Edgar,
Oh, I think that's right!
But it's true that in reading the sutras, at least we are not doing evil.
Granted that the Precepts, too, are just "the behavior of a Buddha", and are
not prescriptions; they are more "descriptions".
But a practitioner, or beginner picks the precepts up for DELIBERATE PRACTICE.
So, a practitioner, or beginner, may learn that reading the sutras at least
keeps you from acting out evil during the time of the reading, and this can
spark a dawning light that other things (practices) are like this, too (can
have this result). Someone here mentioned tending or weeding the garden, for
example. And in zen we have MANY practices, all of them fed by zazen, and vice
versa. It's quite a wonderful spectrum, curriculum, and program of practices,
invented, tested, assembled, and preserved, compassionately, by our ancestors
and contemporaries.
Even before a practitioner has any opening or realization experiences, the
practices -- when taken up *as* practices -- start us in the right direction,
and make it ever more likely that lightning will strike.
It's naive of anyone to think that folks can just "cut to the chase", as the
Hollywood types say: no one has ever done it. Our practices, plural, are
necessary. One result of the practices is displacing our participation in
evil. It seems simple, but it is a real effect, or result. Of course, there
are also other effects, but let's not leave any of them out in our
consideration of them.
Anyway, it's a process, and can be a long process, practice is. Some say
lifetimes. Certainly in one's own present lifetime, one can not quit. ;-)
I'm not writing as a zen-guy, but as an ordinary Joe.
w/ Best regards,
--Joe
> The correct understanding is if you really have Zen you don't worry about
> 'getting into trouble'.
>
> Edgar
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