/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.20943387]

>be nerd
>need guidance in life
>decide to take the buddhist route
>sit through hundreds of extremely dense books that defend different views on mereology, ontology and epistemology in criptic style and poetic form
>conclusion: you just shouldn't care too much
Fucking nerds. This is hilarious. Does it really take the best brains of a religion of millions throughout thousands of years writing excruciating analyses of the natural world to come to the same conclusion as my grandfather, who never read a book in his life and swears his late brother saw the chupacabra once?

[Anonymous No.20943396]

>>20943387
>>sit through hundreds of extremely dense books

No you didn't

[Anonymous No.20943400]

>>20943396
Of course I didn't. That's why I'm laughing at the nerds who did. My time is mostly well-spent.

[Anonymous No.20943422]

>>20943387
>and swears his late brother saw the chupacabra once?
The Buddha swore that he saw the cupacabra twice.

[Anonymous No.20943436]

>>20943422
The nirvana is when you realize that the real chupacabra is the sheep we fucked along the way

[Anonymous No.20943464]

>>20943436
>fucked
fuck*ing*
Its a process.

[Anonymous No.20943492]

>>20943400
If you're on 4chan, I doubt it.

[Anonymous No.20943768]

>>20943400
>My time is mostly well-spent.
Massive cope

[Anonymous No.20943943]

>>20943400
>Of course I didn't.
So you draw conclusions from something you never did, but imagined you did? Man thats fucking sad.

[Anonymous No.20943949]

Sakyamuni: just be yourself! Stop thinking! Stop it!!

Was Buddha just a 14yo white girl?

[Anonymous No.20943953]

samsaric niggas be like
>read this read that then read the commentary
Buddha be like
>brah blaze up, bump some Dilla and chill the fuck out lmao

[Anonymous No.20943955]

>>20943387
It’s a cliche but it’s more about the journey of coming to that conclusion more then the destination, which ironically reflects the nature of the truth discovered.

[Anonymous No.20943978]

>>20943955
It's more about like the journey totally :) I read this Zen book? And basically you just kinda live in the moment

[Anonymous No.20944042]

>>20943955
if there is a destination, destination is the only important thing. everything else is just sentimentalist cope.

[Anonymous No.20944126]

>>20944042
You experience life. The destination doesn’t exist until you’re there.

[Anonymous No.20944553]

This is now a thread on the Tibetan Buddhist Mahamudra teachings. Mahamudra can be translated as “Great Seal,” “Great Position,” or “Great Imprint,” “maha” meaning great and “mudra” meaning any of those words (seal, imprint, position, or even gesture). Perhaps the best translation of it is the Great Position, as in, a position you can take on.

>Oral Instructions on Mahamudra Given by Sri Tilopa to Naropa at the Banks of the Ganges River.
>Translated from the Sanskrit into Tibetan by Chokyi-Lodro (Chos kyi bLo gros) Marpa the Translator.

>Homage to the Co-emergent Wisdom!

>Mahamudra cannot be shown;
>But for you who are devoted to the guru, who have mastered the ascetic practices
>And are forbearant in suffering, intelligent Naropa,
>Take this to heart, my fortunate student.

>Kye-ho!

>Look at the nature of the world,
>Impermanent like a mirage or dream:
>Even the mirage or dream does not exist.
>Therefore, develop renunciation and abandon worldly activities.

>Renounce servants and kin, causes of passion and aggression.
>Meditate alone in the forest, in retreats, in solitary places.
>Remain in the state of nonmeditation.
>If you attain non-attainment, then you have attained mahamudra.

>The dharma of samsara is petty, causing passion and aggression.
>The things we have created have no substance; therefore, seek the substance of the ultimate.
>The dharma of mind cannot see the meaning of transcendent mind.
>The dharma of action cannot discover the meaning of non-action.

>If you would attain the realization of transcendent mind and non-action,
>Then cut the root of mind and let consciousness remain naked.
>Let the polluted waters of mental activities clear.
>Do not seek to stop projections, but let them come to rest of themselves.
>If there is no rejecting or accepting, then you are liberated in the mahamudra.

>When trees grow leaves and branches,
>If you cut the roots, the many leaves and branches wither.
>Likewise, if you cut the root of mind,
>The various mental activities will subside.

>The darkness that has collected in thousands of kalpas [eons]
>One torch will dispel.
>Likewise, one moment’s experience of luminous mind
>Will dissolve the veil of karmic impurities.

>Men of lesser intelligence who cannot grasp this,
>Concentrate your awareness and focus on the breath.
>Through different eye-gazes and concentration practices,
Discipline your mind until it rests naturally.

>If you perceive space,
>The fixed ideas of center and boundary dissolve.
>Likewise, if mind perceives mind,
>All mental activities will cease, you will remain in a state of non-thought,
>And you will realize the supreme bodhi-chitta [awakened mind].

[Anonymous No.20944560]

This is now a thread on the Tibetan Buddhist Mahamudra teachings. Mahamudra can be translated as “Great Seal,” “Great Position,” or “Great Imprint,” “maha” meaning great and “mudra” meaning any of those words (seal, imprint, position, or even gesture). Perhaps the best translation of it is the Great Position, as in, a position you can take on.

>Oral Instructions on Mahamudra Given by Sri Tilopa to Naropa at the Banks of the Ganges River.
>Translated from the Sanskrit into Tibetan by Chokyi-Lodro (Chos kyi bLo gros) Marpa the Translator.

>Homage to the Co-emergent Wisdom!

>Mahamudra cannot be shown;
>But for you who are devoted to the guru, who have mastered the ascetic practices
>And are forbearant in suffering, intelligent Naropa,
>Take this to heart, my fortunate student.

>Kye-ho!

>Look at the nature of the world,
>Impermanent like a mirage or dream:
>Even the mirage or dream does not exist.
>Therefore, develop renunciation and abandon worldly activities.

>Renounce servants and kin, causes of passion and aggression.
>Meditate alone in the forest, in retreats, in solitary places.
>Remain in the state of nonmeditation.
>If you attain non-attainment, then you have attained mahamudra.

>The dharma of samsara is petty, causing passion and aggression.
>The things we have created have no substance; therefore, seek the substance of the ultimate.
>The dharma of mind cannot see the meaning of transcendent mind.
>The dharma of action cannot discover the meaning of non-action.

>If you would attain the realization of transcendent mind and non-action,
>Then cut the root of mind and let consciousness remain naked.
>Let the polluted waters of mental activities clear.
>Do not seek to stop projections, but let them come to rest of themselves.
>If there is no rejecting or accepting, then you are liberated in the mahamudra.

>When trees grow leaves and branches,
>If you cut the roots, the many leaves and branches wither.
>Likewise, if you cut the root of mind,
>The various mental activities will subside.

>The darkness that has collected in thousands of kalpas [eons]
>One torch will dispel.
>Likewise, one moment’s experience of luminous mind
>Will dissolve the veil of karmic impurities.

>Men of lesser intelligence who cannot grasp this,
>Concentrate your awareness and focus on the breath.
>Through different eye-gazes and concentration practices,
>Discipline your mind until it rests naturally.

>If you perceive space,
>The fixed ideas of center and boundary dissolve.
>Likewise, if mind perceives mind,
>All mental activities will cease, you will remain in a state of non-thought,
>And you will realize the supreme bodhi-chitta [awakened mind].

[Anonymous No.20944575]

If you had spent all that time and effort meditating instead of wasting your time on books then you would've already achieved enlightenment and become one with the timeless ground of being. Sad!

[Anonymous No.20944603]

Vapors arising from the earth become clouds and then vanish into the sky;
It is not known where the clouds go when they have dissolved.
Likewise, the waves of thoughts derived from mind
Dissolve when mind seeks mind.

Space has neither color nor shape;
It is changeless, it is not tinged by black or white.
Likewise, luminous mind has neither color nor shape;
It is not tinged by black or white, virtue or vice.

The sun’s pure and brilliant essence
Cannot be dimmed by the darkness that endures for a thousand kalpas.
Likewise, the luminous essence of mind
Cannot be dimmed by the long kalpas of samsara.

Though it may be said that space is empty,
Space cannot be described.
Likewise, though it may be said that mind is luminous,
Naming it does not prove that it exists.
Space is completely without locality.
Likewise, mahamudra dwells nowhere.

Without change, rest loose in the primordial state;
There is no doubt that your bonds will loosen.
The essence of mind is like space;
Therefore, there is nothing which it does not encompass.

Let the movements of your body ease into genuineness.
Cease your idle chatter, let your speech become an echo,
Have no mind, but see the dharma of the leap.

The body, like a hollow bamboo, has no substance.
Mind is like the essence of space, having no place for thoughts.
Rest loose your mind; neither hold it nor permit it to wander.
If mind has no aim, it is mahamudra.
Accomplishing this is the attainment of supreme enlightenment.

The nature of mind is luminous, without object of perception.
You will discover the path of Buddha when there is no meditation.
By meditating on non-meditation, you will attain the supreme bodhi [the awakened state].

This is the king of views — it transcends fixing and holding.
This is the king of meditations — without wandering mind.
This is the king of actions — without effort.
When there is no hope and fear, you have realized the goal.

The unborn alaya [primordial state, lit. “abode” or “dwelling”] is without habits and veils.
Rest mind in the unborn essence; make no distinctions between meditation and post-meditation.
When projection exhausts the dharma of mind,
One attains the king of views, free from all limitations.

[Anonymous No.20944607]

When the Buddha left the woods, he came across a man who did not stop to speak to him, despite the Buddha telling him he’d reached enlightenment. Buddhism can be summed up in this story: be like the man who does not stop.

[Anonymous No.20944642]

Boundless and deep is the supreme king of meditations.
Effortless self-existence is the supreme king of actions.
Hopeless self-existence is the supreme king of the fruition.

In the beginning mind is like a turbulent river.
In the middle it is like the River Ganges, flowing slowly.
In the end it is like the confluence of all rivers, like the meeting of son and mother.

The followers of Tantra, the Prajnaparamita,
The Vinaya, the Sutras and other religions—
All these, by their texts and philosophical dogmas
Will not see the luminous mahamudra.

Having no mind, without desires,
Self-quieted, self-existing,
It is like a wave of water.
Luminosity is veiled only by the rising of desire.

The real vow of samaya [the tantric vows of discipline] is broken by thinking in terms of precepts.
If you neither dwell, perceive, nor stray from the ultimate,
Then you are the holy practitioner, the torch which illumines darkness.

If you are without desire, if you do not dwell in extremes,
You will see the dharmas of all the teachings.

If you strive in this endeavor, you will free yourself from samsaric imprisonment.
If you meditate in this way, you will burn the veil of karmic impurities.
Therefore, you are known as “The Torch of the Doctrine.”

Even ignorant people who are not devoted to this teaching
Could be saved by you from constantly drowning in the river of samsara.

It is a pity that beings endure such suffering in the lower realms.
Those who would free themselves from suffering should seek a wise guru.
Being possessed by the adhishthana [blessings, the atmosphere created by the guru], one’s mind will be freed.

If you seek a karma mudra [one’s consort in the practice of the third abhisheka, the third initiation], then the wisdom of the union of joy and emptiness will arise.
The union of skillful means and knowledge brings blessings.
Bring it down and give rise to the mandala.
Delivered it to the places and distribute it throughout the body.

If there is no desire involved, then the union of joy and emptiness will arise.
Gain long life, without white hairs, and you will wax like the moon.
Become radiant, and your strength will be perfect.
Having speedily achieved the relative siddhis [miraculous powers], one should seek the absolute siddhis.
May this pointed instruction in mahamudra remain in the hearts of fortunate beings.

[Anonymous No.20944665]

>>20943387
Not caring is cops for losers

[Anonymous No.20944697]

A self pervading all things
Does indeed exist.
If self did not exist, then all transmigrators
Would be like a tree whose roots are cut.
- Great Seal Drop Tantra

The ahaṃ (I am) pervading all things
Especially persists.
A person devoid of ahaṃ
Would be like a tree whose roots are cut.
- Glorious Expression of the Vajra Garland, Disclosing the Secret Essence
of All Tantras

Even a buddha would have difficulty finding
That you, the self that is not other, is non-existent.
If you did not exist, the three realms
Would be like a human with head cut off.
- Glorious Drop of Pristine Wisdom Tantra

[Anonymous No.20944701]

>>20944560
the buddha never cared about mudras. only impotent brahmins pushed for those

[Anonymous No.20944725]

This is also a thread about the direct pointing at self-nature and immediate attainment of Buddhahood as exemplified in Ch’an and Zen Buddhism; one good example coming from the Chinese Ch’an Buddhist Master Hsu Yun’s (1840-1959) discourses on the Ch’an Training, from the Hsu Yun Ho Shang Fa Hui.

In ancient times, the Patriarchs and Ancestors directly pointed at the mind for realization of the self-nature and attainment of Buddhahood. Like Bodhidharma who ‘quietened the mind’ and the Sixth Patriarch who only talked about ‘perception of self-nature,’ all of them just advocated the outright cognizance of it without any more ado. They did not advocate looking into a hua t’ou (lit. word-head, head-word, a koan-like phrase or word meditated on in one form of Ch’an training), but later they discovered that men were becoming unreliable, were not of dogged determination, indulged in playing tricks and boasted of their own possession of priceless gems which really belonged to others. For this reason, these ancestors were compelled to set up their own sects, each with its own devices; hence, the hua t’ou technique.

There are many hua t’ous, such as: ‘All things are returnable to One, to what is that One returnable? [or, All things can be reduced to One, to what is that One reducible?]’, ‘Before you were born, what was your real face?’, but the hua t’ou: ‘Who is repeating the Buddha’s name?’ is widely in use today.

What is the hua t’ou (lit. word-head)? Word is the spoken word and head is that which precedes word. For instance, when one says ‘Amitabha-Buddha’, this is a word. Before it is said it is a hua t’ou (or ante-word). That which is called a hua t’ou is the moment before a thought arises. As soon as a thought arises, it becomes a hua wei (lit. word-tail). The moment before a thought arises is called ‘the un-born’. That void which is neither disturbed nor dull, and neither still nor one-sided is called ‘the unending.’ The unremitting turning of the light inwards on oneself, instant after instant, and exclusive of all other things, is called ‘looking into the hua t’ou’ or ‘taking care of the hua t’ou.’

[Anonymous No.20944762]

TAKING CARE OF A HUA T’OU AND TURNING INWARD THE HEARING TO HEAR THE SELF-NATURE

Someone may ask: ‘How can Avalokitesvara Boddhisatva’s “method of turning inward the hearing to hear the self-nature” be regarded as Ch’an training?’ I have just talked about looked into the hua t’ou; it means that you should unremittingly and one-pointedly turn the light inwards on ‘that which is not born and does not die’ which is the hua t’ou. To turn inwards one’s hearing to hear the self-nature means also that you should unremittedly and one-pointedly turn inwards your faculty of hearing to hear the self-nature. ‘To turn inwards’ is ‘to turn back.’ ‘That which is not born and does not die’ is nothing but the self-nature. When hearing and looking follow sound and form in the worldly stream, hearing does not go beyond sound and looking does not go beyond form (appearance), with the obvious differentiation. However, when going against the mundane stream, the meditation is turned inwards to contemplate the self-nature. When ‘hearing’ and ‘looking’ are no longer in pursuit of sound and appearance, they become fundamentally pure and enlightening and do not differ from each other. We should know that what we call ‘looking into the hua t’ou’ and ‘turning inwards to hear the self-nature’ cannot be effected by means of the eyes to look or the ear to hear.

[Anonymous No.20944896]

Now, some may have realized that Ch’an Buddhist teachings on the Buddha-nature or the One Mind, and even practices of holding onto and looking devotedly and directly into a hua t’ou or “head-word” such as, “What was your original face before you were born?” or, “Who is repeating the Buddha’s name?” are rather similar to someone like Ramana Maharshi’s process of self-inquiry. However, this may lead to an apparently difficult question: “One is an Indian Vedantic jnanayogi, the others are Chinese, Japanese, or Korean Ch’an or Zen masters. Because the cultures, terminology, and rituals are different, they cannot be reconciled.”

Such a question shows a petty clinging to conditioning and culture in direct contradiction of the truth itself, which fundamentally has no original culture, dwelling-place, or home, but manifests throughout all cultures, dwelling-places, and homes equally. In Indian yogic terminology, such arguments of cultural influencers reveal a clinging to the conditioning and defilements of the ahamkara (lit. “I-maker” or “ego-maker,” the creation of a conditioned habitual personality as a veil over the Atman), and, in the terminology of the Tsao-Tung Zen sect, it bespeaks being trapped in the “guest” position of a worldly karmic ego as opposed to the “host position” of innate Buddha-hood. To associate Zen with archery, calligraphy, flower-arranging, strict sitting in the lotus position, Japanese nationalism and cultural conditioning, a lotus flower, serving and drinking of tea, quaint Zen chants and music, an image of a pond, the setup of a zendo, or an eccentric yet strangely masculine, vigorous Japanese Zen monk striking you on the back with a stick as you meditate to awaken you from your drowsiness and sharpen your insight, are all OK as far they go but, if taken too seriously, ultimately bespeak a confinement in the “guest” position of a worldly ego which has taken on Japanese cultural conditioning, or a Japanese-conditioned ahamkara, as a detour from the actual quest for the awakening of self-nature. To associate it, also, with merely sitting still, quieting the mind, being calm and stoical, the perennial philosophy, pantheism, panentheism, the New Age, hallucinogenic drugs, Alan Watts, and wild, crazy, iconoclastic supracultural Zen in the vein of Rajneesh, is also, again, OK as far as it goes for being a potential introduction to Zen, but, if clung to too seriously, again bespeaks a confinement in the “guest” position of the unenlightened ego with a New-Age-conditioned ahamkara and a distraction from the serious quest for Buddhahood.

Any detractors who wish to argue simply for the sake of arguing, clearly like arguing more than they like the immediate waking up of looking into self-nature.

[Anonymous No.20944906]

>Question: I begin to ask myself ‘Who am I?’, eliminate the body as not ‘I’, the breath as not ‘I’, and I am not able to proceed further.

>Bhagavan: Well, that is as far as the intellect can go. Your process is only intellectual. Indeed, all the scriptures mention the process only to guide the seeker to know the truth. The truth cannot be directly pointed at. Hence, this intellectual process.

>You see, the one who eliminates the ‘not I’ cannot eliminate the ‘I’. To say ‘I am not this’ or ‘I am that’ there must be an ‘I’. This ‘I’ is only the ego or the ‘I’-thought. After the rising up of this ‘I’-thought, all other thoughts arise. The ‘I’-thought is therefore the root thought. If the root is pulled out all others are at the same time uprooted. Therefore, seek the root ‘I’, question yourself ‘Who am I?’ Find the source and then all these other ideas will vanish and the pure Self will remain.

[Anonymous No.20945052]

I would like to note (for those who like these cross-cultural comparisons) that even Naqshbandi Sufis and other historical Sufis are reputed to have learned from Zen teachings and in some of their circles to give it quite some accord and respect, as being one of the flowers of the timeless teaching of human awakening and development, as according to Idris Shah, né Sayed Idries el-Hashimi (سيد إدريس هاشمي ), elected by the Naqshbandi Sufis to be an emissary of their teachings to the West in the 20th century, in his work “The Sufis” (1964, pp. 438 - 440). Note the following:

__

A resemblance between Sufi thought and practice and the strange, allegedly typical Buddhistic cult of Zen as practiced in Japan is of great interest. Zen claims to be a secret transmission outside of the canonical Buddhist field, passed on by individual example and teaching. Historically it is of no great age, and it is not connected even by its practitioners with any special event in the life of the Buddha.

Its earliest records date from the eleventh century, while the earliest school to be founded in Japan was brought from China in 1191.

The period during which Zen was imported into Japan corresponds with the modern growth of Indian schools under Sufi impetus. Its place of origin — South China — is the location where there were settlements of Arabs and other Muslims for centuries. Buddhism itself in Japan only dates from the year 625, and mainly came into the islands between the second half of the seventh century and the beginning of the ninth century. Muslim and Sufi penetration and conquest of the traditional Buddhist shrines of Central Asia was well under way by then; it was from the great Buddhist strongholds of Afghanistan that the Buddha cult entered Tibet, after the Muslim conquest.

There are legends connecting Chinese Zen with India, and Sufi tradition asserts that the early classical Sufis made spiritual contact with the followers of bodd [Arabic: the Buddha], just as they had found a common denominator with the mystics of the Hindus.

The similarities between Zen and Sufism, both in terminology, stories, and activities of masters, are considerable. From the Sufi viewpoint, the practice of Zen as given in popular literature resembles irresistibly the working of a part of the technique of the “impact” (zarb) of Sufism.

Dr. Suzuki, the foremost literary Zen exponent, would seem to be right in considering Zen adapted to the Far Eastern mind, but ideas, allegories, and examples contained in Sufi teaching are well established centuries before the Zen teacher Yengo (c. 1655 - 1642) wrote the letter quoted in the answer to “What is Zen?” Those who have read the foregoing chapters of this book will be well familiar with such phraseology as this, if allowance is made for a Far Eastern staccato turn of speech:

[Anonymous No.20945108]

>It is presented right to your face, and at this moment the whole thing is handed over to you. For an intelligent fellow, one world should suffice to convince him of the truth of it, but even then error has crept in. Much more sore when it is committed to paper and ink, or given up to wordy demonstration or logical quibble, then it slips further away from you. The great truth of Zen is possessed by everybody. Look into your own being and seek it not through others. Your own mind is above all forms; it is free and quiet and sufficient; it eternally stamps itself in your six senses and four elements. In its light all is absorbed. Hush the dualism of subject and object, forget both, transcend the intellect, sever yourself from understanding, and directly penetrate deep into the identity of the Buddha-mind; outside of this there are no realities.

It would be easy to attempt to build upon these striking facts a case for the transmission of Sufism and the ultimate derivation of what is now called Zen from that source. But, according to Sufi belief, the basis must always have been there, working in the human mind. Any Sufic contact would merely have helped to rekindle the inner consciousness of the only true reality.

A Chinese Sufi, Mr. H. L. Ma, speaking at a meeting of the Hong Kong Metaphysical Association a decade ago, shows how the way of putting ideas can seem to vary with the cultural environment:

>With respect to all the Seekers of Truth, I must say that Su-fi is hard to impart. Why? Because new hearers expect the unfolding of a system to follow their accepted pattern of thought. They do not know that this pattern is what is wrong with them. Su-fi is in you already. You feel it but you do not know what it is. When you feel certain feelings of kindness, love, truth, wanting to do something with all of you — that is Su-fi. You think of yourself first — that is not Su-fi. You have a strong sympathy for a worthy sage — that is Su-fi... A master, asked what Su-fi is, hits the questioner. He means by this, “Show me the pain and I will show you Su-fi.” You say to master, “Where did the Light come from?” He blows it out. He means, “You tell me where it is gone, and I will tell you where it came from.” You cannot tell in words what you ask in words.

[Anonymous No.20945117]

>>20943387
You're stupid, ignorant, and making a fool of yourself
>>20943400
And projecting on top

[Anonymous No.20945245]

>>20944560
>Mahamudra cannot be shown
What's the point of all this mystical chewing around if it just culminates with experiences you can't show to anyone? How is that any different from being delusional? Or is it just for the mental high? Then you might as well just jerk off

[Anonymous No.20945251]

Like Dhyani Buddha Ratnasambhava of the Tibetan Vajrayana meditation system, I am now holding out the Chintamani or wish-fulfilling jewel of trans-cultural instantaneous awakening beyond all time and space, which pervades the universe effortlessly and instantaneously. Now, wake the fuck up!

[Anonymous No.20945334]

>>20945245
It cannot be pointed to as you can point at an object, because what it is pointing it at is your own innate awareness, which is not some definite object. Even if I were to point at your face, this would not convey it because you would think of my finger or perhaps of your physical face being pointed at, or perhaps even have some conception such as that you are a ghost-in-a-machine or some type of mannequin inside your brain in your skull somehow “inhabiting” your brain and body and looking out through it. Your own awareness cannot be pointed at because it is not a definable object; it is rather the source of all objects, conversations, experiences, doctrinal disputes, dogmas, theism or atheism, and so forth. Nevertheless, mahamudra texts and teachings can paradoxically be helpful and inspiring in coming to the practice of mahamudra, or the taking up of the Great Position, while, again, admitting that this is just secondary verbiage and to that speak of it as an actual “position” you take on or “something to practice” is only an imperfect, incomplete way of referring to it.

Moreover, the Tibetan yogis even agree that this is a more sophisticated doctrine only for those of what they call “great potential,” who can receive the direct pointing-out instruction without the use of the crutches of conceptual thought, imagery, visualization, worship and the like. As Tilopa notes:

Men of lesser intelligence who cannot grasp this,
Concentrate your awareness and focus on the breath.
Through different eye-gazes and concentration practices,
Discipline your mind until it rests naturally.

In other words, if the mahamudra teachings cannot be grasped by you immediately, then those with lesser potential can at least learn to concentrate their awareness, focus on the breath, read J. Krishnamurti and the like, secondary meditative practices to still the mind. However, to assume that anything like “stilling the mind,” “concentrating your awareness” or “focusing on the breath” is directly related to mahamudra, is to make the same mistake as pointed out in the famous Zen koan of polishing a tile to make a mirror, in which Huai Jang polished a tile, upsetting and disturbing the young meditating monk, Ma Tzu, who asked him why he was disturbing him in his meditations.

“I am polishing this tile to make it into a mirror for you,” Huai Jang replied.

Ma Tzu commented, “Even if I were to want a mirror produced by you, this is not going to work, because you cannot make a mirror by polishing a tile.”

“If I cannot make a tile into a mirror by polishing it, how can one become a Buddha by sitting in meditation?”

[Anonymous No.20945346]

This statement completely blew Ma Tzu’s mind. His entire determination and understanding about meditation and enlightenment was rapidly collapsing under the force of the blow coming from Master Huai Jang’s impeccable metaphorical logic. Huai Jang had unleashed a superthought upon the consciousness of Ma Tzu.

Ma Tzu then rose from his seat. This corresponds to the rising internally of his great potential for direct awakening of his Buddha-nature, which is the primary cause of his enlightenment which was being triggered by the superaction of Huai Jang as the concurrent or intervening cause.

Ma Tzu, now standing, asked Master Huai Jang, “What should one do then?”

The Master answered, “If a cart drawn by an ox does not move, is it correct to whip the ox or the cart?”

What is Huai Jang talking about here? If the inner mind is attending to disciplining and suppressing physical and mental activity to achieve stillness of body and outer mind, is not the ignorant state of the inner mind the real problem? How can an ignorant, but determined inner mind produce an awakened Buddha-nature? How can a consciousness, however sincere and aspiring, produce superconsciousness? The Indian Buddhist Adept, Tilopa, once said, “If the mind, filled with ambition, should seek a goal, it only hides the Light.” Ma Tzu was being shown that his ambitious, goal-seeking inner mind, focused on the disciplinary and suppression of body and outer mind, was missing the point that the very status of his ambitious inner mind was the real target, the ox.

Huai Jang could see that the ambitious inner mind of Ma Tzu was not yet fully stopped in its tracks, so he made the further explanation by saying, “Do you want to go on endlessly sitting in meditation trying to become a Buddha or would you not rather be a Buddha who just happens to be sitting when it is necessary to sit? If you want to sit in real meditative awareness, meditative awareness does not cling to sitting, lying down, standing up or walking about. If you would rather be a Buddha who happens to be sitting, Buddha-nature is neither motionless nor forced to be always in motion, which means that motion is neither accepted nor rejected. If you sit with determination of your non-Buddha nature to become a Buddha, you are killing Buddha in your effort to resurrect him. If you go on clinging to your stupidly ambitious sitting practice, you will never awaken to the true Dharma.”

Upon hearing this with super-receptivity, Ma Tzu awakened within his Buddha-nature beyond all doubts, arguments and spiritual ambitions of his inner causal mind of duality. Ma Tzu could not help but bow thankfully at the feet of Master Huai Jang, for this was indeed the supreme moment of his life that he had most deeply hoped for, which he could now recognize.

[Anonymous No.20945526]

>>20944725
The Korean Ch’an master Chinul talks about nearly identical practices in “the collected works of Chinul” translated by buswel jr

[Anonymous No.20945826]

>>20945526
Of course. Much of the world’s highest forms of authentic mysticism have simply been explications of subject-object nonduality, from Buddhism to Taoism to Vedanta, hence why it is unsurprising that over hundreds or even thousands of years the themes and insights remain the same despite different colorings of the cultural containers they are expressed in.

Hence, this makes clear the obvious immaturity and superficiality of many culture-bound influencers (whether these are people wanting to overly glorify or overly put down some cultural tradition, or even criticize some as, “Not real X” — “Not traditional authentic X”, or to argue over which cultural conditioning got it the best) — people who do not realize that the greatest sages of these cultures were speaking from a position beyond cultural clinging and attachment. Zen has no historical beginning and is not a matter of being an “authentic Chinese/Japanese/Korean Ch’an master,” because the basis of Zen/Ch’an is in subject-object nonduality, which is a timeless and spaceless truth, independent of sutras, lineages, scriptures and ko’ans, and even sitting in meditation, although these have historically been tied to the cultural manifestations of Ch’an Buddhism as secondary means of awakening. However, taking on East Asian conditioning or quibbling about “what’s the closest to the original Buddha’s words and teachings” is a glorious detour. Hence, it could be said that Siddhartha Gautama was the founder of Lesser Buddhism and Bodhidharma was the founder of Lesser Zen. Greater Buddhism and Greater Zen is what happens when you awaken in your own mind to the truth behind it all, which is timeless and spaceless subject-object nonduality.