Have We Been Led Down a Primrose Path or a Rabbit Hole?
Jun 6, 2024 20:11:11 GMT
White Lotus and CoalBucket like this
Post by JustaWhistleStop on Jun 6, 2024 20:11:11 GMT
I’m pretty sure most, if not everyone here has read Yuanwu’s letters. Though not trying to teach, I'd like to point out a striking difference between his writings and what we’ve slowly, probably through osmosis, learned from unreliable sources.
Real Teaching and Real Learning
Since high antiquity, the source vehicle has been transcendence and direct realization, with teachers and apprentices joined in understanding, with nothing haphazard about it.
This is why the man who was to become the Second Zen Patriarch stood in the snow and cut off his arm to prove his sincerity to Bodhidharma, the First Patriarch. This is why the Sixth Patriarch worked pounding rice in the Fifth Patriarch’s community at Huangmei. This is why other Zen adepts worked diligently for twenty or thirty years. How could the seal of approval be given lightly? In general, genuine Zen teachers set forth their teachings only after observing the learners’ situation and potential. Real teachers smelt and refine their students hundreds and thousands of times.
This is why the man who was to become the Second Zen Patriarch stood in the snow and cut off his arm to prove his sincerity to Bodhidharma, the First Patriarch. This is why the Sixth Patriarch worked pounding rice in the Fifth Patriarch’s community at Huangmei. This is why other Zen adepts worked diligently for twenty or thirty years. How could the seal of approval be given lightly? In general, genuine Zen teachers set forth their teachings only after observing the learners’ situation and potential. Real teachers smelt and refine their students hundreds and thousands of times.
I like the way he calls us apprentices. We're all learning.
Whenever the learner has any biased attachments or feelings of doubt, the teacher resolves them and breaks through them and causes the learner to penetrate through to the depths and let go of everything, so that the learner can realize equanimity and peace while in action. Real teachers transform learners so that they reach the stage where one cannot be broken, like a leather bag that can withstand any impact.
Only after this does the Zen teacher let the transformed student go forth to deal with people and help them. This is no small matter. If the student is incomplete in any respect, then the model is not right, and the unripe student comes out all uneven and full of excesses and deficiencies, and appears ridiculous to real adepts.
Only after this does the Zen teacher let the transformed student go forth to deal with people and help them. This is no small matter. If the student is incomplete in any respect, then the model is not right, and the unripe student comes out all uneven and full of excesses and deficiencies, and appears ridiculous to real adepts.
We’ve encountered a few good examples of these "unripe student comes out all uneven and full of excesses". I’m sure that as we travel the realms of the Ethernet, we meet people who pretend at being teachers and come out “all uneven and full of excesses.” We’ve even run across a lot of fools who appear “ridiculous” to us.
Therefore, in order to teach the Dharma, the ancient worthies worked for completeness and correctness, and clarity in all facets. This means inwardly having one’s own practice as pure as ice and jade, and outwardly having a complete and well-rounded mastery of techniques, a perspicacious view of all conscious beings, and skill in interchange.
When such adepts met with potential learners, they examined each and every point in terms of the Fundamental. When the learners finally did understand, then the teachers employed techniques to polish and refine them. It was like transferring the water from one vessel into another vessel, with the utmost care not to spill a drop.
When such adepts met with potential learners, they examined each and every point in terms of the Fundamental. When the learners finally did understand, then the teachers employed techniques to polish and refine them. It was like transferring the water from one vessel into another vessel, with the utmost care not to spill a drop.
I imagine he's drawing a parallel to the transmission of the Dharma, with this analogy "transferring water from one vessel to another".
Among the methods the adepts employed, we see driving off the plowman’s ox or taking away the hungry man’s food. Unfathomable to spirits or ghosts, the genuine Zen adepts relied solely on the one great liberation. They didn’t reveal [have?] the typical deformities of pretenders to enlightenment [reading text after text until they're completely deluded as to their meaning] and “grow the horns characteristic of other species.” At ease, without striving at contrived activity, [impress others with their lack of knowledge] they were true saints of discipline and virtue who had left behind the dusts of sensory attachments.
There is a saying by Bodhidharma: “Those whose actions and understanding were in accord we call spiritual ancestors.”
There is a saying by Bodhidharma: “Those whose actions and understanding were in accord we call spiritual ancestors.”
Bodhidharma called those that came before him "spiritual ancestors". This would mean the lineage of his Indian predecessors, Nagarjuna, Ananda, Mahakashyapa, Sariputta, et al, and especially, Buddha. I can't imagine the serious lack of sensitivity when someone calls him Zen Master Buddha. In fact, I'm still not convinced that calling the ancients "Zen Masters" is the right term. In the writings, they're usually referred to as teachers, ancients, and just plain "masters". This is an issue I'll have to research a bit more before going out on a limb.
Note: I didn't understand the "driving off the ox" or "taking away the food" expressions. Was he quoting from another source? Let me know in the comments.
