some dimwit of a monk

[9th]

I am eagerly awaiting the appearance of some dimwit of a monk (or barring that, half such a monk) richly endowed with a natural stock of spiritual power and kindled within by a raging religious fire, who will fling himself unhesitatingly into the midst of this poison and instantly die the Great Death. Rising from that Death, he will arm himself with a calabash of gigantic size and roam the great earth seeking true and genuine monks. Wherever he encounters one, he will spit in his fists, flex his muscles, fill his calabash with deadly poison and fling a dipperful of it over him, drenching him head to foot, so that he too is forced to surrender his life. Ah! what a magnificent sight to behold! The Zen priests of today are busily imparting a teaching to their students that sounds something like this:

 

"Don't misdirect your efforts. Don't chase around looking for something apart from your own selves. All you have to do is to concentrate on being thoughtless, on doing nothing whatever. No practice. No realization. Doing nothing, the state of no-mind, is the direct path of sudden realization. No practice, no realization - that is the true principle, things as they really are. The enlightened ones themselves, those who possess every attribute of Buddhahood, have called this supreme, unparalleled, right awakening."

 

People here this teaching and try to follow it. Choking off their aspirations. Sweeping their minds clean of delusive thoughts. They dedicate themselves solely to doing nothing and to making their minds complete blanks, blissfully unaware that they are doing and thinking a great deal. When a person who has not had kensho reads the Buddhist scriptures, questions his teachers and fellow monks about Buddhism, or practices religious disciplines, he is merely creating the causes of his own illusion - a sure sign that he is still confined within samsara. He tries constantly to keep himself detached in thought and deed, and all the while his thoughts and deeds are attached. He endeavors to be doing nothing all day long, and all the while he is busily doing.

 

But if this same person experiences kensho, everything changes. Although he is constantly thinking and acting, it is totally free and unattached. Although he is engaged in activity around the clock, that activity is, as such, non-activity. This great change is the result of his kensho. It is like water that snakes and cows drink from the same cistern, which becomes deadly venom in one and milk in the other.

 

 

- Hakuin Ekaku, 1755

[Marblehead]

That person is no where to be found, I think.

 

There was once the Cucumber Sage though.

[forestofclarity]

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

 

"Don't misdirect your efforts. Don't chase around looking for something apart from your own selves. All you have to do is to concentrate on being thoughtless, on doing nothing whatever. No practice. No realization. Doing nothing, the state of no-mind, is the direct path of sudden realization. No practice, no realization - that is the true principle, things as they really are. The enlightened ones themselves, those who possess every attribute of Buddhahood, have called this supreme, unparalleled, right awakening."

[idiot_stimpy]

I would say it is somewhat pointing towards the truth.

 

But if you cling to the thoughtless state it is still not it, as you are rejecting the thoughts for the thoughtless. Still there is aversion to something.

[thelerner]

I would say it is pointing towards untimely death of seekers.

[idiot_stimpy]

I would say it is pointing towards untimely death of seekers.

 

How so?

 

Why would clinging to the thoughtless state lead to an untimely death?

[Marblehead]

How so?

 

Why would clinging to the thoughtless state lead to an untimely death?

I have to comment. Sorry.

 

Clinging to anything will end upon death. If there is no clinging nothing will be lost upon death - no change.

[thelerner]

How so?

 

Why would clinging to the thoughtless state lead to an untimely death?

 

 

.. monk richly endowed with a natural stock of spiritual power and kindled within by a raging religious fire, who will fling himself unhesitatingly into the midst of this poison and instantly die the Great Death.

I'm all for the thoughtless state, its the flinging himself into the fire and instantly dying that may kill ya.

[Jetsun]

So the critical aspect in understanding the Dharma is Kensho, I wonder if that is the same thing that modern people call awakening ?

[9th]

So the critical aspect in understanding the Dharma is Kensho, I wonder if that is the same thing that modern people call awakening ?

 

 

Zen master Nando Genjo says that "you must see your own nature (kensho) as clearly as you see the palm of your hand. After kensho, each one of you must diligently continue to cultivate your own native ground."

 

I want to fully impress all you patricians who probe the secret depths --- great men all --- with the need to put your innate powers to work for you as vigorously and relentlessly as you can. The moment your kensho is unmistakably clear, throw it aside. Dedicate yourself to boring through the difficult-to-pass koans. Once you are beyond those barriers, you are certain to understand exactly what the Buddha meant when he said in the Nirvana Sutra that a Buddha can see the Buddha-nature with his own eyes as distinctly as he sees a fruit lying in the palm of his hand.

 

Upon penetrating to see the ultimate meaning of the patriarchal teachers, you will be armed for the first time with the fangs and claws of the Dharma Cave. You will sport the divine, life usurping talisman. You will pass into the realm of the Buddhas, stroll leisurely through the realms where evil demons dwell, pulling out nails and wrenching free chocks and dispersing great clouds of compassion as you go, practicing the great Dharma giving, and immensely benefitting the monks who come to you from the four quarters. But you will be the same worthless old duffer of a monk you were before, doing nothing at all with your time. Your eyes will stare out from your face from the same position as before. Your nose will be where it always was.

 

At this point you will be the genuine article, an authentic descendant of the Buddhas and patriarchs, to whom you will have repaid in full that incalculable debt of gratitude you owe them.