Mirror and Dust: different?

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Dan74
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Re: Mirror and Dust: different?

Post by Dan74 »

The teaching I have heard from a serious Zen master, was not rush to dismiss Shenxiu's poem:

The body is a Bodhi tree,
The mind a standing mirror bright.
At all times polish it diligently,
And let no dust alight.
This is our practice of realising the mind's true nature and tending to it - 1-5 of the Ox-herding pictures. This is already no mean task and talks of non-duality, etc are out of place so long as we are no where near completion here.

Huineng's poem:

Bodhi is originally without any tree;
 The bright mirror is also not a stand.
Originally there is not a single thing —
 Where could any dust be attracted?
Is about the realisation of the latter ox-herding pictures. It doesn't replace the preliminary work where most of us still are.

I think we, Western students of Zen, should be extremely careful not to succumb to spiritual materialism and the lure of intellectual realisation but focus on the here-and-now and attend to it carefully.

_/|\_
dan
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