Teaching You Zazen 20: What Are You

2008/1/6 9:21:27

You possess nothing. Then what are you? Are you some kind of thing that possesses nothing? If you are some kind of thing that possesses nothing, that's still something of yours, not you.

You are nothing — not even the "nothing" of being nothing. If one absolutely must point out what you are, then one can only say: you are merely a hypothetical noun, an agreed-upon term, a conventionally placed cliché, a masturbatory illusion.

If someone believes there truly exists such a thing as "you," then please find it. But no one will ever find "you," because everything that can be found is "yours" — such as your world, your body, your desires, your beliefs, your knowledge, your status, your family, your everything, and so on — but never "you."

"You" have never existed. Therefore, any preaching or cultivation about "no-self" is laughable. Every person has always been without self — regardless of whether you think you have a self or not, you are without self. So what's the point of "no-self" preaching and cultivation?

"You" can never find "you," because there has never been a "you." All that exists is a noun, a term, a cliché, an illusion. "You" have always been without self. Any person who attempts to grasp an "I" is as laughable as trying to grasp a noun, a term, a cliché, an illusion.

The existence of "you" is merely the result of the combined force of karma. In different eras and cultural contexts, the form of "you" varies — to say nothing of different realms within the six paths of reincarnation. Even right now, if you go into the forests of South America and ask those so-called primitive tribes, the combined-force form of their "you" is obviously vastly different from the combined-force form of "you" in our so-called globalized Brave New World.

Some might say that primitive tribes haven't evolved, and that theirs isn't really "you." Anyone who thinks this way has water in their brain and deserves a good beating. Not only is the so-called "human" merely a not-particularly-brilliant life form, but even among the same "humans," today's so-called advanced earthlings, in the eyes of certain aliens, might not even rank as high as ants do relative to us. The so-called "you" of these superior humans is equally dog-fart nothing.

"You" — this illusion — can take infinitely many combined-force forms across different life forms, cultural traditions, modes of thinking, and so forth. Here's something no one has ever said before: so-called "culture" is nothing but the isomorphic evolution of the illusion of "you."

A "you" that is shaped by the combined force of science naturally gives rise to an isomorphic evolution of so-called "scientific civilization." Likewise, in a world that believes in sorcery, there is its own isomorphic evolution of civilization and culture. These are all essentially no different — they are nothing more than what this ID once wrote in a line of poetry: "Mind paints, heart sketches, self-mastered slaves." Once this "you" exists, everyone is merely playing the game of "mind paints, heart sketches, self-mastered slaves."

Someone might ask: does zazen require getting rid of this "you"? This "you" is merely a word, an illusion — what is there to get rid of? What can be gotten rid of is only "yours." And zazen neither adds a single dharma nor removes a single dharma. What would you get rid of?

Here, there is not the slightest place where effort is needed, nor is there a place for you to exert effort. Exerting effort is already going astray; not exerting effort is even more astray. Why? Because not exerting effort is actually exerting great effort.

Some garbage people are always babbling about how if you can't put something down then pick it up, and similar garbage talk. Here, there is nothing that needs to be put down, because nothing has ever been picked up. What can be picked up is merely illusion. Facing an illusion, putting it down and picking it up — if that's not having water in the brain, what is?

Here, not a single dharma needs to be put down, not a single dharma needs to be picked up. Many people, conned by so-called enlightened teachers, sit in so-called zazen, getting all neurotic — picking up and putting down, guarding this spot and guarding that spot. How is that zazen? That's clearly practicing to be a kept lover.

If that's the case, you'd be better off masturbating, being a call girl, or becoming a kept lover — at least that has better financial prospects.