| |
They cannot be bodhisattvas. All their words are borrowed, although they have their own experience. So I will not call them the teachers.
It is strange that this category has not been recognized separately. Perhaps very rarely people have tried the way Basui is trying -- with all good intentions, with compassion -- but he is not capable. You may have good intentions, but that does not mean you can play on a guitar. You may have all the good intentions, but that does not mean you can dance. It needs a totally different quality, a certain genius, which is missing.
Whatever he is saying is more or less true, but not very sharp... like a sword cutting all that is false in a single blow. He is a very mild kind of bodhisattva, a lukewarm bodhisattva.
Let us call this new category the lukewarm bodhisattva.
Ryokan wrote:
WITHOUT A JOT OF AMBITION LEFT
I LET MY NATURE FLOW
WHERE IT WILL.
THERE ARE TEN DAYS OF RICE
IN MY BAG,
AND BY THE HEARTH,
A BUNDLE OF FIREWOOD.
WHO PRATTLES OF ILLUSION
OR NIRVANA?
FORGETTING THE EQUAL DUSTS OF
NAME AND FORTUNE,
LISTENING TO THE NIGHT RAIN
ON THE ROOF OF MY HUT,
I SIT AT EASE,
BOTH LEGS STRETCHED OUT.
Now, this is a sharp, swordlike man saying things clearly....
"Without a jot of ambition left I let my nature flow where it will" -- no direction, no destiny. I give my nature total freedom.
"There are ten days of rice in my bag" -- enough. Who lives with certainty for more than ten days? Enough. Nature has taken care up to now, it will take care after ten days. So I don't collect, it is enough.
"And by the hearth, a bundle of firewood" -- what a richness! What a contentment in utter poverty! Even kings will be jealous of this man.
"Who prattles of illusion or nirvana?" -- and who bothers whether I am awakened or not awakened, whether I am in an illusion, in a dream, or in nirvana...? In awakening, "who prattles?"
"Forgetting the equal dusts of name and fortune" -- all is dust of name and fortune.
"Listening to the night rain on the roof of my hut... both legs
|
|
|