DIFFERENCE BETWEEN Upanishad and ZEN
Zen Buddhism Guru quotes will be interesting; but never they reach the
correct meaning, though never can be any shallow ideas. The Upanishads
reveal several meanings as and when read several times. I went through Mrs
Jayanthi Balakrishnan article where she showed 2 poems, one Upanishad and
another ZEN poem. The differences may be understood if there is patience.
*The Aerial Prop Root:*
The Banyan tree
was bantering
with its leafy tongues.
The wind listened attentively.
The Teacher
seated under the shade asked:
“I will rise – what tense is this?”
The Student answered:
“The Present”.
“I am rising – what tense is this?”
“The Present”
“I have risen – this one?”
“The Present”.
The jubilant Teacher
raised his hands
and blessed.
“Arise,
You have attained enlightenment”.
A sound
of some one’s fall
– the Grammar!
The banter of leaves continued.
This one is Upanishad vakya; Brahmam is the Past, present and the future
unchanged which is enlightenment.
Another ZEN is
1 “That is… the raindrop sprinkled by the
stork…
This is the droppings of the cloud…”
v
2 “I beseech renunciation, O teacher, make me an
ascetic!”
Upon the lips of the sage bird of ridicule spread its
wings.
He said:“you have started loving from now
on”
v
3 “What are you musing over, my
son?”
“A question … is eating me, O teacher”
“What is it?”
“My mind is perplexed as to what does mind mean?”
Fine. listen, Mind is a vessel But a strange
vessel”
“A strange vessel !” The student looked
puzzled
The teacher gave the answer “Mind is a
vessel
If you were to put desires in it Its bottom would get
unfastened
It would never ever be full
“If you were to put inside Sorrows…?” “Unable to hold the vessel may
break”
“If you were to put inside love…?” “The vessel would
grow wings and start
flying”
“What would happen if you were to put inside compassion,
teacher?”
“It would then glow as untainted gold”
“If jealousy is put inside?” “The vessel in rage would lose its lid
“
“What should I do to keep it full?”
The student asked resignedly with merciful eyes the teacher
said
“Keep it
empty”
Interestingly the Zen dialogues are also known for their specialized use of
paradoxes. But the insight that the Zen dialogue seeks to offer is not at
the common sense level of ordinary linguistic usage. And it is precisely
the first step toward enlightenment to realize that the paradox is valid
only as long as one remains at the common sense level of understanding. Zen
gurus take the Koans, the questions of the students very seriously, as
matter of life and death. The question is “the place and the time and the
event where truth reveals it self” unobstructed by the oppositions and
differentiations of language. The answer of a Koan, makes a student to let
go conceptual thinking and like creativity in art the appropriate insight
and response arise naturally and spontaneously in his mind.
KR IRS 14423
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