Secret Zen Club Meetings Revealed

I know you're going to feel cheated by the headline so I'm just telling you now... don't feel cheated by the headline.

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Sometimes when I'm reading the sayings text I have to go back and try to figure out what the Before Enlightenment part is and what the Ater Part(y) is because they don't really make it explicit in the text.

Zen Masters who write about dialogues in an instructive way also do not make it apparent in the text.

We also have some prohibitions against making enlightenment apparent, like this one from case four of Wumenguan:

Before the face of a foolish person

You shouldn’t tell your dream,

“Mr. Barbarian is beardless”

Is mouthing wakefulness.

Or this from Huangbo:

A perception, sudden as blinking, that subject and object are one, will lead to a deeply mysterious wordless understanding; and by this understanding will you awake to the truth of Zen. When you happen upon someone who has no understanding, you must claim to know nothing.

And let's not forget the tremendously odd phrasing of: case 28 of Wumenguan, when Deshan's enlightenment is acknowledged:

When the next day arrived, Longtan ascended the hall and said, “Okay, among you is present a single fellow whose teeth are equal to a sword tree and whose mouth is like a bowl of blood.

So what's that all about? "One among you"? Everybody's looking around... Did you do it? I didn't do it. Did you do it?

Instead traditionally enlightened people are not identified. The master, who is going to take everybody's s***, has a portrait posted in the monastic hall... But that's it. That's like a wanted poster.

Nobody else gets any recognition.

It's like they're trying to keep it a secret.

And they are... In a way.

Because the people who know what enlightenment looks like will be able to tell for themselves so it's not a secret from them.

So who are they keeping it a secret from?

The people who can't tell.

Why would you keep enlightenment a secret from people who don't know what it looks like?

Because it's a figure it out yourself type situation.

So it isn't just rude to go running around asking people if they're enlightened... Or if not rude it's a question that occurs outside the tradition. Because in the tradition if someone is enlightened they demonstrate it to other people who know... so why talk about it?

This by the way ties into the Zen culture of eschewing authority. People are encouraged to ask very hard very challenging questions of the teacher/master in a very public way... Which has resulted in some humiliations for all concerned.

But talking about who's enlightened instead of asking questions to ferret out to the fakes? That would be antithetical to personal responsibility.

Submitted May 30, 2022 at 05:47AM by ewk https://ift.tt/JwTMN2V