I have nice things to post I think on relaxation, etc. but I wanted to compare a couple of things...this bit from a the wife of a student of Sasaki's and The Platform Sutra of Hui Neng.
It's interesting trying to reconcile the two, as coincidentally, I've read both side-by-side sort of recently.
Hui Neng wasn't talking about the crap Sasaki was doing.
It is as though the transformative qualities of practice and precepts and realization of emptiness were turned off.
Why?
It is a question which reverberates within myself.
It's interesting trying to reconcile the two, as coincidentally, I've read both side-by-side sort of recently.
Hui Neng wasn't talking about the crap Sasaki was doing.
It is as though the transformative qualities of practice and precepts and realization of emptiness were turned off.
Why?
It is a question which reverberates within myself.
2 comments:
Funny, I just got finished reading the ABQ Journal piece as well ... though I didn't put it cheek-by-jowl with Hui Neng.
One of the things that crossed my mind as I read it was: Isn't it interesting that spiritual formats generally cloak themselves in what might be called the 'good news.' The 'good news' is that those who have suffered 'bad news' can revise or heal or see through what has thus far made their lives unpleasant. It's pretty woo-hoo when you think about it.
But the trouble with a good-news presentation is that it tends to leave out the bad news ... the potholes that come with all that smooth-sailing wisdom. The gooder the good news, the more dispiriting the bad. Defenders of the faith will say, "whose fault is that" and implicitly duck much of the responsibility. Or, "let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater."
Mostly it's cowardice and irresponsibility when defenders of the true faith swing into action, saying things like, "yeah, there's some bad stuff, but look at all the good our persuasion has wrought!"
It's a pity, but perhaps that's part of the good news as well. :)
genkaku-
All of which you say is true and I agree with it...but I am awestruck by the incredible mediocrity when I place something like Hui Neng's words - or worse, Yun-men's - in contrast to what anyone on either side is saying.
I think in response...it seems nobody who's anybody here has quite got the Point of it.
Post a Comment