Zen is the New Tao but the Mystery remains the same.

When Buddhism was first introduced into China the literati and Mandarin scholars and the Imperial Eunuch Chamberlains (they were the censors) were exponents of Taoism and Confucianism. They translated and interpreted the Buddhist scriptures using Taoist and Confucian words, ideas and concepts. Thus we ended up with the fusion we know as the Three Pillars of Chinese Society. And as a result we have what is uniquely a Chinese brand of (Mahayana) Buddhism known as Ch'an or Zen; which cannot be properly understood unless you are a Confucian scholar and a Taoist adept or acolyte. In a sense Taoism was transformed and expropriated by Buddhism, taking it away from the mystical and esoteric and the dark sorcery; and conversely Buddhism was equally transformed by Taoism, which took Buddhism to the transcendental and beyond, in fact beyond the realm of worldly scriptures and doctrines. We know this because of China's unique literary and academic history. In the China of the past you could not be a public official unless you were a tested and proven Confucian scholar. You could not research into the Tao unless you were a top Confucian scholar! They were the academics of yesteryears. The Taoist adepts researching into alchemy and geomancy and IChing and fung-shui of Taoism would be like the modern day scientists of today! It would be like the Greek Bible being researched into by the top university academics in present day terms, and that this was the sole academic course at university, and there was only one faculty. In China it was the Three Pillars of Chinese Philosophy. Zen as in the Tao remains a mystery. When you can express the Tao it is no longer the Tao. When you can explain the inconceivability of Zen it is no longer the Zen. That is why in Zen we are speaking in terms of Buddha preaching in silence without saying a word, without expounding the Dharma, and that the Dharma is inherently hidden away within us and everywhere around us. It is like not being able to see the forest from the trees. A Zen Master cannot explain or describe the moon to you. A Zen Master can only point at or out the moon to you. You have to realise the beauty or significance of the moon (metaphorically representing spiritual 'illumination') yourself. Like Mahakayashapa you have to realise what it meant when the Buddha held out a flower to him. The Buddha did not enlighten or awaken Mahakayashapa to the significance of the 'flower'. The fact was that Mahakayashapa himself, unprompted, awakened to its meaning, and that is the mystery of Zen. Zen cannot therefore be taught or learned like worldly knowledge. It cannot be transmitted mentally or telepathically in a worldly sense. It has to be experienced spiritually individually and personally. And when you experience it, it happens spontaneously, you will know it and realise it there and then yourself, and also realise that it has nothing to do with worldly knowledge or wisdom. There is no accreditation or assessment process in a worldly sense. But for the benefit of Westerners, I will do a bit of 'pointing to the moon'. In a Western context, the following are the people who might be regarded to have experience the spontaneity that is Zen in their emotional outpouring, literary creativity or intellectual inventiveness, without realising it. (1) A military commander, like Richard III, caught in the final moment of peril in the thick flurry of hand to hand combat where and when he realised that death was a certainty, and there was no escape, and consequently there was nothing left in his mind, other than being caught up in the reality of the moment, where he is lost to himself and lost to the world. (2) A poet totally caught in the torrent of his poetic frenzy and he is writing down the prose, when he is lost in the words of the stanza, is lost to himself and is lost to the world. (3) A scientist totally lost and adrift in his mathematical formulae of scientific hypothesis and the spark of invention or discovery flashes in his mind blocking out all other mentations, and he is lost to himself and is lost to the world.

What is meant by that they are lost to themselves and lost to the world at the point of the spontaneous arising of Zen? Basically at that Zen point they are not attracted by or attached to what they sense of the world around them. They are not distracted, seduced or deluded by what they see going on around them, the worldly sight, the worldly sound, the worldly smell, the worldly taste or the worldly touch. A naked lady doing belly dancing would mean nothing to them. There are no worldly thoughts of pride or status or wealth or self or ego. They are selfless! They are totally absorbed and subsumed in the 'search'. The warrior is searching for a way out to live to fight another day. The Poet is searching for the word that would epitomise his soul. The scientist is searching for the mother cause or the theory. The only difference in Buddhist Zen journey is that you are searching for the Ultimate Truth or Reality. In many books on Zen you are instructed to be mindful only of the present. Do not be misled that this itself is Zen. It is not! It is just an attribute given to the characteristic of the state of meditation that you must achieve or maintain in Zen. It is just a technique on focussing. When you are focussing on the present, you should not however be lost or stalled in the present. It is just that your mind must be focused. You should instead be focused on the search i.e. the journey. You watch or are mindful of your steps as you proceed on the spiritual journey but your mental focus should be on the peak of the spiritual mountain of Shangri La; a long distance away and might in fact be not yet visible to you. Until it comes within spiritual sight the 'Buddha has no shape and the Dharma has no form'. The Zen moment comes when you experience it. Until it comes you will never know what Zen is. That is why Zen is inconceivable. That is why the Tao can only be and will always be a mystery? When you looking for the inconceivable or unimaginable you should not be lost in and be stalled stationary with what is conceivable, with what you can worldly see, hear, smell, taste or touch or imagine as phenomena. Ignore the phantasmagoria! In any-case what you take as the present is no longer the present although it is perceived as the present. The 'present' that you see is already 'past' like the stars you see in the sky. Anything that you can perceive as past present or future is just a perception, for in the Ultimate Reality of the Truth in eternity there is no perception of past, present or future. There is no need or want for anything in perpetual bliss. There is no need for the urgency or expiation of time. Time has no meaning in eternity! Time does not roll on or move in eternity! In the above we are only talking about Zen moments that can arise spontaneously. But that might be fortuitous like 'a cat running into a mouse in the darkness'. True Zen awakening is such that where once you were blind, you now see. Instead of an 'I' lost to himself and lost to the world, true Zen awakening is when there is no 'I' at all that is lost to himself and no 'I' lost to the world. There is no 'I', no 'world' and nothing 'lost'. No such labels or concepts or perceptions exist in the egolessness and selflessness that is eternity! Take this case teaching from Ch'an Master Xu Yun, the greatest Ch'an Mater of the 20th century. A man making supplication to the Buddha said - "Lord, life is indeed bitter and painful! Days toiling under the burning sun, nights lying on the cold wet earth. So much hunger and thirst and loneliness! How many more times must I be reborn into such wretched existence before I may walk in Paradise with you?" The Buddha pointed to a tamarind tree nearby. "Do you see the tamarind tree?" The man nodded. The Buddha said - "Before you know freedom from sorrow, you must be reborn as many times as there are leaves on that tamarind tree." The man looked at the tamarind tree and its thousands of leaves, and his eyes filled with gratitude. He said thankfully "How merciful is my Lord!" as he prostrated at the Buddha's feet. The Buddha then said - "Arise, my good friend, you can come with me right now." Please contemplate! That is true awakening to Zen. What are thousands of worldly live spans when judged against eternity? It will be like a 'second' in Heaven! In the egolessness and selflessness that is Heaven, you get there straight away when you lose the ego of 'I'. You suffer in Samsara because of your 'I'! To understand Zen you have to understand karma, that you reap what you sow. Zen is simply

about transcending the cycle of births and deaths in Samsara! Zen is transcendental meditation rather than worldly knowledge of the Four Noble Truths. In a Western sense Zen is simply about spiritual salvation, about going to Heaven. Zen is about getting off Jacob's Ladder. Zen is about the Journey Home of the Lost Prodigal Son in Sin City. The Zen journey is just the Pilgrim's Progress or the Journey of the Cross. cheok hong chuan 13/11/13