I agree, wonders come of themselves.
People who study Buddhism
Should seek real, true
Perception and understanding for now.
If you attain real, true
Perception and understanding,
Birth and death don’t affect you;
You are free to go or stay.
You needn’t seek wonders,
For wonders come of themselves.
--Linji (d.~867)
Just a guy who wrote some stuff in China a while back.
What we now call the "United States" didn't belong to anyone, weren't states, not united, just land underfoot and sky overhead. Those who lived on that stretch of land hunted, trapped, fished, sat by fires and looked to the stars at night.
No one had the deluded belief that a few people should own that expanse, imprison those who thought differently, and live in the underworld of lies, deception, and false narrative.
But here we are.
Linji Yixuan (traditional Chinese: 臨濟義玄; simplified Chinese: 临济义玄; pinyin: Línjì Yìxuán; Wade–Giles: Lin-chi I-hsüan; Japanese: 臨済義玄 Rinzai Gigen; died 866 CE) was a Tang dynasty (618-907) Chinese monk and teacher of the Hongzhou school of Chinese Chan(Zen). Linji was the leading figure of Chan Buddhism in the Tang, and the Recorded Sayings of Linji (Línjì yǔlù), which contains his teachings, is seen as a major Zen text which exemplifies the iconoclastic and antinomian spirit of Zen. He is also known by the posthumous title Huizhao Chanshi (慧照禪師, “Meditation Master of Illuminating Wisdom”).
Linji was a student of Huangbo Xiyun and is also considered to be the founder of the influential Linji school of Chan. This school actually developed in the Song dynasty (960-1279) among descendants of Linji, who created various mythic stories about Linji in the process of founding their new school of Zen. Today he is seen as the founder of the various Linji regional traditions, including the Japanese Rinzai school, the contemporary Korean Seonschools (all which consider themselves to be of the "Imjae" line, i.e. Linji) and the Lâm Tếschool of Vietnamese Zen.
Thich Nhat Hanh tells us this:
“Imagine two astronauts go to the moon, and while they’re there, there’s an accident and their ship can’t take them back to Earth. They have only enough oxygen for two days. There is no hope of someone coming from Earth in time to rescue them. They have only two days to live. If you were to ask them at that moment, “What is your deepest wish?” they would answer, “To be back home walking on our beautiful planet Earth.” That would be enough for them; they wouldn’t want anything else. They wouldn’t think of being the head of a large corporation, a famous celebrity, or the president of the United States. They wouldn’t want anything but to be back here—walking on Earth, enjoying every step, listening to the sounds of nature, or holding the hand of their beloved while contemplating the moon at night. We should live every day like people who have just been rescued from dying on the moon. We are on Earth now, and we need to enjoy walking on this precious, beautiful planet. Zen Master Linji said, “The miracle is not to walk on water or fire. The miracle is to walk on the earth.” I cherish that teaching. I enjoy just walking, even in busy places like airports and railway stations. Walking like that, with each step caressing our Mother Earth, we can inspire other people to do the same. We can enjoy every minute of our lives.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm
And it was Linji who gave us the koan: "If You Meet The Buddha On The Road, Kill Him".
If Linji were around today and saying such a thing, he would be arrested and imprisoned, sent to an El Salvador prison for hate speech and terrorism, and be disappeared.
Our ability to subtly intuit what is true is being compromised. Buddhism, Judaism and Christianity -- the authentic and original -- are each suspect, and are being replaced by illiterate, illiberal, and ingracious ideologies focused only on appropriative false messaging and consolidation of power.
We are a complicated people.
So many long to follow someone who will liberate them from their fears and affirm fanatic beliefs as to who's good and who's bad, why we should never allow someone different to speak their understanding of what is true, and who will unrestrain them to deride, detest, and deny.
We will learn, someday, to disagree when those views are disagreeable, to counter and contest when views border on the edge of disgraceful dangerous escalation, and become educated in the fine art of measured opinion and dialogic combat.
We say we want love and freedom to prevail. But our instinct is to eliminate that which goes against our point of view, and to eliminate anyone holding that contrary point of view. God help us if someone had the power and the following to erase opposition and attempt to install a dominant minority to rule and lay siege to the land.
“Master Linji used language that was particularly harsh and strong to remind the monks in clear terms that the only role of a practitioner is to live simply, as an ordinary person, and not to put on airs. This is still a fundamental challenge for us today.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Battles: Modern Commentary on the Teachings of Master Linji
Is it possible to move forward healthily and productively by erasing unclarity and holding nothing in mind? Delusion, anger, and greed hover around us and within us. We want so much to believe the one who tells us we can be better, we can be great, we can be rid of those different than us, that if we love the leader we will be saved.
They try to draft Jesus into their ideology. Wherever and whoever Jesus is in this metaphor, I don't think he's ready to sign up, get a hat, pocket the signing bonus like some basketball or football substitute for religious celebration replete with sneaker endorsement and advertising contracts.
Our traditional holy season is co-opted by the new metaphors of saviors, crunch time, redeeming heroes, playoff messiahs, ideas of the holy that focus on golf swing, three point arc, newly shaped bats, pitch count, fashion shows for arriving players, diva podcasts, and five hundred million dollar contract extensions.
Stadiums and amphitheaters are the new replacements for medieval cathedrals and desert monasteries.
Rinzai is the Japanese name of a school of Zen Buddhism. It originated in China as the Linji school. Rinzai Zen is distinguished by its emphasis on the kensho experience to realize enlightenment and the use of koan contemplation in zazen.
In China, the Linji school is the dominant surviving school of Zen (called Chan in China). Linji also strongly influenced the development of Zen (Seon) in Korea. Rinzai Zen is one of the two dominant schools of Zen in Japan; the other is Soto.
History of Rinzai (Linji)
Rinzai Zen originated in China, where it is called Linji. The Linji school was founded by Linji Yixuan ( Lin-chi I-hsuan, d. 866), who taught in a temple in Hebei Province in northeast China.
Master Linji is remembered for his outrageous, even harsh, teaching style. He favored a kind of "shock" Zen, in which skillful application of shouts and punches would startle a student into an enlightenment experience. Much of what we know about Master LInji is from a book of his collected sayings called the Linji Lu, or record of Linji, known in Japanese as the Rinzairoku.
The Linji school remained obscure until the Song Dynasty (960-1279). It was during this period that the Linji school developed its distinctive practice of koan contemplation.
https://www.learnreligions.com/rinzai-zen-449854
It is a morning of cream of wheat, plain donuts, and three day old coffee. It is a version of both the Jewish Pesach and Christian Last Supper. We do what we can with what we have.
"If you meet Jesus on the road, kill him." It's a trick sentence.
Some literal-minded bastards -- who wouldn't understand Linji if he tattooed those words on their foreheads and placed a selfie stick with fully-charged iPhone in their hand to snap their visage every three minutes walking down streets for ten years -- would not see anything but their own prejudices salivating retribution and revenge over being slighted in their lives. There are guns in waistbands and dead-eyed stares at passersby.
Jesus, on the other hand, holds nothing in mind other than his original face, and lets that go, step after step, until there is only you looking out as babbling brook.
Yes, you,
looking out
(as)
babbling brook.
