A seeker I know said:
"Nothing makes sense. The moment it does, something happens to contradict it. Back to nothing makes sense."
He has chosen to believe "it makes no sense" because he's searched and hasn't found anything that makes sense. He is now holding onto "it makes no sense" so strongly, that I doubt any words can turn his attention away from that idea. That's perfectly so. I only suggest that other people consider how believing in any idea keeps one trapped in the mind. For anyone trapped in mind there is no willingness to turn attention to anything that might lie beyond mind. It's a bit like a hermit crab who says, "I'm happy inside my shell, even though it isn't very roomy or comfortable, and nothing is going to pull me out of here."
This is the cigarette-man koan in a different guise. The CM (cigarette man) is very attached to oneness/emptiness, and no matter what you say to him, he will hit you. He is very strong. How can you teach the CM? If you penetrate this koan, you will understand what to do.
The teacher definitely doesn't take any offense at the CM's behavior, but HOW does he teach him? Remember, in every koan the person being asked the koan is an integral part of the koan. How do we teach someone who is so strongly attached to his/her ideas that she/he will not listen to anything we say? In the case of the CM, he will hit you no matter what you do or say. The answer to this koan, like all koans, must come from the body rather than the mind
The CM is convinced that he sees and understands the truth. From his POV anyone else who doesn't conclude what he's concluded is deluded and is clinging to an erroneous viewpoint/idea.
This seeker has concluded that "nothing makes sense." The CM has concluded that "all is one; all is emptiness; nothing is holy or unholy because all distinctions are empty." This is why he drops his cigarette ashes on the Buddha. The Buddha statue is equivalent in value to the floor, the ground, or anything else, so it doesn't matter where he drops his ashes. How can you teach someone like the CM who is so strongly attached to his ideas that he will not listen to anything you say? How?
When Hakuin was a young man, the world did not make sense, and he had many doubts and questions. He entered a monastery and was taught to meditate. After a while he had a huge enlightenment experience coupled with several big realizations. He rushed to his teacher and presented his understanding. His teacher just laughed at him and called him "A poor hole-dwelling devil." Hakuin couldn't understand why his understanding wasn't accepted. He continued meditating and had another big experience. Again, his teacher just laughed. Hakuin had more experiences and realizations, and after a while, although his teacher didn't sanction his understanding, he stopped laughing at him. Eventually Hakuin's teacher died, and Hakuin wandered around visiting other teachers and going deeper and deeper. After Hakuin's search for truth came to an end, he said, "Only now do I understand the mind of my original teacher and realize how deluded I was when I interacted with him." He subsequently returned to his teacher's grave to pay his respects. What Hakuin discovered is pointed to in this poem by Tung-Shan (800AD) as translated by Stephen Mitchell:
If you look for the truth outside yourself,
it gets farther and farther away.
Today, walking alone,
I meet him everywhere I step.
He is the same as me,
yet I am not him.
Only if you understand it in this way
will you merge with the ways things are.
Tung-Shan and Hakuin did not "create their own reality;"
they simply discovered the truth.
They didn't believe that the world "made sense" nor "didn't make sense."
They had become free of such abstractions, and were not interested in abstractions.
Meister Eckhart once said, "If I had to choose between God and the truth, I would hold to the truth and let God go."
There is a wall beyond which the mind cannot go. Beyond that wall lies the truth.
"Nothing makes sense. The moment it does, something happens to contradict it. Back to nothing makes sense."
He has chosen to believe "it makes no sense" because he's searched and hasn't found anything that makes sense. He is now holding onto "it makes no sense" so strongly, that I doubt any words can turn his attention away from that idea. That's perfectly so. I only suggest that other people consider how believing in any idea keeps one trapped in the mind. For anyone trapped in mind there is no willingness to turn attention to anything that might lie beyond mind. It's a bit like a hermit crab who says, "I'm happy inside my shell, even though it isn't very roomy or comfortable, and nothing is going to pull me out of here."
This is the cigarette-man koan in a different guise. The CM (cigarette man) is very attached to oneness/emptiness, and no matter what you say to him, he will hit you. He is very strong. How can you teach the CM? If you penetrate this koan, you will understand what to do.
The teacher definitely doesn't take any offense at the CM's behavior, but HOW does he teach him? Remember, in every koan the person being asked the koan is an integral part of the koan. How do we teach someone who is so strongly attached to his/her ideas that she/he will not listen to anything we say? In the case of the CM, he will hit you no matter what you do or say. The answer to this koan, like all koans, must come from the body rather than the mind
The CM is convinced that he sees and understands the truth. From his POV anyone else who doesn't conclude what he's concluded is deluded and is clinging to an erroneous viewpoint/idea.
This seeker has concluded that "nothing makes sense." The CM has concluded that "all is one; all is emptiness; nothing is holy or unholy because all distinctions are empty." This is why he drops his cigarette ashes on the Buddha. The Buddha statue is equivalent in value to the floor, the ground, or anything else, so it doesn't matter where he drops his ashes. How can you teach someone like the CM who is so strongly attached to his ideas that he will not listen to anything you say? How?
When Hakuin was a young man, the world did not make sense, and he had many doubts and questions. He entered a monastery and was taught to meditate. After a while he had a huge enlightenment experience coupled with several big realizations. He rushed to his teacher and presented his understanding. His teacher just laughed at him and called him "A poor hole-dwelling devil." Hakuin couldn't understand why his understanding wasn't accepted. He continued meditating and had another big experience. Again, his teacher just laughed. Hakuin had more experiences and realizations, and after a while, although his teacher didn't sanction his understanding, he stopped laughing at him. Eventually Hakuin's teacher died, and Hakuin wandered around visiting other teachers and going deeper and deeper. After Hakuin's search for truth came to an end, he said, "Only now do I understand the mind of my original teacher and realize how deluded I was when I interacted with him." He subsequently returned to his teacher's grave to pay his respects. What Hakuin discovered is pointed to in this poem by Tung-Shan (800AD) as translated by Stephen Mitchell:
If you look for the truth outside yourself,
it gets farther and farther away.
Today, walking alone,
I meet him everywhere I step.
He is the same as me,
yet I am not him.
Only if you understand it in this way
will you merge with the ways things are.
Tung-Shan and Hakuin did not "create their own reality;"
they simply discovered the truth.
They didn't believe that the world "made sense" nor "didn't make sense."
They had become free of such abstractions, and were not interested in abstractions.
Meister Eckhart once said, "If I had to choose between God and the truth, I would hold to the truth and let God go."
There is a wall beyond which the mind cannot go. Beyond that wall lies the truth.
