yuanwu teaching about it too, then Yuanwu teaching about Xuedou's teaching. That's three different generations of teaching, plus two different generations of teaching on the teaching.

And what's all the fuss about? ENLIGHTENMENT THE SAME AS SENSORY EXPERIENCE OF OBJECTIVE REALITY.

That's two or three very contentious claims just in the Case alone, with new agers rejecting reality (Matrixers and Stream Swimmers) and rejecting enlightenment (Zazen Shikantaza Worshipers)... but that's not the HUGE ISSUE.

What is the focus of these subsequent generations of teachers with regard to this contentious teaching on sensory experience and objective reality?

You gotta see how it takes the investigation in a whole new direction.

Submitted February 25, 2022 at 08:57AM by ewk https://ift.tt/q2SxHVk