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jeff
USA
971 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 17 2014 : 11:19:25 AM
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I hope you find these questions and what they mean thought provoking...
From Working Toward Enlightenment by Nan Huaijin trans. by Thomas Cleary:
"The Source Mirror tells us what enlightenment means. In the book, ten questions are raised. There are no enlightened people who have not mastered the scriptural teachings. They know all the principles of the Buddhist scriptures at one glance. For them reading the scriptures is like reading a novel: They understand everything as soon as they read it, and they do not have to study them in depth. Zen master Yen-Shou's Source Mirror says this in Volume 1: Suppose there are people who stubbornly cling to their own views, who do not believe the words of the Buddha, who create attitudes that block them, and who cut off other routes of study. For their sake I will now discuss ten questions in order to firmly establish the guiding principles.
First question: When we completely see true nature as plainly as we see colors in broad daylight, are we the same as bodhisattvas like Manjushri?
Second question: When we can clearly understand the source in everything, as we encounter situations and face objects, as we see form and hear sound, as we raise and lower our feet, as we open and close our eyes, are we in accord with the path?
Third question: When we read through the teachings of Buddha for our era contained in the Buddhist canon, and the sayings of all the Zen masters since antiquity, and we hear their profundities without becoming afraid, do we always get accurate understanding and have no doubts?
Fourth question: When people pose difficult differentiating questins to us, and press us with all sorts of probing inquiries, are we able to respond with the four forms of eloquence, and resolve all their doubts?
Fifth question: Does your wisdom shine unhindered at all times in all places, with perfect penetration from moment to moment, not encountering any phenomenon that can obstruct it, and never being interrupted for even an instant?
Sixth question: When all kinds of adverse and favorable and good and evil realms appear before us, are we unobstructed by them, and can we see through them all?
Seventh question: In all the mental states in Treatise on the Gate for Illuminating the Hundred Phenomena, can we see for each and every one of them, their fine details, the essential nature, and their fundamental source and point of origin, and not be confused by birth and death and the sense faculties and sense organs?
Eighth question: Can we discern reality in the midst of all forms of conduct and activity, whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, whether receiving instructions or responding, whether dressing or eating?
Ninth question: Can we be singleminded and unmoved whether we hear there is a Buddha or we hear there is no Buddha, whether we hear ther are sentient beings or we hear there are no sentient beings, whether wea re praised or slandered or affirmed or denied?
Tenth question: Can we clearly comprehend all the differentiating knowledge we hear, and comprehend both true nature and apparent form, inner truth and phenomena, without hindrance, and discern the source of all phenomena, even including the appearance of the thousand sages in the world, without any doubts?
Very interesting and profound...  |
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Bodhi Tree
2972 Posts |
Posted - Mar 17 2014 : 6:17:37 PM
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All of those questions seem to point to the unconditional. The only way to answer in the affirmative to all of those questions is if one is abiding in the unconditional. The question I have is: how do you know when you've reached the unconditional?
Thanks for the list. Love the elegant tone of scholastic Buddhism.  |
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tonightsthenight
846 Posts |
Posted - Mar 17 2014 : 6:32:52 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Bodhi Tree
The question I have is: how do you know when you've reached the unconditional?
When you don't have any questions.. |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4430 Posts |
Posted - Mar 18 2014 : 05:15:16 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by tonightsthenight
quote:
Originally posted by Bodhi Tree
The question I have is: how do you know when you've reached the unconditional?
When you don't have any questions..
Or any answers! |
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jeff
USA
971 Posts |
Posted - Mar 18 2014 : 08:31:26 AM
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Hi Bodhi,
Very good point on the unconditional. I would describe it as more pointing to something slightly different, a little more when the unconditional and the conditional are realized to be the same.
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Bodhi Tree
2972 Posts |
Posted - Mar 18 2014 : 08:34:37 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by tonightsthenight
When you don't have any questions..
quote:
Originally posted by Christi
Or any answers!
Ha! Very Zen.
Or, from another tradition, "The Tao that can be named is not the Tao."
But, I'll always remember what my creative writing teacher told me when I was a wee lad: The job of the poet is to desribe the undescribable.
Therefore, question the unquestionable and surrender to the knowingness of the unknown! |
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Bodhi Tree
2972 Posts |
Posted - Mar 18 2014 : 08:42:20 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by jeff
I would describe it as more pointing to something slightly different, a little more when the unconditional and the conditional are realized to be the same
Right! The merging. Stillness in action, in AYP terms. |
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10 Questions - Chan/Zen tradition...
