I love this stuff. I really do.
Jul. 11th, 2003 08:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andrewduckerWu-Men's Cautions
To maintain standards and follow rules is to tie yourself up without a rope.
To indulge freely without restraint is to behave like heretics and demons.
To maintain the mind in solitary depths is the specious Zen of quietism.
To give rein to the will and ignore karma is to fall into the pit.
To be alert and never unclear is to wear chains and an iron yoke.
To think good and evil is to belong to heaven and hell.
To have a Buddha view and a Dharma view is to be enclosed by two iron mountains.
To treat each thought as realization is to trifle with your spirit.
To cultivate samadhi is to practice in a haunted house.
To proceed is to stray from the truth.
To retreat is to violate the Tao.
Neither to proceed nor to retreat is to be a corpse with breath.
Now tell me, what do you do?
Work hard for realization in this life, or you will have regrets eternally.
excerpted from The Gateless Barrier
(Wu-Men Kuan) , translated by Robert Aitken
To maintain standards and follow rules is to tie yourself up without a rope.
To indulge freely without restraint is to behave like heretics and demons.
To maintain the mind in solitary depths is the specious Zen of quietism.
To give rein to the will and ignore karma is to fall into the pit.
To be alert and never unclear is to wear chains and an iron yoke.
To think good and evil is to belong to heaven and hell.
To have a Buddha view and a Dharma view is to be enclosed by two iron mountains.
To treat each thought as realization is to trifle with your spirit.
To cultivate samadhi is to practice in a haunted house.
To proceed is to stray from the truth.
To retreat is to violate the Tao.
Neither to proceed nor to retreat is to be a corpse with breath.
Now tell me, what do you do?
Work hard for realization in this life, or you will have regrets eternally.
excerpted from The Gateless Barrier
(Wu-Men Kuan) , translated by Robert Aitken
no subject
Date: 2003-07-11 03:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-11 05:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-11 06:25 am (UTC)Also about not letting definitions tie you in. Saying that just because you don't follow rules it doesn't mean you have to be without restraint - just because you aren't A, you don't have to be Not-A.
That's Zen for you.