Zen question

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master of puppets
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Zen question

Post by master of puppets »

I often hear 'it is simple'
in dialogues about zen,

so, in the perspective of zen
both in practice or meaning;

what is it that simple?

any suggestions most welcome...
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Svalaksana
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Re: Zen question

Post by Svalaksana »

master of puppets wrote: Thu Apr 21, 2022 2:21 pmWhat is it that simple?
Just this.
Looking but not seeing - that's my eye.
Thinking but not minding - that's my mind.
Speaking but not expressing - that's my tongue.
Traveling but not going - that's my path.
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DNS
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Re: Zen question

Post by DNS »

Buddhism eludes easy definition. A group of psychiatrists once engaged Roshi Kapleau to explain Zen to them. He obliged by silently munching a ripe banana. When a student asked what it all meant, the roshi rubbed the banana peel in the student's face and said, “You have just witnessed a first‐rate example of Zen. Are there any questions?” Most of the psychiatrists said they still didn't get it and pressed their speaker for a definition. Roshi Kapleau thought awhile and said, “All right. Zen is a flea copulating with an elephant.”
https://www.nytimes.com/1979/06/03/arch ... ihism.html

:D
yinyangkoi
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Re: Zen question

Post by yinyangkoi »

When you are thirsty, you drink water
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seeker242
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Re: Zen question

Post by seeker242 »

Brings to mind saying of Master Mazu. :smile:

"If one want to know the Way directly: Ordinary Mind is the Way!"

Ordinary mind is quite simple = the Way is quite simple. :smile:
One should not kill any living being, nor cause it to be killed, nor should one incite any other to kill. Do never injure any being, whether strong or weak, in this entire universe!
Meido
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Re: Zen question

Post by Meido »

It is relatively easy to accomplish the important matter of insight into one’s true nature, but uncommonly difficult to function freely and clearly [according to this understanding], in motion and in rest, in good and in adverse circumstances. Please make strenuous and vigorous efforts to this end, otherwise all the teachings of Buddhas and patriarchs become mere empty words.

- Torei, Shumon Mujintoron


The layman was sitting in his thatched cottage one day. "Difficult, difficult, difficult," he suddenly exclaimed, "[like trying] to scatter ten measures of sesame seed all over a tree!"
"Easy, easy, easy," returned Mrs. P'ang, "just like touching your feet to the ground when you get out of bed."
"Neither difficult nor easy," said [his daughter] Ling-chao. "On the hundred grass-tips, the Patriarchs' meaning."

- Recorded sayings of Layman P'ang, Ruth Fuller Sasaki translation
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Astus
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Re: Zen question

Post by Astus »

master of puppets wrote: Thu Apr 21, 2022 2:21 pmwhat is it that simple?
'When a mendicant has heard that nothing is worth insisting on, they directly know all things. Directly knowing all things, they completely understand all things.'
(SN 35.80; also AN 7.61, MN 37)

'The essence of the Way is detachment.'
(Wake-up Sermon, in The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma, p 47; X63, no. 1219, p. 5c9)

'To be attached to one’s sensory realms in a preceding moment of thought is affliction, but to transcend the realms in a succeeding moment of thought is bodhi.'
(Platform Sutra, ch 2, BDK ed, p 30; T48, no. 2008, p. 350b29)

“Sāriputta, I can teach the Dhamma briefly; I can teach the Dhamma in detail; I can teach the Dhamma both briefly and in detail. It is those who can understand that are rare.”
(AN 3.33)

‘What is the essence of the Buddha-dharma?’ asked Bai.
‘To refrain from all evil and do all that is good,’ answered the master.
‘A three-year-old child already knows these words,’ said Bai.
‘Although a three-year-old can say them, an old man of eighty can’t put them into practice!’ countered the master.

(Chan Master Hangzhou Niaoke Daolin, in Records of the Transmission of the Lamp, vol 2, 4.54; T51, no. 2076, p. 230b24-27)
1 Myriad dharmas are only mind.
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?

2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.

3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.

4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.


1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
master of puppets
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Re: Zen question

Post by master of puppets »

Svalaksana wrote: Thu Apr 21, 2022 4:39 pm
master of puppets wrote: Thu Apr 21, 2022 2:21 pmWhat is it that simple?
Just this.
🙏🏻
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KeithA
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Re: Zen question

Post by KeithA »

Some wisdom from Layman Pang and family:
Another time at the hermitage someone asked the layman if the practice of the Way was difficult or easy.
“Difficult, difficult,” said the layman, “like trying to cover a tree in sesame seeds.”
“Easy, easy,” said Pang's wife, “just like touching your feet to the ground when you get out of bed.”
“Not difficult, not easy,” said Lingzhao, “On the hundred grass tips, the ancestor's meaning.”
_/|\_

edit - ah, didn't read all the responses closely. I see Meido referenced the same story. :)
When walking, standing, sitting, lying down, speaking,
being silent, moving, being still.
At all times, in all places, without interruption - what is this?
One mind is infinite kalpas.

New Haven Zen Center
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