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Main Index
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everything that is false, phony, and leaves only the ancient emerald palace shining in the full-moon night.
SHO AND HEN ARE IN REFERENCE TO TOZAN'S FIVE RANKS, THE PHILOSOPHICAL TREATMENT OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE REAL AND THE APPARENT.
Philosophers have been concerned for centuries about the problem of what is real and what is apparent. Even in the beginning of this century two philosophers, Bosanquet and Bradley, wasted their whole lives writing treatises about the apparent and the real. Strangely enough, it was done not only by Bradley and Bosanquet; it has been discussed in China by Sho and Hen, it has been discussed in India by Shankara.
The problem of what is real and what is apparent cannot be decided by philosophical discussion. To the eyes, whatever appears is appearance, and the real is hidden inside you -- it does not appear on the surface. So all these philosophers, and their number is many...
One of my teachers has a doctorate on Bradley and Shankara, comparing their philosophies about what is real and what is only apparent, not real. The name of the professor was S.S. Roy. He is still alive, retired; he loved me very much. I asked him, "You have got a doctorate, but do you really know what is real and what is apparent? If I was the examiner of your treatise you would have failed!"
He looked at me, could not believe that a student would say to his own professor... when his treatise had been examined by the greatest living professors in India and outside India and greatly praised. He said, "But do you know how much my treatise has been praised?"
I said, "That does not matter at all. What matters is that you don't know what is real. You are only discussing, it is not your experience. You are not a meditator, you have not come to the space of pure silence; your whole treatise is simply verbiage, maybe well written, very rationally written, but it is not your existential experience."
He said, "My God, it is good that you were not one of my examiners, otherwise I would have lost my D. Litt."
I said to him, "If you are a man of intelligence you have already lost it. Just what I am saying is enough
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