Who Can Say It?

TODAY’S PUBLISHING ZENKEI’S AND ROSHI’S speak about fear and other feelings, and explore nuances of what Siddhartha admonished us—noting, for example, how one tiny word in translation can alter meaning—to make sure one is not deceived.  Sub-Zenkes and roshis really like “presence” and “compassion/bodhisattva,” and “health benefits of Zen” for the way in which they calm and heal and bring folks together.   And yet, “nuances of words: Siddhartha’s life or very existence is opaque—especially details—with so many, many years oral history without a written account.  By then, who is talking?  Is it Zen, or literati, or …  There is perhaps more clarity centuries later when Zen entered China and brightened existing ontological perspectives already present (and replicated insights from a multitude of cultures both pre-dating and following Siddhartha.

As opposed to everyday chatter, all of this “a-little-more-intuitive-talk” obscures original direct experience of Siddhartha, or someone “Siddhartha-like.”   In contemporary Buddhism, Siddhartha is an image, a God, (often gold-encrusted:: where is the true “buddah,” not unlike…pick your religion—a  religious “motif.”   In Cambodia or Thailand or China or Korea or Japan, for most, “Buddha” is an ultimate God-like spirit who might intervene against everyday dilemmas and more horrific demons.

A Zenkei or “lesser” roshi question for study, such as, for example, In Zen, are experiences of fear OK or not OK might be a red flag shouting… “Off Track!”

Against this, first, Hui-neng’s world “where no dust can alight,” and then the significance of perhaps “Zenkei” or “roshi” as a red flag,

but digging down,

“fear,” into “Zenkei” (super-awakened being) into “roshi (rare awakened one),”

BUT THEN, without title or concept, beyond fear or titular zenkei or roshi,

What is this one thing that is not obscured by fear or nuances or title?

What is dustless yet right in front of you?

Who can say it?

Fear, nuances, rivers, mountains, bird flight, lake:  It might be good, hitting more like a burning ember that indirectly kicks awakening, or not.

            You sit by rivers; you climb mountains, you see birds fly through the

            air; you swim in lakes, and yet, none of these things exist.  How can

            that be?

How can rivers, mountains, birds, lakes not exist in Zen realization and yet the world of mountains, birds, and lakes be real?

And why is this important,

...critical to an end to suffering?