Chán Zhōng Shuō Chán: Entanglement Is Not Entanglement, Zen Is Not Zen — A Dead Tree's Dragon Song Illuminates the Great Thousand Worlds (XXIV)
2006/6/8 23:33:47
The scope of worldly people's six consciousnesses is self-bound and self-narrowed. To seek a method of calming the mind by searching outside the six consciousnesses is to have religion — and that is folly. God, savior, Allah, Heaven, Dao, Brahman, and the like are verbal designations erected in the search beyond the six consciousnesses — all delusory. Fools are like duckweed; they must find something to lean on before their minds can be at ease. Yet the mind cannot be grasped — how can the method of calming the mind be grasped? Religion does not depart from the delusory mind; it is merely the erecting of verbal designations. Verbal designation is delusory mind, delusory mind is verbal designation. Name cannot name, speech cannot speak, delusion cannot delude, mind cannot mind — all illusory flowers in empty space.
Science breaks through the folly of religion, and its merit is indeed great. Science must depend upon what the six consciousnesses can reach; apart from the six consciousnesses, there is no such thing as science. Yet when science grows arrogant because of this, clinging to itself and becoming religion-like, its harm is equally great. The essence of science does not depart from the dialectic of the six consciousnesses. Theory is the disputation of the six consciousnesses; observation and experiment are the verification of the six consciousnesses — none departs from the manifestation of karma. Such a world gives rise to such a science; this "such" is the manifestation of karma. This "such" is not some fixed "thus and so" — the "so" is not the "so" that makes it "thus."
The difficulty of science amounts to no more than two kinds. First: given such a world with its such-ness of change, one must posit an unchanging, describable pattern. Second: following from the first, one must assume that such a mind can describe such a world, and that this description is repeatable and verifiable. The unchanging within the first is not external to time — time can be a variable within it, yet at minimum one can find a set of observable variables that form an invariant describable relationship. Assuming the unchanging within the changing, and that this unchanging is verifiable — this is in fact the commonality between science and religion. Both originate from the delusory clinging to self. Science's delusion is no different from religion's.
Buddhism, Zen, is neither religion nor science. Buddhism and Zen do not assume the unchanging within the changing nor that this unchanging is verifiable. Buddhism, Zen, is simultaneously religion and simultaneously science — exhausting the sources of religion and science while manifesting their forms. The gate of Buddha is vast — it encompasses all dharma gates yet not a single dharma can be established; it does not exceed the perceptual capacity of any sentient being, yet not a single person can be saved. Zen — the gateless gate, the dharma of no dharma — how could it be outside the gate of Buddha?
A verse:
A three-legged lame donkey, both eyes blind,
Hoof by hoof trampling through a thousand grassy mountains.
The elder of Hunan grows old in Hunan,
Never recognizing the Primordial One, idling dawn to dusk.
Replies
Chán Zhōng Shuō Chán 2006/6/9 12:50:26
"Inhuman, and you still say 'brain has no brain' — you're practically an ape."
Ape has no ape, human has no human.
Chán Zhōng Shuō Chán 2006/6/9 9:07:02
"Math girl, your Zen has brains but no heart."
Brain has no brain.