On 7/29/05, Bill Smart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
<snip>
I will have to rearrange the order of Bill's questions, for the
purpose of my presentation. I hope Bill won't mind?
> What is Buddhism?
If you'd allow me, I would like to use a metaphor as the answer to
this question. Buddhism, to me, is the following situation: imagine a
person who has a thorn stuck in his eyeball. It hurts like hell. The
more that person tries to do something about that thorn, the worse it
gets. Rubbing his eye only manages to aggravate it even more. Same is
with him trying to take the thorn out with his fingers.
Along comes the Master Physician, Shakyamuni Buddha, who explains to
the aggravated person that the only way to get the thorn out is to use
another thorn. At first, the person is incredulous -- how can the
problem be solved by using the same means that created the problem in
the first place?
Eventually, the suffering individual may succumb, and agree to use
another thorn to get the offending thorn out. So he does that, takes
the thorn out, and feels tremendous relief while holding the little
bugger in his hand and then tossing it aside.
However, soon afterwards, the 'liberated' person realizes that the
horrendous pain has returned, and this time with a vengeance. How can
that be? The thorn has definitelly been taken out of the eyeball, so
why is he still squirming in pain?
It's very simple, actually -- yes, the original thorn has been
removed, but now the new one, the 'expedient mean' thorn ended up in
the same spot. And it now hurts even more.
Buddhism is a teaching/practice that prescribes how to take the thorn
out with another thorn, without leaving the new thorn inside the
wound. In other words, it's a teaching on how to build a raft to cross
the ocean of birth and death, and then how to abandon the raft and
walk freely about.
> What is Zen?
Zen is a special discipline deeply imbedded inside the Buddhist
teaching (which was described above), whereby the practitioner is
brought to realize that there is no such thing, nor could there ever
be such thing as a thorn, an eye, the pain, an attempt to liberate
oneself from pain, the teaching, the expedient means,etc.
> What are the differences between Zen and Buddhism?
There are no differences between the two.
> What is the relationship between Zen and Buddhism?
It's like asking: "what is the relationship between Zen and Zen" or
"what is the relationship between Buddhism and Buddhism". It's the
relationship of sameness and equality (i.e. samata in Sanskrit).
Current Book Discussion: Appreciate Your Life by Taizan Maezumi Roshi
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