Mount Daibaizan is in the city of Kyōgenfu. Goshōji temple was established on that mountain by Zen Master Daibai Hōjō (752–839), a man of the Jōyō district. Once, when visiting Baso’s order, he asked, “What is buddha?”
Baso said, “The mind here and now is buddha.”
Hearing these words, Hōjō attained the great state of realization.
Commenting on this story, the late John Daido Loori wrote, "The buddha mind is the basis of truth, and gateless is the dharma gate. If you seek after the dharma, you will move away from it. Outside of mind there is no buddha; outside of buddha there is no mind."
“What is buddha?” is an old question that has been batted around monasteries for centuries. However, whenever we ask "what?, "who?," "which?," "when?," "where?," "how?," or "why?," the very form of our question forbids a true answer. We're discriminating, we're dividing the interconnected whole into separate entities, divisions which can only exist in our imagination. Outside of our minds, there is no separation of things into "buddha" and "not buddha." But since nothing is excluded from the interconnected whole, it must include those arbitrary distinctions of our mind. So, when asked sincerely, the question still deserves an answer.
"The mind here and now" cannot be sought after for it is already present, right here, right now. But although Baso's answer is true, it's been said that's it's a pity he had to say it, for although he was able to enlighten Hōjō with his "The mind here and now is buddha," in the end he only created a nest for generations of practioners that persists to this day.
nothing is hidden.
Yet if you are not intimate with it, when it's revealed,
you'll think about it for the rest of your life.
- John Daido Loori
No comments:
Post a Comment