“Those who study the Way these days need to have faith in themselves and not go looking for something outside. Otherwise they get caught up in foolish and trifling environments and can't even tell crooked from straight. There are patriarchs and there are buddhas, but those are all just things found in the scriptural teachings. Someone comes along with a phrase he has picked up, brings it out in a manner that’s half clear half murky and once you start having doubts, looking at the sky, looking at the ground running off to ask somebody else, getting into a great flurry. If you want to be first rate fellows don’t go around talking about the ruler of the rebels, talking about right and wrong, talking about sex and money matters, spending all your days talking idle chatter! […]
If a man asks me about bodhisattvas, I respond at once by meeting him with an environment of pity and compassion. If a man asks me about bodhi I respond at once by meeting him with an environment of wonderful purity. If a man asks me about nirvana, I respond at once by meeting him with an environment of stillness and tranquility. The environment takes ten thousand different shapes but the person never varies. Therefore in response to the object, he manifests different forms, like the moon in the water.”
From the “The Zen Teachings of Master Lin-chi.”
Embodied practice takes many forms and is a response consistently preferred by the Master. Can anyone in r/zen offer better advice?
Submitted March 20, 2022 at 10:59AM by nesta_es https://ift.tt/L1y7Q5m
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