Naturally According with Reality (Not Buddhism)

Mingben said,

"What can be done for people who all day long tear themselves open, whirl themselves around, looking high and low, in activity and quiescence and speech and silence, their eyes catching on everything incessantly? They just don't understand that there's no boundary between the holy sages and Buddha patriarchs and the infinite world of things."

Xiangyan Duan said, "Speech is slander, silence is deception. There is still something beyond, but my mouth is narrow and I can't explain it to you." Then he got down from the seat.

From both Mingben and Xiangyan we have something that is attested that goes beyond speaking and remaining silent, not based on fixed doctrinal terms. In contrast, we have Dogen Buddhists who insist that the special, highly choreographed, ritual they call "zazen" is the manfiestation of Zen Masters' enlightenment.

Zhaozhou said, "If you have not reached the profound meaning, you will strive in vain to quiet down delusive thoughts." It makes sense to refer to Dogen followers as believers in Quietism actively avoid confrontation, and engagement with ideas that call their religious faith into question. From the get go, they simply aren't engaging with the 1000 year living tradition of Zen Masters' public awakenings, public testings, and public observation of the precepts.

Mingben went on to say,

"As long as you can still see and hear, how could you get hung up on merit?"

Since Bodhidharma came from India, the religious concept of merit has been one of the key differences between Zen and Buddhism. With Buddhists teaching that certain behaviors have certain supernatural values accorded to them, and the accumulation of merit leading to favorable conditions whereby enlightenment might be realized.

Bodhidharma, when asked about the highest meaning of Buddhism's Holy Truths said "None whatsoever." The famous Baizhang, centuries later said, "If in your mind you widely study knowledge and interpretation, seeking merit and seeking knowledge, all this is birth and death - it is of no benefit in respect to inner reality."

Whenever you are seeing and hearing you are naturally according with reality--no phony religious efforts needed.

Submitted April 02, 2023 at 09:06PM by ThatKir https://ift.tt/V7QEmXJ