Good morning Sensei,
Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. I am just a
practitioner of Chan and not a master. A master in our school means
someone who is enlightened and has received "Buddha Heart Imprint",
while I have neither. Since Zen does recognize the Mahayana practice,
then please let me share some of the discussions we had recently in our
school....
As we know, Hinayana is often called the Small Vehicle and Mahayana is
the Great Vehicle. And in China, the Chan is called the Supreme
Vehicle. It means that Chan could free everyone.
It is true, when others are enlightened, we are enlightened. The danger
of this realization is the rationalization that we only need to work on
ourselves. If so, then we are only practicing Hinayana. We did not
"do" the circular track of Chan.
The Mahayana practice is a practice, only when we leave our lotus and
step into the mud, could we than detach ourselves from the limitation of
our practice and our dharma. In other words, as we focus on the
difficulty in freeing others, could we then realize how limited we are
in wisdom and energy in resolving their karmic hindrance. Only then we
could be motivated to continuously surpassing our habitual practice,
form and formless. In turn to realize that "Dharma is not dharma. No
dharma is dharma."
Then we would know dharma is in every encounter. It is up to us to be
one with it. Only then we are liberated from the rationalization of our
mind and awaken to the fact that the One of Chan is the ALL. This
realization occurs when we journey midway into the freeing of each one,
as a Supreme Vehicle.
Too often we quit by rationalizing to ourselves that this practice is
not for everyone. Or the time is not right, or whatever excuses we
place upon our practice. If so, we have trapped ourselves into
believing that our current practice is the only path. The practice of
Supreme Vehicle is every practice in each moment, in each encounter,
without self, without other, without dharma, without form, without
notion, etc.
To free all beings is not to impose "our" practice upon them, but rather
let them awaken from within. The only way we could accomplish that is
to speak in their language in their mindset and help them to resolve
whatever there needs to be resolve in resources, mindset or life force.
In other words, we needed to be them and undertake their karma. Thus the
mud is the lotus and lotus is the mud and they both grow in tandem.
To phrase it in beautiful labels, Mahayana is the journey for
Bodhisattva, Supreme Vehicle is the journey for Buddha, who is the one
and all and us and everyone.
Thank you all for your attention,
JMJM
Head Teacher
Order Of Chan
Learn the Basics of Chan Meditation...
http://www.chan-meditation.org
Chan in everyday life...
http://www.chanliving.org
To be enlightened in this life...
http://www.heartchan.org
To save our world...
http://www.universal-oneness.org
On 9/1/2011 9:49 PM, Harvey Daiho Hilbert wrote:
With palms together,
Good Evening Everyone,
On the Zen Living list, Ch’an Master Jue Miao Jing Ming , asked me a
question the other day. “Dear Sensei, Do you consider Zen a Mahayana
practice? If so, what does Mahayana actually do?”
While Zen is within the Mahayana tradition, it is not a Mahayana
practice as I understand it.Student Rev. Shoji and I were discussing
this question today and Rev. Shoji brought up an interesting
distinction.He argued that Mahayana Buddhists aim at the Bodhisattva
ideal to free all beings before they, themselves, enter nirvana.He
points out that from a Zen point of view, self and other are one,
therefore there is no one, but oneself, to free.
Zen Master Seung Sahn argues in his Compass, that both Theravadan and
Mahayane traditions have “roads,” but that Zen has not only no road,
but no map, as well.The practice is practice realization as one.Path
and destination are not two.
These beg the question, however, “What does Mahayana actually do?”
Mahayana does nothing.Mahayana is just a word.And we can see from the
question that such things as words and concepts can create a
hindrance.We could ask a better question, “What is Mahayana /practice
/and what does it do?” The aim of the practice is to free beings, but how?
Again, Master Sahn offers the Six Paramitas as “practice guides.”They
are rather like the manifest value in the nexus between idea and
behavior, rather like the term “Quality” as used in Pirsig’s “Zen and
the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.” A Mahayana practitioner practices
to make manifest the six aspects of our true nature in the hope that
to do so will free suffering beings.
A Zen practitioner, however realizes practice and life are one, that
everything is already free, perfect as it is, but that we jail
ourselves with our thoughts.A Zen practitioner notices and ceases all
grasping: no attachment to ideas, desires, things, feelings, etc.
A Zen practitioner is free and easy in the everyday world.His mind is
free and his heart limitless.He recognizes all beings are likewise
like this.
Be well.
/Rev. //Daiho Hilbert, //abbot/
/OCMZ /
