Instant Zen (Foyan) #5: The Marrow of the Sages My livelihood is the marrow of alI the sages; there is not a moment when I am not explaining it to you, but you are unwilling to take it up. So it turns out, on the contrary, to be my deception. But look here—where is it that I am not explaining for you?
Professional Zennists say I do not teach people to think, I do not teach people to understand, I do not teach people to discuss stories, I do not cite past and present examples; they suppose we are idling away the time here, and think that if they had spent the time elsewhere they would have understood a few model case stories and heard some writings. If you want to discuss stories, cite past and present, then please go somewhere else; here I have only one-flavor Zen, which I therefore call the marrow of all sages.
Now let me ask you something. Why do you pay respects to an icon of wisdom? Does the icon acknowledge you when you pay respects? Does it agree with you?
If you say it acknowledges you, it is a clay icon—how can it give any acknowledgment? If you say it agrees, can you agree? Since you are incapable of acknowledgment or agreement, why do you pay respects? Is it social convention? Is it producing goodness from seeing a representation?
If you say it is social duty, how can there be social convention among renunciants? How can they produce good by seeing representations?
Do you pay respects as a consequence of going along with the crowd? If so, what is the logic in that?
Here you must understand each point clearly. Have you not read how the great teacher Changsha one day turned around and saw the icon of wisdom, whereupon he suddenly realized the ultimate and said, "Turning around, I suddenly see the original body. The original body is not a perception or a reality; if you consider the original being to be the same as the real being, you will suffer hardship forever." Do you understand the logic of this?
Submitted March 20, 2023 at 02:28AM by Ok_Understanding_188 https://ift.tt/cDfPnNa
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