On 7/28/05, Bill Smart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> ...preceeding text clipped...
>
> > Words are everything.
>
> If 'words are everything', why is the very essence of zen, that
> which differentiates it from other forms of Buddhism, attributed to
> the wordless, non-verbal, mind-to-mind transmission between the
> historical Buddha Sakyamuni and the first patriarch Mahakasyapa?
> Why wasn't this transmission done via a lecture, or better yet in
> the form of writing?
>
> Words are nothing. Words are wisps of smoke which cloud your vision
> and burn your nostrils. Their stench only ceases when they
> inevitably and completely dissipate into the clear sky.
>
> Clarity is everything. Zazen is clarity.
Clarity is no separation. As long as you splinter things into the
'real' ones (presumably the ones that are not 'wisps of smoke which
cloud one's vision and burn one's nostrils') and the ones with a
stench of 'unreality' (in your particular case, words), you have not
even a trace of clarity.
The Buddha-and-Mahakashyapa 'wordless' incident is just a bunch of
words. Yes, they are nothing, but so is the transmission of the
enlightened mind (refer to the Diamond Sutra for further clarification
on this). So we use words to describe the wordless transmission. And
we naively believe that we are the masters of the words, while
actually being totally ensnared and enslaved by them.
But, of course, people are free to think and believe whatever their
whims tell them...
Current Book Discussion: Appreciate Your Life by Taizan Maezumi Roshi
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