Mike,
That reminds me of one of the teachers who was important to me in early days,
definitely also of the Hindu tradition and not Buddhist.
He was/is Sri Ramana Maharshi.
For people coming to him, he often gave them the practice of asking "Who Am I".
Some zen teachers start people in koan practice with that preliminary
practice, too, before proceeding to the usual koan curriculum.
But we don't know much about how Maharshi coached students after they had some
sort of experience with his practices. We do not know if he urged them on, and
led them on, to emptiness as Buddhists experience it.
It's hard to COMPARE apples and oranges, ...but we know how to contrast them.
;-)
I think we have no surviving proof from those two Hindu masters of whether they
experienced emptiness (complete emptying). So we won't decide the matter here,
or anywhere.
One strong thing about our zen tradition is that teachers are made by other
teachers who have had the experience of emptiness, and not just of samadhi. So
there is a strong quality-control from one generation to the next, and, if we
believe it, going back through all our zen ancestors to Shakyamuni Buddha, with
whom it all began (in our modern period: there are said to have been a string
of Buddhas [prior to Shakyamuni, the "Ancient Buddhas").
In summary, and, to answer your question, "Yes, it matters", when it comes to
the matter of emptiness. Without the experience of emptiness it is not
Buddhist enlightenment, and hence not Zen enlightenment. But there is no being
at odds: however, we do appreciate and respect differences, and they are
glaring when our eye is open.
A zen teacher would send each of those Hindu teachers back into the dojo to
continue to sit, if they came up short in dokusan when being tested. But we
don't know how short or tall they were/are, in that regard, and may never
knnow.
BTW, I've put up a photo of Ramana Maharshi at the Group homepage, under
Photos, and then Joe_Zen_Miscellany, the last photo in the long list. What a
face he has/had! I think Ramana passed away 50 years ago in 1962. I knew him
through his books, and through his disciples in New York City in the early
1970s.
--Joe
> mike brown <uerusuboyo@...> wrote:
>
Much of Nisargadatta's teachings are to work on nothing but the words 'I am'.
Although not strictly Zen, does it matter?
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