She stands alone in a great hall surrounded by the statues of a thousand dead zen guys. She knows each one by heart, and she thanks them for showing her this temple.
The person who brought her up here smiles, glistening, and hopeful, that's is all he does.
Is this her temple or his temple? Is she to be a guest or a host? He just smiles and does not host nor make small talk. So she questions him about the things that she asked the statues.
He doesn't claim to be a sculptor, but he knew the way to the temple. He points over there, and he goes to a back room, crying because she didn't turn him into a statue.
There is no more room for statues, my friend.
Her friend came in bragging, how he went to school with several of the statues. He praises the people he knows who follow the men of the statue. And he tells her, maybe they can help better than those of the statue hall. But they cant.
Because they dont know statue words either.
She threw herself down and had a frustrated confused fit . "What is plaster, what is carving, what is the name of the artist's vision? " Silence. Of course.
Of course, because these questions are impossible. But the statues can hear them just as they are in her mouth and they are able to cut thru even with her own words.
She sits, her mind enjoys many beautiful things. How the mind turns, how it reveals, how it goes to and fro. Mystical delights. Wet dreams. The excitement of the imagination of finding a companion that loves the same statues as she.
But there is a major language problem. Not only did he come bragging, he also came with only one language. Talking to him was like talking to a guy stuck in rhyme. Mysterious, and contrived poetry promising of his personal images. He wanted to know if she remembered when they toured this castle together before?
As lonely as she is, she told the truth ,said no, she is blind and claimed amnesia. For anything that comes of one's imagination is only one's interpretation, and not the thing. Is she not his friend because she does not submit to his dream? Or cower and ask for guidance?
That is it really. I think her friend was a guy who has some penetration, and long practice and has seen the great mental place where all is the mind's subtle function, and then i think he got attached to the wondrous visions that happen when one connects with another of the same type.(ha or she did)
Basically he popped her cherry and ran. I bet he didn't think that he might have actually woken someone up who was utterly unprepared for the mental results. (fish out of water will flop violently duh)
Did he even ask any personal or clarifying question to help untie the knot of enlightened confusion she was going thru?
No....he didn't. He jumped out of bed and sent her to the nurse.
Now he will not come out of the room, or answer her calls.
And she feels raped.
And while she sits in the great hall, she quiets her mind. Thank you Mister Roboto.
You have shown me the way again, but i am not good enough to walk with you. Before i leave, let us consult a few of these Statues.
((((psssstt statues talk a lot and there are about ten of them with something to say so this is a long post. and when i am finished it won't matter if he ever comes out of his room but if he does then...he becomes the guest with me of these many Hosts and maybe we would find something to talk about. I for one enjoy kung-fu movies and enjoy humor as well as a good zen-ninja-re-roo. Tell me you are likely to find a girl like that somewhere else booooieeeeeeeee))))
Master Huai-shan
"There are six roads before you: one is suitable for travel, five are not. First, don't rub your eyes and create optical illusions on the subtle ground of the sages.
Second, don't take the servant for master on the ground of ordinary reality. Third, don't play with physical energy in a state of light. Fourth, don't be an escapist in the room of nothing. Fifth, dont talk of yellow and red in a nest of complications.
The Sixth road is the only one I'd let you go on. But tell me, how do you travel this road?
Understand? If not for your footwear wearing out, how do you notice the forked road is long? "
Master Chen-ching
"I do not understand Zen, I do not understand Tao: I only know how to dissolve glue and remove bonds. To give medicines according to ailments. There is no Zen to study, no Tao to learn. Abandoning the fundamental to pursue trivia, busily working on externals, is not as good as coming back to get to know your own citadel.
In the citadel is your own spiritual monarch to honor, who answers a hundredfold when called once, who wants all people to wake up to themselves.
Come, come! What you must do is put down your previous knowledge and views of Buddhism all at once; then the mental stamp of your own cosmic Buddha will be clear through and through."
Master Hsuan-sha
"There is no thing to Buddhism- it can enliven people, and it can kill people too. Seeing essential nature and becoming enlightened penetrates all time. "
Master T'ou-tzu
"You come here looking for sayings and talks, novel expressions and elegant lines, uselessly talking to verbalization. I am old and my energy is not up to par; I am a dull speaker and have no idle talk for you. If you ask me questions, I answer in accord with your questions, but I have no mysterious marvel that can be conveyed to you and I won't have you get fixated.
I never assert the existence of Buddha and Dharma, of ordinary person and sage, either in the beyond or the here and now; and I have no intention of sitting here tying you people down. You go through a thousand changes, but all of it is you people conceiving interpretations, carrying them with you, experiencing the results of your own doings. I have nothing here for you, and nothing exotic or esoteric to explain to you, no appearance or intention to represent to you."
Master Ku-lin
"Fen-yang called on more than seventy teachers: only one or two had insight and vision; the rest where nothing to talk about. Recently there are some people whose knowledge is not clear and who have not learned their own fundamental task; unable to make an existential investigation, instead they work from books, trying to get a supply of things to talk about.
They are mistaken- they have thrown away the real gold to go after rubble."
Master Liao-an
"People studying the way do not know the real simply because they have been acknowledging the conscious mind. The root of infinite aeons of birth and death, ignorant people call it the original human being.
If learners do no distinguish skillfully, and mistake the conscious mind for the self, this is what is refereed to in the teachings as taking a thief for one's son. The family fortune will never be established."
"The teachings of the whole vast canon are all prescriptions for curing the mad. if you see through the origin, the mad mind abruptly stops and you may spontaneously burst out in a laugh."
Master Hui-ching
"Genuine seeker of true enlightenment should first question themselves and discover their inherent spiritual light. The they must meet others to find out the handle of going beyond. As they penetrate the subtle crux of being and nonbeing, grasping and rejection are both empty; as they pass through the dark machinations of gain and loss, they devote no energy to maters of glory and disgrace."
Master Hsuan-sha
"Every reality is eternal, every essence is as is: just don't seek outwardly. If you have a great root of faith, the buddhas are just states of your own experience; whether you are walking, standing, sitting or laying down, never is it not this.
My speaking directly to you now is already pressing the free into servitude.Would you agree to speak thus? And how do you understand agreeing or not agreeing?"
Master Yun-feng
"The way is the perennial way, the truth is the perennial truth: don't misapply body and mind chasing after sayings. This is why it is said that even the slightest of objects is dust; as soon as you arouse intent, you are confused by hallucination."
Master Ying-an
"Bodhidharma came from the West and just pointed to the human mind, to show its nature and enlighten it. That was undeniably direct and economical, but when seen with the absolute eye, it is already all mixed up. There is no choice for now but to make some medicine for a dead horse.
This mind that is simply pointed to is precisely what the Buddha could not express in forty nine years of lectures and talks. It is extremely rarefied, extremely subtle; few are able to find the true pulse.
This mind cannot be transmitted but can only be experienced in oneself and understood in oneself.
When you get to the point where there is neither delusion or enlightenment,you simply dress and eat as normal, without a bunch of arcane interpretations and lines of doctrine jamming your chest, so you're clear and uncluttered."
Master Ta-sui
"When I was journeying, I didn't choose communities on the basis of whether or not they had material provisions; I was only concerned with seeing whether their perception indicated some capacity. If so then I might stay for a summer or a winter; but if they where low-minded, I'd leave in two or three days.
Although I called on more than sixty prominent teachers, barely one of them had real knowledge- they just want your donations. "
Master Chen-ching
"Buddhism does not obey human sentiments. The elders everywhere all open their mouths wide saying "I understand Zen. I understand Tao" But tell me do they understand or not? As for those who sit in cesspits for no reason, deceiving spirits and fooling ghosts, even if you killed a thousands or ten thousand of them and fed them to the dogs, what would be wrong with that?
There is also a type of Zen follower who gets bewitched by these foxes with their eyes wide open, quite unaware of it themselves. Plunging into pouring piss, they dont even feel disgusted.
Hey you are all adults! How can you accept this? What should you do yourself?"
Master Wu-chun
"Teachers have appeared in the world to uphold this very thing, spreading a net to bring in those of very high capacity. When you find out their essential subtlety, it is not beyond the discovery of each individual's own mind. Once the mind is clear, this very word clarity doesn't stick anywhere anymore. It is like a snowflake on a red hot stove.
When you get to such a state, you still need long term refinement and polishing to reach complete maturity. Once the roots are firm there is no need to worry that the branches might not flourish. Only then can you deal with important matters and take on great responsibilities. Life and death, calamity and fortune, cannot move you at all; whether you are in adversity or prosperity, withdrawn or expansive, in activity or in quietude, you hit the target in every case.
In action, you adapt to changes with intuitive penetration and complete fluidity without bound. In stillness, you are open and clear, independently illumined,
NOT IMPRISONED BY WONDROUS STATES
This is what is meant by the saying , 'All times and all places are my livelihood'"
........
um....
Mistress the Snail
" how the fish still flops
there is oxygen in water
air is hard to breathe"
