Wednesday, July 11, 2012

On shikantaza: who does this sound like?

"Do not misconstrue the past, the present, or the future. The past has not gone, the present does not stay, the future has not come. Tranquilly sitting erect, accepting things as they come, but not being bound, this is indeed what is called emancipation."

Dogen Zenji, right? The wordplay, the bewildering subversion of normal ideas of time, and the equation of zazen (shikantaza) with emancipation. But it is Mazu Daoyi ( Baso Do'itsu), godfather of the Hongzhou Chan school and grandfather teacher of Linji Xiyun (Rinzai Gigen).

-from The Record of Linji, tr./ed. Sasaki and Kirchner, p. 172. 

1 comment:

David Ashton said...

What a wealth of writing in your blog! Looking forward to reading it.