[MD] Reifying carrots

[MarshaV]

"Does the dog have Buddha Nature?" a monk asks."

...   


http://www.everydayzen.org/index.php?Itemid=26&task=viewTeaching&topic=Koan+Studies&sort=title&option=com_teaching&id=135    

   
Although Master Wumen wants us to experience reality beyond our word logic (and we must do this), in the end we are stuck with words — with discrimination, desire, action — for this is our human life. The wisdom Zhaozho is showing us in this story is a wisdom that operates both beyond and in the ordinary world, the world of language and desire. Our human condition is paradoxical because our minds operate through separation and reification, through definition and objectification; but our life is larger than our mind. To take up Zhaozho's way of practice is to feel and to live beyond our human need to define and understand — even as we go on defining and understanding. There's no way to do this without contemplative practice of some sort — whether our practice is to immerse ourselves in Mu, just do zazen patiently for many years, or some other way to allow our fundamental nature to grab hold of us by the scruff of the neck so that we can experience our lives as the really are. But there is also no way to do this without some ability to hold our minds and emotions in a new way, a lighter and more open and willing way, so that our everyday words, thoughts, and deeds are reflective of a larger life than the one we can name and think about.  

 
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