Once when the World-Honored One, in ancient times, was upon the Mount Grdhrakuta, he held up a flower before the congregation of monks. At this time all were silent but the Venerable Kasyapa only smiles. The World-Honored One said, “I have the Evey of the True Law, the Secret Essence of Nirvana, the Formless Form, The Mysterious Law-Gate. Without relying upon words and letters, beyond all teaching as a special transmission, I pass this all on to Mahakasayapa.
Case Six; Mummonkan Ummon Chinese circa 1200
The 28th Patriarch in the line of transmission in India, ‘Daruma, on instructions from Prajnatara, brought Dhyana to China to become Chan..
Standing outside a cave on cold snowing December day Hakuin paid the price of an arm for an answer .
The Sixth Patriarch wrote the “better poem” and was the last of the line of Patriarchs as Chan diversed into quick&easy or long&hard.
Is a Zen Master “a Buddha” or Buddha? Would I even recognize a Buddha if we met? Does Zen seem too simple for me and you ? Why if the Buddha Mind can be transmitted without words are there so many books written about it?
Various Japanese Buddhists such as Dogen Eihei visited China and brought Chan to Japan to become Zen.
Are the Four Noble Truths, the Three Fold Refuge and the Eight Fold Path part of Zen? Does Zen have a purpose such as Awakening the Buddha inside yourself? Or The Great Prajnaparamitra Heart Sutra:
Form is no different from emptiness,
emptiness is not different from form.
The Heart Sutra, calligraphy by Janney
Do you think about someone who does not produce their own food or not earn the means to buy it, and rather lives by begging from others who do and claims to be on “ The True Path” to become Buddha? Siddhārtha Gautama left his wife and family to earn living by begging.
Alameda Creek
Walking along the Alameda Creek Levee mos’ daily, i see other people, I take photos of them, each day seems like every other day . . .
Actually these photographs have no place thinking they are some broken records of a short term historian . . .
they are instances of color, shape, gesture, line, all stuff that happens, all-by-itself,-I do-not-need-to-be-here-to-make-it-happen stuff, and it happens everywhere you look.
White and Black plaid pants? Ean you think of a better thing you could be doing right now? when you are walking?, when you are bored? when you are eating? Anticipation makes the heart grow divided and disenfocuses the Mind.
How can a person be freed from all suffering? Can we all be free of suffering at the same time? Or does someone have to keep us safe from dangers?
Maybe this is what a music concert is supposed to do to the audience?
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds
Bob Marley Redemption Song
From What is it our minds need to be “freed.?”
The whole kit and caboodle is in disrepair
There’s no where to go that’s not here . . .
So God bless motorcycles and far out heavy trifles
You know you can’t memorize Zen
Hang your hat on your nose, don’t hide in your clothes
Smile at someone, begin to begin
from Rooty Toot Toot for the Moon Michael Jay Johnson (August 8, 1944 – July 25, 2017)
Is there really a Buddha inside of us? Is it our our personal Buddha and only we can awaken it? When we awakener Buddha will be we freed from our mind?
When ignorance arises, we have discrimination of the objective world and attachment to it , and a continuous sequence of such thoughts and feeling results inner having a mind,
Blythe in Mumonkan, Case I referring to a passage from The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana (part 3 Section 1)
.Perhaps the very “natural survival skill” possessed by humans is the ability to differentiate and define (give it a name)— create the things in the Universe..
Why was Shaka Buddha a man and not a woman? The makes the Christian Genesis story more interesting . . .It was God who wanted Adam and Eve to live forever in a utopian ignorance under His’ care, It was ok forAdam, but Eve seemed to be toocurious, too inquisitive, and searching for something . .
they say curiosity will kill the cat, perhaps the persons too, as Eve could not repress her desire to taste the forbidden fruit of knowledge., but then again would it not be God who created the knowledge in the first place—why leave such a temptation for his “creations” to trip over.
So here I am, trying to use electronic media in place of “Without relying upon words and letters, beyond all teaching as a special transmission, ” to explain something which I do not understand in words no tongue can tell
You can try . . .
or give up
EndPapers
“Only thank God men have done learned how to forget quick what they ain’t brave enough to try to cure.”
The Hamlet William Faulkner
The below image is from last week in San Francisco, on the corner of Market and maybe 4th, . . .
the below image is from a few years ago, somewhere on Market St just about Powell Staton. It hurts to see life wasted yet its not that we can not solve our own problems, its that the way we solve our problems results in more problems.
Is the man withdrawing cash, or checking to see if someone prevaisly withdrew cash may have left something in their haste.
Entrance to Tokyo Tower, no place to sleep though.
It feels the only way I can know nothing is to no knowthing,
;If you study Zen, you must really study it.If you become enlightened it must be the real enlightenment. If you once see the barbarian”s reface intimately, then have at last got “it.” But when you explain what you saw, you have already fallen into relativity.”
Mumonkan Case IV Commentary Blythe translation
snaegele EmptyPage Blog 