In choosing between the two books always on my desk, I selected Dahui over Zhaozhou, and opened it - randomly - to a Zhaozhou quote. <facepalm>
Swampland Flowers: The Letters and Lectures of Zen Master Ta-Hui, Translated by J.C. Cleary. Boston: Shambhala, 2006
Cut It Off Directly
Master Chao Chou said, "For twenty years, except for the two mealtimes of gruel and rice which were mixed application of mind, I've had no other points of mixed use of mind. This is how I really act." Don't understand it as Buddha Dharma or the Ch'an Path. Impermanence is swift, the matter of birth and death important. In the world of sentient beings things which go along with birth and death (are numerous) as hemp or millet -- every time you've disposed of them properly, they come back again. If you don't stick the words "birth and death" on the tip of your nose as a countermeasure, then when the last day of your life arrives, your limbs will be in panic and confusion, like a crab dropped in boiling water-- then you'll finally know repentance, but too late. If you want to be direct, then cut it off immediately starting right now.
Commentary: Did I try to avoid Chao Chou because I feared what he was going to tell me, and favoured the (perceived) silky soothings of Dahui instead? Compulsive passions. That crab imagery, eh? Flailing in confusion and repenting at the end? Reminds me of stories coming out of COVID hospital wards. Here are my questions:
1. How does one "cut off" something that inevitably returns? "Disposed of properly" sounds a bit snarkastic, don't you agree?
2. What does it mean to stick wrrds at the tip of my nose? Is this not also a mixed use of mind? Does this phrase function as a carrot (incentive) or a force-field (zen-dome)?
3. "Impermanence is swift" -- How do you understand this? My obsession with temporal ageing and physical death is clouding my opinions on "impermanence".
Submitted March 14, 2022 at 04:55PM by wrrdgrrI https://ift.tt/nH4K0Y1
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