Relinquishment.

So just discard all you have acquired as being no better than a bed spread for you when you were sick. Only when you have abandoned all perception, there being nothing objective to perceive, only when you have rid yourself of the whole gamut of dualistic concepts of ignorance and enlightenment will you at last earn the title of Transcendental Buddha.

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When everything inside and outside, bodily and mental, has been relinquished; when, as in the Void, no attachments are left when all action is dictated purely by place and circumstance; when subjectivity and objectivity are forgotten that is the highest form of relinquishment.

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The above quotes are attributed to Huang po.

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A monk asked, "How is it when there is not a thread to tie an ant in a bag, and not enough meat and rice in the kitchen to gather flies?" Xiangcheng said, "Daily relinquishment, not seeking; craving comes from confusion."

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T. O. M's comment.

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"All actions are dictated by place and circumstance"

Man I really like that.. I also like that there is a common thread (to tie the little Zen ants in the bag) that weaves through the Zen teachings, and this stands to reason, for if all is void, all is mind, and there are is nothing tangible anywhere, no self, no other, no duality, then the teachings will point to this fundamental principle.

All of this ties in nicely with Bodhidharmas Outline of practice too..

To enter by practice refers to four all-inclusive practices: Suffering injustice, adapting to conditions, seeking nothing, and practicing the Dharma.

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These outlines of practice, and the practice of relinquishment act as a counterbalance to our ego self, a way of diminishing its voice over time, until we can see that the ego wasn't anything tangible anyway, it was just the voice to our habits.

Its a grey area I know, and some may say that to act in counterbalance to something only gives validity to that something, and maybe that is where we get into the whole argument of "practice" vs "no practice because I'm already a Buddha"

I do think the school of thought that says "no practice is necessary" is flawed though, because if this was true, no study would be necessary, and Zen would cease to exist, the most noisy advocates of this type of ( no practice is necessary) thinking, are exactly the same type of people who will then tell you to "study zen while you are here" , or "write a book report" , arguing against their own method of not having a method, yet without the apparent level of self understanding to see the bind they have imposed on themselves.

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So, in the end, Huang po, Bodhidarma and Xiangcheng ( to name but a few) advocate relinquishment, Daily relinquishment... Ties in nicely with having no nest too..

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Note.

Daily relinquishment is an action, a way of seeing how things affect us and realising that we don't have to act that way, or believe those things. it's not a concept or a "belief to be relinquished"

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huangbo_Xiyun

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Submitted May 23, 2022 at 12:23PM by transmission_of_mind https://ift.tt/pKZQWhx