by Shitou

竺土大仙心    The mind of the great sage of India

東西密相付    is intimately transmitted from west to east.

人根有利鈍    While human faculties are sharp or dull,

道無南北祖    the Way has no northern or southern ancestors.

靈源明皎潔    The spiritual source shines clear in the light;

枝派暗流注    the branching streams flow on in the dark.

執事元是迷    Grasping at things is surely delusion;

契理亦非悟    according with sameness is still not enlightenment.

門門一切境    All the objects of the senses

迴互不迴互    interact and yet do not.

迴而更相涉       Interacting brings involvement.

不爾依位住    Otherwise, each keeps its place.

色本殊質像    Sights vary in quality and form,

聲元異樂苦    sounds differ as pleasing or harsh.

闇合上中言    Refined and common speech come together in the dark,

明明清濁句    clear and murky phrases are distinguished in the light.

四大性自復    The four elements return to their natures

如子得其母    just as a child turns to its mother;

火熱風動搖    Fire heats, wind moves,

水濕地堅固    water wets, earth is solid.

眼色耳

What does it mean
to be a loser?
Who taught, me, you, us
What a loser is?

“Winners don’t quit
and quitters don’t win”

Do you want to be cool?
Do you want to win?

Do you know the song
by the band echosmith?
“I wish that I could
be like the cool kids
'Cause all the cool kids,
they seem to get it”

I guess I felt jealous
of the popular crowd
they had friends
they were pretty
and all I had was hate
against the world
against the church
against Jesus
and all the rest

hard to tell the story
of a thousand rainy days
the rain didn’t stop teaching
but who could hear its talk?

Was Jesus cool?
a criminal, tortured
an outcast and reject?

Was Bodhidharma?
A teacher with only two students?
A foreigner, outsider, immigrant?

How about all the hermits?
poor, “unsuccessful”
“purposeless”?
Whose ruler do you use?
How do you measure?

How do you

fried egg on a friday
it’s a simple thing
break the shell
don’t be afraid
it won’t break all the way
disintegrate
make a mess
it’ll open
and won’t be rotten
(most days)

poetry too and zen
may be like this
like buddha said
of playing strings
not too taut
not too lax
too little impact
to break the shell
but not too much

don’t undercook
don’t burn it
pay it mind
learn its how
in the end
it’s just an egg
good for a bite or two

are these words
good for a sight
a light read
a moment or two?

the theme is just a suggestion
write a poem if you’re game
play a string that moves you
and maybe others
oh emptiness in the mind and stomach
here’s an egg, a poem
can you join in cooking, eating, reading, writing
welcome to this friday fried egg feast

To make a rhyme
a word, a phrase
sometimes comes to mind
like a key to a maze

But are rhymes
proof of quality,
like number of carats,
like carrots to a donkey?

where do we go
with carrots and sticks?

simple food and jazz licks
why offer carrots
to try to find
what’s there all along,
bribing yourself
to do useless work?

In a court
you are the complainer
the complained about
the judge, the jury
the rope tying you up.
Why so much ritual?
Why so much pretense?
Grabbing and grasping
and losing you money
Why not just wake up?

The theme is just a suggestion

Haven't you seen the saying of master Yantou that whenever you have an object of esteem, it becomes a nest? You people who have spent your whole lives in monasteries investigating this matter without attainment are not worth talking about. A lot of those with white hair and yellow teeth still sit in a nest, unable to get out all their lives, totally unaware of their error. Those who get a taste for the sayings of people of old make extraordinary sayings and wonderful statements into a nest. Those who get a taste for the terminology and interpretation of scriptural teachings make scriptural teachings into a nest. Those who get a taste for the cases of people of old make the ancients' dialogues, substitute sayings, alternative sayings, words of praise and words of censure into nests. Those who get a taste for the nature of mind make 'the triple world is only thought, myriad things are only perceptions' into a nest. Those who get a taste for a state of quiescent silence without words or

Treasury of the Eye of True Teaching #670

[...]

Buddha said, "If you want to use similes for expression, there is ultimately no simile to which this can be likened." This talk of vastness is already limiting it. How much the more so wanting to enter this vast realm with a limited mind. Even if you manage to enter, it is like dipping water from the ocean with a gourd. Even if the gourd is filled, how much can it contain? However, before the water in the gourd goes into the gourd, it is identical to the measureless water. Because your perspective is just so, you imagine this is plenitude; so this infinite realm also fills you according to the measure of your capacity. It is not that there is only so much water in the immense ocean. Therefore the Buddha has said that the immense ocean does not refuse small streams; **from insects to titans, those who drink the water all get filled. **This water represents the mind, while the insects and titans represent differences of great and small. T

on the sidebar it read "their teaching" as in of the lineage, but I would think more grammatically correct would be its teachings, the teachings of the lineage. The lineage being an "it", a thing. A tradition too would be an it.

Not a big deal or nothing, but being a bit pedantic, felt I could try to suggest it.

(I thought of sending this through modmail, butI haven't found modmail yet in lemmy? Is it just absent?)

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/2818869

I found an interesting book, Zen's Chinese Heritage, The Masters and their Teachings by Andy Ferguson. It goes through the 1st twenty-five generations of Chan masters, beginning with Bodhidharma and ending with Foyan.

The main source material for this book is the Wudeng Huiyuan (Compendium of Five Lamps), dating from the mid-1200s. This excerpt is about Shenhui, the student of Huineng, also the one believed to have written the Platform Sutra.

HEZE SHENHUI (670–762) was an eminent disciple of the Sixth Ancestor. He strongly supported and promoted Huineng’s place in Chinese Zen history. Shenhui championed the Southern school of Zen, and vociferously attacked what became widely known as the Northern school, the school associated with Yuquan Shenxiu.

Shenhui put forward two reasons for his attack on the Northern school. The first was, “The (ancestral) succession is spurious.” Attacking Shenxiu’s legitimacy as

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/2593059

I found some interesting articles from the Journal of Chan Buddhism. This is volume 1, there is a volume 2, but it's behind a paywall, or you can possibly get them if you have an institutional login...

I've only read the Repositioning Xinxing 信行 (540–594) in the Chinese Meditation Tradition. It was interesting, but I've yet to find any more information on Xinxing, but it seems he was pretty early in the Chinese Chan record.

Also I've been wanting to find more peer-reviewed journal articles on Chan, if anyone has any suggestions on where to look!

The peer-reviewed Journal of Chan Buddhism: East Asian and Global Perspectives is the first of its kind in English to specifically present academic research about Chinese Chan, Korean Sŏn, Vietnamese Thìên, and Japanese Zen Buddhism. The Journal of Chan Buddhism is an interdisciplinary or cross-disciplinary journal and will accept submissions from all academic discipline

Hi there, I recently joined the zen community from lemmy.ml and I noticed that when I joined, all the comments from posts in this community went to zero, and I no longer have access to any of the comments (I believe they're all lemmy.ml users), and I'm also curious as to if they can see my posts/comments...

I was thinking about creating a zen community on lemm.ee but wasn't sure if I'd need to as there is already one on here. But I also noticed that I cannot register on lemmy.ml as the registration is closed. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!

I was on a short vacation last week and saw a preserved fragment of the Diamond Sutra from the Dunhuang collection.

Of course the Diamond sutra gets referenced occasionally in the zen tradition, so here is my reference-ception where I reference the Book of Serenity, where Wansong references National Teacher An referencing the Diamond Sutra

National Teacher An brought up the Diamond-Cutter Scripture, saying, " 'You should enliven the mind without dwelling on anything.'--not dwelling on anything means not dwelling on form, not dwelling on sound, not dwelling on delusion, not dwelling on enlightenment, not dwelling on essence, not dwelling on function. Enlivening the mind means manifesting one mind in all places: if you enliven the mind dwelling on good, goodness appears; if you enliven the mind dwelling on evil, evil appears--the basic mind is concealed. If it doesn'e dwell on anything, anywhere, the whole world is one mind."

-Commentary on Case 74 in the Book of Serenity

My reactio

Excited to talk with some people. Do we plan this space to be more of a book club or a chat room? Personally I say chat room till we get enough people for the book club to make sense.

From the first not a thing is

Attributed to the 6th Patriarch of the Zen school, Huineng

D.T Suzuki described Huineng's teaching here as a bomb because of it's implications, and I think he's right. It is the ultimate preclusion of form, doctrine, practice, mental objects, etc.

There are questions about the authenticity of much of the record attributed to huineng, but either way this teaching gets echoed by other zen masters through the centuries

Attaining the Way is not difficult, If only you dislike picking and choosing. Only when you do not "hate" and "love" Will the Way thus be clearly and plainly revealed.

If there exists the smallest distinction, Heaven and Earth become divided and out of balance. If you want to have the Way appear in front of you, Do not remain "agreeable" or "opposed" to anything.

When "disagreeable" and "agreeable" compete with each other, This makes your heart/mind sick. When you do not understand the deep and mysterious meaning of the Way, It is useless to merely quiet your thoughts.

The Way is perfect and complete, just like the greatest void - Nothing lacking, nothing extra. It is precisely because you "select" and "reject" That you therefore do not perceive the Suchness of everything.

Do not pursue Being and entanglements; Do not dwell in Emptiness and sufferance. When the mind is at peace in Oneness, Thus are these eliminated, and naturally fade away.

When you try to stop activity to return