Re: (Belatedly) Transmission

[Guest guest]

I have loved 's input on this. Be it said , though, it's not who one

receives the

transmission from so much as who is doing the receiving. Of course it's

wonderful if one's

teacher or teachers can be of incontestable wisdom and unimpeachable moral

integrity, but

that's not the point.

Many great sages of the very highest quality have walked the face of this planet

and had the

compassion to try to share with us a little of their knowing. Mostly what we've

managed to do

with it is try and stuff the little we understand up other peoples' noses and

then kill 'em if they

refuse to choke. It's not a question of what THEY can give, but of how purely we

can receive it,

then reflect upon it, and finally put it into action and test it against reality

for further purification of

ourselves.

What we tend to do, rather, is 'give it a bash' and, if it doesn't all fall into

place immediately, give

it up.

According to the Zen tradition, the student should literally have ten times the

capcity of the

teacher or something will be lost in the transmission. And what is it that is

transmitted?... Ah,

well!... That would be telling, wouldn't it

Be it said, in passing, that the mantra 'GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI

SWAHA' pushes further than just to 'the other side'... It translates: " Gone,

gone, gone beyond,

gone utterly beyond. Awakening! So be it in all auspiciousness!'

'Gone' from where? From 'here' - from the busywork and confusion of attachment

to attitudes and

ends-in-view.

then 'gone' from where the second time? Gone from attachment to 'a beyond

attachment', some

other place to go, another way of going about things.

'Gone beyond' what? beyond dualities of needing to be one way or the other.

'Gone utterly beyond' to where knowledge and emptiness, form and emptiness,

bliss and

emptiness are realised as being the same thing - exactly what always is, always

has been,

always will be, without any need to make sure cherries grow on stalks or push

the river... Just

knowing that this is it... the great perfection.

'Be still and know that I am God,' as they say.

My belated ha'p'orth.

Love,

m