#zen 101

[ewkrzen]

Continuation of https://www.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/1syju7o/zen_master_buddha/

“And knowledge and vision arose in me:”

Enlightenment is not peace or harmony.

Enlightenment doesn't help other people.

Enlightenment doesn't mean you don't need money for food.

Enlightenment is not going to earn you respect.

***Enlightenment is knowledge and vision.***

# Enlightenment surprises, pwns, and upsets.

Here are three koans (historical transcripts of public interviews given by real Buddhas, not sutra-stition mythological supernatural bugaboos). Koans are *real people and the real conversations they really had*. This is one of the 10,000 things that makes Zen entirely incompatible with Buddhism, and the Buddhist fanfic sutras.

### Zhaozhou surprises himself

> A monk asked, "Without pointing to a Dharma, what is your Dharma?"

The master said, "I don't expound the Dharma of the Taoists."

The monk said, "You don't expound the Dharma of the Taoists,

hut what is your Dharma?"

The master said, "I told you, I don't expound the Dharma of the

Taoists."

The monk said, "That's it, isn't it?"

The master said, "I've never used that to instruct people."

Zhaozhou is SURPRISED by his own knowledge. That's something real knowledge does. You have the answer before you think it out.

### Soto Zen: Public Pwnmaxxing

> the Master said, "I don't inquire about the realm of the Buddha or the realm of the Path; rather, what kind of person is he who talks thus about the realm of the Buddha and the realm of the Path?"

>

> When, after a long time, Ch'u had not responded, the Master said, "Why don't you answer more quickly?"

>

> Ch'u said, "Such aggressiveness will not do."

>

> "You haven't even answered what you were asked, so how can you say that such aggressiveness will not do?" said the Master.

>

> Ch'u did not respond. The Master said, "The Buddha and the Path are both nothing more than names. Why don't you quote some teaching?"

Soto/Caodong founder Dongshan upset everybody. About everything. Read his record: *Record of Tung-shan*. Even the crappy translation can't disguise how he upset people BY KNOWING THINGS.

### Mazu Changed His Mind

> Mazu said, “This mind itself is Buddha.” Damei (“Great Plum”) studied this more than thirty years, dwelling on his mountain top, hiding his traces in the sounds of the valley and the colors of the mountain.

>

> The ancestor Mazu finally sent a monk to visit and say to Damei, “Mazu’s Buddha Dharma is different these days.” Damei responded, “How is it different?”

>

> The monk said, “No mind, no Buddha.”

>

> Damei said,“Even if he says ‘No mind,no Buddha,’ I just follow ‘This mind itself is Buddha.’” The monk returned and told the ancestor. Mazu said, “That plum is ripe.”

If all you can do is agree, that is submission to authority. Mazu was testing, because when you know the answers you can write the test.

# No Posers Zone

Religions are about submission to authority. Whether it's pseudo-Zen or performative r/Buddhism, submission is the heart of the practice.

Buddha's heart and Zen's practice is demonstrations of KNOWING.

No knowing, no enlightenment.

If you want something else from enlightenment: peace, empathy, kindness, security, confidence, then Enlightenment isn't what you are looking for.

If you want to know what it's like to put your hand on a hot stove, YOU HAVE TO DO IT. Just once.

One and done enlightenment.

[ewkrzen]

ZEN KOAN ARE TRANSCRIPTS: Historical records of real life conversations

# indigenous Japanese war on Zen

During the 1900s you know back when there were no computers and women didn't have the right to vote and it was still acceptable to destroy civilizations, Buddhists and indigenous Japanese religions tried to destroy Zen.

one of their strategies was convincing people that Zen history was mythological. there were two reasons this was essential for Buddhists and indigenous Japanese religions:

1. Buddhism had been unable to compete with Zen in China because Buddhism (like Christianity) was all about superstition and myth from a time before history... miracle magic X-Men powers are the basis of both Buddhism and Christianity.

* Zen has real people in real life doing real s***

2. Indigenous Japanese religions wanted to assert authority over other Asian traditions by claiming to be inheritors of Buddhism and Zen. this was part of a pattern Japanese culture in general, as Japanese culture fought for survival.

* In order for Japanese indigenous religions to be legit, they had to prove convince everyone that Indian and Chinese records were nothing more than propaganda.

# International academia at war with itself

Two major assaults on indigenous Japanese religions and international Buddhism toward the end of the 1900s set the stage for the collapse of the anti-Zen narrative:

1. The Japanese Critical Buddhism movement advocated a return to fundamentals in Buddhist academia: catechism, primary sources, and clear doctrinal positions argued from a historical perspective. The Shinto- Buddhists and Western academics with degrees from Shinto-Buddhism universities in Japan stumbled.

2. From within the Zazen religion, Stanford scholarship by Bielefeldt the fraudulent origin story of Zazen and massive fraud by the Zazen messiah. Western academia had no choice; Zazen is now acknowledged to be an indigenous Japanese religion.

# What are koans?

Zen existed as an entirely unique and independent culture in China for more than a thousand years. Zen communities spent a significant percentage of their resources recording and disseminating records of the daily interactions of their community leaders who they considered Buddhas. Generation after generation. these records were recopied and redistributed. The historical quality of these records was audited and debated.

There is overwhelming evidence that these records were preserved and studied for their historical value only; given that it was accepted after only a few hundred years that there would be new Buddhas every generation, older records were not considered any more authoritative than newer records.

One of the things that stands out in Zen koan historical records is a willingness to record events which do not seem to have much. doctrinal value. in fact, one could argue that the bulk of the historical records called koans appear to have little or no relevance to any doctrinal position that Zen Buddhas used to contrast themselves with Confucianism taoism or any of the Buddhist religions.

> The monk said: “Where is the old monk going?”.

> Zhaozhou said: “To the eastern latrine.”

> The monk said: “May this student follow along or not?”

> The master said: “If you understand, then I permit you to follow.”

The large volume of these "everyday" records underscores the role of record keeping in Zen culture. the availability of these records and the Buddhas that generated them generation after generation accounts for the enduring popularity of Zen in Chinese culture for $1,000 years.

Unlike Buddhism and Christianity, which are worshiping supernatural events invented thousands of years and cultures apart from the followers, Zen offered the Chinese generation after generation of new Zen Buddhas who considered themselves obligated to meet every question that each successive generation could invent.

# academic headache

Unlike religions like Buddhism and Christianity which have no new prophets, no new sacred texts, Zen poses a huge challenge to academics trying to study its history. What exactly do Zen Masters teach?

How do we compare the records of Mazu's formal audiences with the records of Zhaozhou going to the toilet? How do we identify academically what the most important and definitive texts are, so that Zen can be contrasted with Christianity and Buddhism and Taoism and Existentialism and Absurdism and Utilitarianism?

It's a problem that the Zen community themselves grappled with for a thousand years in China; it's a problem that has given us a deluge of everyday koans.

[ewkrzen]

Zen Enlightenment vs MAGA Buddhists

American is waking up to corruption in the Republican party, but as usual Democrats and Liberals don't want to face the fact that they are part of the problem. There is no right handed scandal that hasn't got a left handed version. From cognitive cover ups to sex scandal cover ups to civil rights violations to wars on minorities, both parties indulge. It's an American problem, not a "just them" problem.

That's why Buddhism is so inherently MAGA. MAGA Buddhists do all the things that MAGA itself does, but MAGA Buddhists pretend they are the good guys... oh wait, all of MAGA pretends they are the good guys. Same = same.

# only read/watch ur own propaganda

If you go to any forum or website named after Zen or Buddhism or awakening or enlightenment, you'll see **the Fox News Rule: only the local propaganda.** These forums don't stray from their own brand of BS. They don't quote academics or even challenge academia. They don't explain how other views are different. It's all their own Fox News all the time.

What Enlightened does

Bodhidharma met with Emperor Wu of Liang, who asked,

"How much Buddhist Merit have I earned?"

Bodhidharma said "none".

.

**Zen Enlightened hears all the different claims.

# deny the history of other cultures

If you go to any forum or website named after Zen or Buddhism, it's all about how there is no culture but MAGA Buddhism. There isn't a discussion of real life history, it's all MAGA distoritions. How many forums or websites acknowledge sutras vs sutras? Zen vs Sutras? Propaganda vs fact? It's all denial, all the time.

What gets quoted is 1900's versions of "history", and nothing else. It's 2026. How come I'm pwning these bozos loser beliefs from the 1960's?

What Enlightened does

Nanquan said to a Buddhist lecturer "What Sutra are

you lecturing on?"

The Buddhist replied, "The Nirvana Sutra."

Nanquan said, "Won't you explain it to me?"

The Buddhist said, "If I explain the sutra to you,

you should explain Zen to me."

Nanquan said, "A golden ball is not the same

as a silver one."

.

** Zen Enlightened admits of differences.

# refuse to debate publicly

MAGA is all about platforming their own views and deplatforming everybody else. That's why there isn't any debate in MAGA, or in MAGA Buddhism. You don't see any space for "what books say". Buddhism is as MAGA as MAGA. That's why it appeals to Americans on both sides of the isle.

What Enlightened does

Someone standing below asks, 'What is the meaning

of the teaching from the West [India]?' If they

do not answer, they fail to meet the question.

- Xiangyan

.

**Zen Enlightened means YOU MEET QUESTIONS.

[ewkrzen]

I got a really good question. I want to highlight it and offer my answer for criticism and debate:

Do Zen students believe in the precepts and in lineage? Doesn't Huangbo say to discard everything? How do you [justify] keeping those two things? Is it a contradiction or not?

This is a great Zen 101 question for somebody who hasn't read a single book of Zen instruction.

Zen Masters' enlightenment is a real practice experience.

# What is lineage?

1. Zen master say look there's this direct experience. We refer to having had it ONE TIME as "Enlightenment".

2. If you have this direct experience, you can

* recognize it in others and

* sometimes you can get others to look at that direct experience themselves.

3. If others who study with you look at this direct experience, and have it for themselves, they will disregard everything that you say about it. That's called "receiving the transmission".

* This disregarding is a common human experience in life. Whether baking or bike riding or radio tuning or rappelling, once you know how to do something you forget all the "helpful" advice you got from teachers. Once you know the taste of lemon for yourself, you can tell the difference between lemon and banana. All the lectures you got beforehand on lemons and bananas go out the window, forgotten, useless.

4. Lineage is an acknowledgment of transmission. There's nothing else to it.

# And now a word from our sponsor, Huangbo

> Thus Mind is transmitted with Mind and these Minds do not differ. Transmitting and receiving transmission are both a most difFIcult

kind of mysterious understanding, so that few indeed have

been able lo receive it. In fact, however. Mind is not Mind

and transmission is not really transmission.

and

> Q : If there is nothing on which to lay hold, how is the, Dharma to be transmitted?

A: It is a transmission of Mind with Mind.

Q: If Mind is used for transmission, why do you say

that Mind too docs not exist?

A: Obtaining no Dharma whatever is called Mind

transmission. The understanding of this Mind implies no

Mind and no Dharma.

and

> That there is

nothing which can be attained is not idle talk; it is the truth.

Moreover, whether you accomplish your aim in a single flash of thought...

[buddhazen101]

The following essay is a submission for my former class on Eastern Religions, and it is featured on Buddha Zen 101's new sister site by the same name on Blogger.