In search of what transcends the searcher

Looking for our glasses when they are perched on our nose is something akin to a fool's journey as is riding an ox in search of an ox.

"What is Zen?" asked a novice monk.
Master Hyakuja replied, "It̍s like riding an ox, and seeking to find it."
Said the student, "After we understand; then what is it?"
The master replied, "It̍s like riding an ox, and going home on it."
Asked the student, "Then, what do we do with it?"
"It̍s like an ox-herd who keeps it out of other peoples rice fields."

Zen understands that the beginner is such a stubborn fool.  While the fool searches for the mysterious awakening (the ox) he or she has no idea what moves this mysterious search.  The beginner, also, has no idea what puts on the robes and bears the body’s pains and delights.

The madman whips the ox furiously trying to reach the goal that he imagines in his imagination.

The cultures or institutions of Zen Buddhism have little to do with Zen which is a Japanese word meaning in Sanskrit dhyāna.  This, by the way, is the methodology/investigation Siddhartha used to attain enlightenment.  In English, dhyāna would be intuition or gnosis.  Both of these terms cover transcendental knowledge.

As long as we project our ideas and our values on what Siddhartha sought we will never arrive.  Zen tries to take away all of our assumptions and presuppositions of what Siddhartha attained.  Siddhartha's attainment will only begin to resonate with us when we start to give up trying to be the knower of this mysterious state.

Comments

[TheZennist]

So very true! And when the adept finally intuits the unconditioned that faith then gives them the necessary momentum to go to the light of the Mahayana. The more we rely on others to take us across the waters of samsara the less faith it requires to the point where we become faithless (modern Buddhism is full of the faithless, so sad).

[n. yeti]

I would like to comment here on the importance of faith because in this great doubt, this mystery spoken of above, there is one simple principle which unfailingly leads to samadhi: that is the power of faith. Faith has the power to ward off iniquity and misfortune, to shed ignorance, and to instantly attune the deluded mind to the emanations of all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and their vows.

In faith, one renounces the known. In this simple act of renunciation there is no space for thought or distortion to occupy the mind. Single-mindedly in an act of renunciation, embodied by prostration but ultimately of the purification of mind, one instantly bathes in the wisdom of the Buddhas, washing away a lifetime of karmas.

How is this so?

As it is said in the Avatamsaka Sutra:

Faith is the basis of the path, the mother of virtues,
Nourishing and growing all good ways...
Faith can increase knowledge and virtue;
Faith can assure arrival at Enlightenment.

With utter sincerity, raising the mind in devotion shatters the bonds of karma because in that devotion there is in that total sincerity, that total renunciation, only the mind of the Buddhas and how can calamity or misfortune reach such a mind? Even if the body were annihilated such a mind is impervious to destruction, because in the absence of doubt there is entrance to samadhi; the karmic winds cease, the three poisons of anger, greed and ignorance cannot manifest, and in that shelter is immersion in original vows of all the Buddhas to lead all beings to Enlightenment.