Zen and Hope: High Evolutionary's Murder-Raping Lifestyle

I've been talking lately in this forum with people who have no interest in keeping the five lay precepts.

THE FIVE PRECEPTS

1. abstain from taking life

2. abstain from taking what is not given

3. abstain from sexual misconduct

4. abstain from false speech

5. abstain from intoxicants clouding the mind

There's a lot of reasons for people to struggle with these... The most obvious one is the dietary restriction... If you don't live in a community that encourages this behavior it can be a huge challenge.

Hope in Keeping

But does anybody think living this way is less hopeful?

If you keep the lay precepts and you don't murder-rape animals and people, do you think it's easier to understand living the life of a non-murder-raper?

That's fair, right?

Hope by Keeping

On the other side of the coin, we all acknowledge that reading books isn't going to save anybody from anything (unless you are Huineng) but does anybody think you're going to understand what Zen Masters say without the Lay Precepts?

Okay, some people really think that.

But does anybody think that they're going to understand what Zen Masters say that touches on the Lay precepts without keeping the lay precepts themselves? I'm not keeping them for like a week or something, but keeping them with the intention of keeping them. Like being a guardian of them even if you make a mistake.

So the hope is, this side of the coin, that Zen masters make more sense the more you hope to keep the precepts.

If you live a people-animals murder-raping lifestyle, like High Evolutionary, doesn't it seem more likely that Zen Masters are going to sound incomprehensible?

Zen and Hope

A student of the sutras once visited Guizong Zhichang while he was working the soil in the garden with a hoe. Just as the student drew near, he saw Guizong use the hoe to cut a snake in half, killing it in violation of the Buddhist precept not to take any form of life.

“I'd heard that Guizong was a crude and ill-mannered man, but I didn't believe it until now,” the student remarked.

“Is it you or I who's crude or refined?” Guizong asked.

“What do you mean by ‘crude'?” the student asked.

Guizong held the hoe upright.

“And in that case, what do you mean by ‘refined'?” the student asked.

Guizong made a motion as if cutting a snake in half.

“And yet,” the student said, “if you had allowed it, it would have gone away on its own.”

“If I'd allowed it to go away on its own, how would you have seen me chop the snake in two?”

First of all, how is this evening an argument?

Clearly the zen master wasn't thinking someone was watching.

He was just hoping to keep the precepts. It's crude to do more than that.

Submitted May 21, 2023 at 07:32PM by ewk https://ift.tt/vetKd7l

Mind Empty, You Make the Grade

Mingben:

Zen study just requires intense concern for the great matter of death and life, solely bringing up the saying studied to comprehend it in the midst of action and repose, leisure and hurry.  You should definitely not cling to sitting as the work.  If you cling to the state of sitting, cling to the state of stillness, and mistakenly approve a state of physical ease and silent stillness, eventually that will produce a hundred thousand kinds of Zen sickness, which even a Buddha could not cure.  Have you not seen how the people of ancient times never took to the cushion, but only faced the circumstances of activity?  It is just a matter of right mindfulness intending to clarify life and death.  It is when you work unremittingly, relentlessly single-minded, without knowing or being conscious of it you are independently released where you can do nothing, that is the time when “mind empty, you make the grade.”

It’s really interesting how Mingben here seems to be illustrating that sitting meditation wasn’t a common practice in the early days of Chan, but became used more and more often in the Song dynasty and in his day in the Yuan. He also seems to be showing how koans were used in conjunction with seated practice.

Here he warns against clinging to the form of sitting, and clinging to stillness by mistaking it for the way. It’s a warning reminiscent of Nanyue polishing the tile to show Mazu that meditation is not in sitting and clinging to it as a path to Buddhahood is error.

What does he mean by “it’s a matter of right mindfulness?”

What does he mean by “mind empty?”

Submitted May 21, 2023 at 06:57PM by RobePatch https://ift.tt/HkGqgJD

Zen CRISPR-Cas9

Someone asked, "What is the meaning of "Our founder came from the west'?"

Joshu said, "How long ago was it that I hung the gourd - bottle on the eastern wall?"

​

I blinked, and so went back into the sanctum of my consciousness. Time lost and time gained where what takes a second can be an hour and what takes an hour a second. The arbitrariness almost enlightening, but of course meaning nothing. What worth are the thoughts anyway, whether unpleasant or pleasant, they dissipate and never return, and though one can savor the taste of a unique thought the first time, he can never recapture it again, no matter how hard or long he tries. Coldness, wetness, darkness, irrelevant to thought, and thought irrelevant to the cold, wet, and dark, an unbreakable wall.

​

"How about when one makes a hole in the wall in order to steal the neighbor's light?"

"There it is!"

​

A sudden silence shook the stage I stood on, and I flew out of myself. The screen was black. One, two, three, four, five seconds it was black. It flickered on, but for five seconds it was off. For five seconds the streets were silent, for five seconds. Five seconds, and so I smiled and turned, and walked away. It was done, and so I was no longer needed for it. The shadows lit the way home that night, and the rain poured on.

​

A monk asked, "What is quantity?"

Joshu said, "One, two, three, four, five."

The monk said, "What is it that is not bound by quantity?"

Joshu said, "One, two, three, four, five."

​

What is this?

Submitted May 21, 2023 at 07:40AM by SpakeTheWeasel https://ift.tt/PaxBo0Z

Is the mystical power based on vague phrases ?

Zen scriptures are written in a sparse poetic style. Readers of zen often disagree on "the meaning".
Is this the real power of the writing, it's refusal to be specific,but rather hint at esoteric concepts?

Submitted May 21, 2023 at 05:52AM by Badger-1000 https://ift.tt/bPHmv39

The going is also unchanging

When Caoshan took leave of Dongshan, Dongshan asked, "Where are you going?"

Caoshan replied, "To an unchanging place."

Dongshan retorted, "If it is an unchanging place, how could there be any going?"

Caoshan replied, "The going is also unchanging."

_____________________________________________________

Damn. The fundamental truth is unchanging. Realization of it is unchanging.

Submitted May 20, 2023 at 06:35PM by lando_mak https://ift.tt/s0UPWZI