Bill, LOL! And then Won Hyo died of whatever had killed the guy who's skull he drank out of.
Why? Because he was a comic book Zennist who didn't have enough sense to use his RATIONAL MIND! Edgar On May 18, 2013, at 12:39 AM, Bill! wrote: > Mike, > > And what I am saying (and IMO) is perception should NOT be used to illustrate > Buddha Nature. > > Perceptions are creations of the intellect (Human Nature). > > [The awareness of sensual]experience is Buddha Nature. (The qualifiers in > [brackets] should be unnecessary but I know many do not share my definition > of 'experience'.) > > Here is another zen story that I think I posted just recently that perhaps > better illustrates my point: > > "This is a story about Won Hyo, who is a famous Korean monk. He wanted to > travel to China to meet a master that would teach him Buddhism. > > One evening as Won Hyo was crossing the desert, he stopped at a small patch > of green, where there were a few trees and some water, and went to sleep. > Towards midnight he awoke, thirsty--it was pitch-dark. He groped along on all > fours, searching for water. At last his hand touched a cup on the ground. He > picked it up and drank. Ah, how delicious! Then he bowed deeply, in > gratitude, to the Buddha for the gift of water. The next morning, Won Hyo > woke up and saw besides him what he had taken for a cup (during the night). > It was a shattered skull, blood-caked and with shreds of flesh still stuck to > the cheek-bones. Strange insects crawled or floated on the surface of the > filthy rainwater inside it. Won Hyo looked at the skull and felt a great wave > of nausea. He opened his mouth. As soon as the vomit poured out, his mind > opened and he understood. Last night, since he hadn't seen and hadn't > thought, the water was delicious. This morning, seeing and thinking had made > him vomit. Ah, he said to himself, thinking makes good and bad, life and > death. And without thinking these is no universe, no Buddha, no Dharma. All > is one, and this one is empty. There was no need now to find a master. Won > Hyo already understood life and death. What more was there to learn? So he > turned and started back across the desert to Korea." > > -From the book entitled, "Thousand Peaks" by Mu Soeng Sunim > > Now, IMO Buddha Nature is pure experience, like Won Hyo's experience of > drinking the water. It would be like the 'Ah!' I recommended in the > strawberry story. Both his initial perception of 'delicious' and his later > perception which caused him to be nauseous is like the 'sweet' exclamation in > the strawberry story. > > So unless you want to interpret 'sweet' to just be a spontaneous, > non-judgmental exclamation IMO it is not an appropriate representation of > Buddha Nature. I'd also think that is shown by all the confusion and dialog > it has caused on just this thread. > > But, as usual, all this is CAVEAT EMPTOR and IMO only...Bill! > > --- In [email protected], uerusuboyo@... wrote: > > > > Bill!,<br/><br/>You could well be correct about the story not being used as > > a recognised koan. But I'm sure I've come across it being used as such a > > couple of times. <br/><br/>I can see how "Ah!" could be used as you say, > > but it isn't. The point I'm arguing here is that in the story - a Zen > > teaching 'device'- a perception was used by the man to illustrate Buddha > > Nature. The man didn't just say "Sweet!" as a passive description - he > > exclaimed his perception positively.<br/><br/>Mike<br/><br/><br/>Sent from > > Yahoo! Mail for iPad > > > >
