Sometimes Ma-tsu resorted to rough tactics to expedite the process of self-discovery. When the monk Shui-liao called on him asking, “What was the purpose of Bodhidharma’s coming from the West?” Instead of answering, Ma-tsu bade him to bow down in reverence. No sooner had Shui-liao bowed down than Mat-su stamped him to the ground. Curiously enough, Shui-liao, was enlightened right on the spot. Rising up, he clapped his hands and laughed aloud, saying, “How marvellous! How marvellous! Hundreds and thousands of Samadhis and innumerable spiritual insights have their root and source in the tip of a feather!” After bowing once more in reverence, he retired. When Shui-liao became an abbot, he often told his assembly, “Ever since I received Ma-tsu’s stamping, I have never ceased to laugh.”
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Welcome! ewk comment: This is a horrible translation... Who the @#$# says "stamping"?
"Bade him bow down".
What's interesting is that amid all the posturing and churcher claims of "mastery" and Dogen and the sex predators, all these people desperate to be Zen, none of them seem to be capable of bowing down to Zen Masters.
And then none of those people ever get enlightenment. There's a shocker.
But is it the bowing that is going to get you the enlightenment?
Nope.
You have to be willing to engage with other people though. You have to have the humility to imagine that somebody else might have something to say that is more important than conceptions of doctrine and claims of faith.
Bow down.
Submitted March 07, 2022 at 03:30PM by ewk https://ift.tt/wsyr5lY
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