Trust in Mind:
至道無難 The Perfect Way knows no difficulties
唯嫌揀擇 Except that it refuses to make preference:
但莫憎愛 Only when freed from hate and love,
洞然明白 It reveals itself fully and without disguise.
What does that even mean? What is hate?
Secret feelings
We've had a spate of accounts under a year old (some who admit they are alts) talking about how r/Zen "hates" Dogen, Zazen, Buddhism, etc. These accounts are also trying to circumvent the Reddiquette by changing the mod team, threatening people with Reddit admins, and harassing the forum generally.
Why?
Keep in mind that this strategy of "if you don't kneel like us, you hate us" has been used by Christian against Christian, Muslim against secular, and of course Buddhist against Zen for hundreds of years in the West. It's a favorite strategy to force people to tolerate any lie or fraud that any church comes up with.
Underneath it all is... doubt. A great friend to all Zen Masters, doubt is a poison to religions. And all the facts, quotes, texts, citations, and blah blah blah in this forum are making Zazen worshipers have doubts. But they can't admit that publicly without this doubt infecting others... so it festers in their hearts as a poison.
What is hate?
Hate isn't rejecting somebody's teaching:
Hate isn't asking questions and having doubts:
Hate isn't writing a high school book report:
Hate isn't collecting press clippings:
Hate isn't quoting academics on secular historical facts:
Loving only what your church says
Trust in Mind argues that impartiality is central to understanding Buddha's message... and that seems a bit too obvious. Who would disagree with that?
Huangbo says something slightly more advanced on the subject:
Above all it is essential not to select some particular teaching suited to a certain occasion, and, being impressed by its forming part of the written canon, regard it as an immutable concept. Why so? Because in truth there is no unalterable Dharma which the Tathagata could have preached.
But that's the essence of all churches, especially cults like Zazen Dogenism... THERE IS ONLY ONE TEACHING, and Dogen is it's teacher.
Any impartial person knows that's crazy talk, even before we get into the whole debate about history having proven Dogen was a fraud and a liar.
Nobody hates liars
Nobody hates homeopathy, or diet soda, or prayer, even though they absolutely do not work at all. Why would anybody hate Zazen? Pointing out the fact that something doesn't work isn't hate. Nobody hates something that has no power over them.
But what does have power over people?
Facts.
Shoushan held up his staff and waved it before his monks. "If you call this a staff," he said, "you deny its eternal life. If you do not call this a staff, you deny its present fact.
Denying a present fact is a sure sign of powerlessness... and that's the root of hate.
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Yo͞ok Welcome! Meet me My comment: Yunmen's "The whole world is the medicine" sure looks different in this light, doesn't it?
Submitted March 29, 2023 at 05:35AM by ewk https://ift.tt/SVGuhF7
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