Chán Zhōng Shuō Chán: Entanglement Is Not Entanglement, Zen Is Not Zen — A Dead Tree's Dragon Song Illuminates the Great Thousand Worlds (VI)

2006/2/2 8:49:52

Among the misunderstandings of Zen, none is worse than taking Zen to be the individual's bodily-mental cultivation and self-improvement, which then extends to lip-flapping and pen-pushing as Zen. Such Zen is truly the idle game of boring literati and the leisured class. Those who use this so-called Zen to swagger and swindle have been legion throughout history.

Were Zen taken as scholarship or doctrine, it would be the most radical revolution — a scholarship and doctrine that makes all rulers tremble. Zen is the ism that negates all isms. Zen is the thought that negates all thought. Zen is the order that negates all order. Zen is the faith that negates all faith. Zen is the science that negates all science. Zen negates everything, including itself. Yet Zen is also the ism that affirms all isms, the thought that affirms all thought, the order that affirms all order, the faith that affirms all faith, the science that affirms all science. Zen affirms everything, including itself.

Zen: not-thought is thought, not-ism is ism, not-order is order, not-faith is faith, not-science is science. Zen is not the fantasy of mysticism. Zen does not deviate in the slightest from what is heard with the ears and seen with the eyes. Zen is without past, without present — eternally past, eternally present. Zen has nothing to do with, yet is related to, such things as race, skin color, culture, thought, tradition, morality, and class. Zen is not exclusive to humans. All sentient beings throughout the universe, past and present — existing or not existing, visible or not visible — every kind, regardless of high or low, sacred or ordinary, are equally and non-dually related to it through their very unrelatedness.

A verse:

Heaven and earth are pure everywhere — whence comes filth and defilement?
All things are equal without difference; only the common fool clings to love.
The lotus boat is empty, possessing nothing — yet it can carry anything.
Recognize the treasure in your robe — do not be hindered by words.