Final Transmission - a story

Gui

FINAL TRANSMISSION
A wise old Zen master, very near death, lay quietly on his mat with his eyes closed, all his disciples gathered around. Kneeling closest to him was his number one disciple, a longtime practitioner who would succeed the old man as head of the monastery. At one point the old master opened his eyes, and lovingly gazed at each and every one of his disciples assembled in the crowded room. Finally his glance rested on his successor, and he managed to speak his last words to the man: “Ah, my son, you have a very thorough knowledge of the teachings and scriptures, and you have shown great discipline in keeping the precepts. Your behavior has, in fact, been flawless. Yet there is one more thing remaining to be cleared up: you still reek and stink of ‘Zen’!”

MaryAnne

Ummmm.... I don't get it. :-/

how

@Gui
Some think that's the smell of anyone trying to carry a raft that was meant to be left at the shore line.
I know it's 20/20 hindsight but that's one scarily late teaching for a dying master to be giving to someone he considers to be his successor.

Gui

@how
A thousand indeeds.

lamaramadingdong

From Crooked Cucumber- as Shunryu Suzuki was in his final days, he was getting into bed and let one rip. His comment to his wife was, "That's for you, dear."

anataman

Thanks for that - love it!

Ha Ha ha ha … HA HA HA HA …
Ha Ha Ha HA HA HaHa Ha Ha HA HA Ha Ha Ha HA HA Ha Ha Ha HA HA Ha Ha Ha HA HA Ha Ha Ha HA HA Ha Ha Ha HA HA Ha Ha Ha HA HA Ha Ha Ha HA HA Ha Ha Ha HA HA Ha Ha Ha HA HA Ha Ha Ha HA HA Ha Ha Ha HA HA Ha Ha Ha HA HA Ha Ha Ha HA HA Ha Ha Ha HA HA Ha Ha Ha HA HA Ha Ha Ha HA HA Ha Ha Ha HA HA Ha Ha Ha HA HA Ha Ha Ha

Sorry, self control required here…. Right…. got it?

:cool:

lobster

MaryAnne said:

Ummmm.... I don't get it. :-/

I agree with @how.
Better to not have a successor, then leave students to the mercies of a form following hyena. Did the Buddha leave a successor?

Might be a clue as to what old farts were available?

Cyber Apple Pie, reverses that ummmm . . . negation . . . y u m m m m . . .

pegembara

Yet there is one more thing remaining to be cleared up: you still reek and stink of ‘Zen’!”

The story is similar to the beginning of the Platform Sutra.
"Hui Neng, please show yourself."

Our body is the Bodhi-tree,
And our mind a mirror bright.
Carefully we wipe them hour by hour,
And let no dust alight.

Shen Xiu

"Your stanza," replied the Patriarch, "shows that you have not yet realized the Essence of Mind. So far you have reached the 'door of enlightenment', but you have not yet entered it. To seek for supreme enlightenment with such an understanding as yours can hardly be successful.

There is no Bodhi-tree,
Nor stand of a mirror bright.
Since all is void,
Where can the dust alight?

Hui Neng

lobster

pegembara said:

There is no Bodhi-tree,
Nor stand of a mirror bright.
Since all is void,
Where can the dust alight?

Hui Neng

Since there is no alighting
dust
no void
we might as well have pie
[hysterical laughter ad infinitum]

. . . gosh I think I was influenced by a touch of the longchenpas

“in the universal womb that is boundless space
all forms of matter and energy occur
as flux of the four elements,
but all are empty forms, absent in reality:
all phenomena, arising in pure mind, are like that.

just as dream is a part of sleep,
unreal in its arising,
so all and everything is pure mind,
never separated from it,
and without substance or attribute.

experience is neither mind nor anything but mind;
it is a vivid display of emptiness, like magical illusion,
in the very moment inconceivable and unutterable.
all experience arising in the mind,
at its inception, know it as emptiness!”
― Longchenpa

Since we have no pie
we might as well have pie
to pie for