Nothing Truely Exists
- Quiet Heart
- Posts: 269
- Joined: Thu May 19, 2011 10:57 am
- Location: Bangkok Thailand
Nothing Truely Exists
Yamaoka Tesshu, as a young student of Zen, visited one master after another.
Eventually he called upon Dokuon of Shokoku.
Desiring to show his attainment, he said,
"This mind,the Buddha, and all sentient beings, after all, do not exist.
The true nature of all phenomena is emptiness.
There is no realization, no delusion, no sage wisdom, and no mediocrity.
There is no thing to be given and nothing to be received."
Dokuon, who was smoking , lstened quietly but saying nothing. Then he montioned Yamaoka to approach him.
When the student approached he suddenly hit Yamaoka with his bamboo pipe.
This made the youth quite angry, and he raised his hand to strike Dokuon.
"Stop!", yelled Dokuon, ""If nothing really exists as you say, then where does your anger come from?"
Shame on you Shakyamuni for setting the precedent of leaving home.
Did you think it was not there--
in your wife's lovely face
in your baby's laughter?
Did you think you had to go elsewhere (simply) to find it?
from - Judyth Collin
The Layman's Lament
From What Book, 1998, p. 52
Edited by Gary Gach
Did you think it was not there--
in your wife's lovely face
in your baby's laughter?
Did you think you had to go elsewhere (simply) to find it?
from - Judyth Collin
The Layman's Lament
From What Book, 1998, p. 52
Edited by Gary Gach
- LastLegend
- Posts: 5408
- Joined: Sat Mar 19, 2011 3:46 pm
- Location: Northern Virginia
Re: Nothing Truely Exists
Dog's meat is not emptiness, emptiness is not dog's meat.
It’s eye blinking.
Re: Nothing Truely Exists
I'm not sure exactly what was taking place here but see a couple different interpretations for this. It could be that Dokuon is saying that Yamaoka says a lot of pretty words about emptiness, but hasn't actualized it. Or it could be that Dokuon is pointing towards Yamaoka's mind.Quiet Heart wrote:
.....Dokuon, who was smoking , lstened quietly but saying nothing. Then he montioned Yamaoka to approach him.
When the student approached he suddenly hit Yamaoka with his bamboo pipe.
This made the youth quite angry, and he raised his hand to strike Dokuon.
"Stop!", yelled Dokuon, ""If nothing really exists as you say, then where does your anger come from?"
- Quiet Heart
- Posts: 269
- Joined: Thu May 19, 2011 10:57 am
- Location: Bangkok Thailand
Re: Nothing Truely Exists
I'm not sure exactly what was taking place here but see a couple different interpretations for this. It could be that Dokuon is saying that Yamaoka says a lot of pretty words about emptiness, but hasn't actualized it. Or it could be that Dokuon is pointing towards Yamaoka's mind.
Or both.
The first interpretation is the usual one...that Yamaoka was merely mouthing what he had been told to impress his teacher. That's the usual interpretation.
But a perhaps deeper interpretation would be that Yamaoka should recognise that his anger came from his own illusions and delusions ....from his "Ego Mind"....not his original nature..... but created from outside by that "Ego Mind" ,,,,and therefore his anger was only a illusion... and therefore empty itself.
Shame on you Shakyamuni for setting the precedent of leaving home.
Did you think it was not there--
in your wife's lovely face
in your baby's laughter?
Did you think you had to go elsewhere (simply) to find it?
from - Judyth Collin
The Layman's Lament
From What Book, 1998, p. 52
Edited by Gary Gach
Did you think it was not there--
in your wife's lovely face
in your baby's laughter?
Did you think you had to go elsewhere (simply) to find it?
from - Judyth Collin
The Layman's Lament
From What Book, 1998, p. 52
Edited by Gary Gach
Re: Nothing Truely Exists
I was thinking it could be both also.
I thought about it more and maybe this was a test and Yamaoka failed. The fact that Yamaoka had such a strong reaction and was ready to strike the master simply because of being hit by a pipe, I doubt that it hurt him physically. It probably hurt his pride more than anything else. Dokuon showed Yamaoka that he hasn't actually realized emptiness.
I thought about it more and maybe this was a test and Yamaoka failed. The fact that Yamaoka had such a strong reaction and was ready to strike the master simply because of being hit by a pipe, I doubt that it hurt him physically. It probably hurt his pride more than anything else. Dokuon showed Yamaoka that he hasn't actually realized emptiness.
Re: Nothing Truely Exists
Yamaoka was "talking the talk" but not "walking the walk"
keeping the mind in perfect tranquility and free from any attachment to appearances."
"So I say to you -
This is how to contemplate our conditioned existence in this fleeting world:"
"Like a tiny drop of dew, or a bubble floating in a stream;
Like a flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
Or a flickering lamp, an illusion, a phantom, or a dream."
"So is all conditioned existence to be seen."
Thus spoke Buddha.
"So I say to you -
This is how to contemplate our conditioned existence in this fleeting world:"
"Like a tiny drop of dew, or a bubble floating in a stream;
Like a flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
Or a flickering lamp, an illusion, a phantom, or a dream."
"So is all conditioned existence to be seen."
Thus spoke Buddha.
Re: Nothing Truely Exists
Quiet Heart wrote:
Desiring to show his attainment,
Thats what will get you whacked with a pipe.
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
Re: Nothing Truely Exists
I've been whacked on pipes whilst trying to erradicate any sense of attainment!Nangwa wrote:Quiet Heart wrote:
Desiring to show his attainment,
Thats what will get you whacked with a pipe.
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE
"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
The Fundamental Tantra of Dzogchen Semde
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE
"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
The Fundamental Tantra of Dzogchen Semde
- Quiet Heart
- Posts: 269
- Joined: Thu May 19, 2011 10:57 am
- Location: Bangkok Thailand
Re: Nothing Truely Exists
So have I, at least metaphorically. But isn't that what they call "Grandmotherly kindness"?
Shame on you Shakyamuni for setting the precedent of leaving home.
Did you think it was not there--
in your wife's lovely face
in your baby's laughter?
Did you think you had to go elsewhere (simply) to find it?
from - Judyth Collin
The Layman's Lament
From What Book, 1998, p. 52
Edited by Gary Gach
Did you think it was not there--
in your wife's lovely face
in your baby's laughter?
Did you think you had to go elsewhere (simply) to find it?
from - Judyth Collin
The Layman's Lament
From What Book, 1998, p. 52
Edited by Gary Gach
Re: Nothing Truely Exists
Maybe we focus on deez metaphysical stuff too much? Metaphysic doesn't feed da kids in Africa know wat im sayin? :p