"Be passerby" is from the Gospel of Thomas.
There is the related Zen question too: "Why did Bodhidharma come from the west?"
If someone asks you this, best to just keep walking. And, if you are sincere about "knowing" the infinite non-answer to this question, what are you doing following the forms of a monastery?
What is a life of no attachment? How does it appear? What is "emptiness" realized?
A real practice should promote inquisitiveness, experimentation, sharing, and travel. It is my fantasy that, someday, this will be considered a normal thing -- to walk from one meditation center to another, meet the people there, work with them, have your little dharma debates, etc.... Then go to the next place.
If you think about the lives of the ages, this phrase -- "Be Passerby" -- pretty much sums it up. You can go right down the list -- Rumi, Lao Tzu, Buddha, Jesus, Bodhidharma, Lin Chi, Mohammad.
That is a who's who of heavyweights. If you take all the people of the world who subscribe to a known religion/spirituality (Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Daoism, Zen), then you have maybe 99.9 percent following ideas born of wanderers.
What else were they?
Monks? Laymen?
Secular? Sacred?
No. They were nothing. All of them.
In monasteries, this is one of the points I would sometimes make -- that all these guys were just guys -- travelers. That's about the only word you could use. They just drifted around.
It is one of those conversations that goes nowhere. People just politely smile, and make no response. It is like speaking to air. They think I'm an idiot, I guess.
Like my blog. One comment. 24 posts. I don't know why I write.
But it is an important thing, this "be passerby".
Let's say you are extremely sincere about things, and let's say that meditation has changed you. You can witness the mistakes "you" make, and you can change how you see. So you can sit, and you can forgive -- deeply, in such a way that your entire world changes.
When facing an injustice, you always learn a little something when you do this kind of forgiveness. You see the pain of the other. You couldn't see it before.
Then what would ask for? What would you wish for?
Well, nothing.
BUT you would welcome anything. You would welcome the pleasant things, as you always did, and you would welcome the difficult things, because they give you a chance to grow. The difficult things are opportunities. There is something in you that the world has "hit". Before, you couldn't see it. Now you can.
Moreover, you would put no controls on the world. You would offer no set appearance. The last thing you would do would be to wear a uniform of any sort. People have a reaction to "monk". They bow and things. You don't want that. You want to see them as they are.
Think of the guy -- Goatama, leaving his father's compound, wearing some old rags.
It is important. "Be passerby". You wish to see the truth of the world. You wish to face it.
You are saying "OK world. Here I am. I have love. I have my heart, and it is all I need. Let's see what you've got. Come on! Let's see!"
This is how you come to see. This is how you come to know the heart of man.
Think about it. How else?
That's what Buddha did. And Jesus. And Mohammad. And Lin Chi. And Bodhidharma.
They were annoyed with t he traditional forms of their time, and they spoke against them. But they weren't speaking out of hatred for the men and women. They were trying to point out the way of the heart.
There is the related Zen question too: "Why did Bodhidharma come from the west?"
If someone asks you this, best to just keep walking. And, if you are sincere about "knowing" the infinite non-answer to this question, what are you doing following the forms of a monastery?
What is a life of no attachment? How does it appear? What is "emptiness" realized?
A real practice should promote inquisitiveness, experimentation, sharing, and travel. It is my fantasy that, someday, this will be considered a normal thing -- to walk from one meditation center to another, meet the people there, work with them, have your little dharma debates, etc.... Then go to the next place.
If you think about the lives of the ages, this phrase -- "Be Passerby" -- pretty much sums it up. You can go right down the list -- Rumi, Lao Tzu, Buddha, Jesus, Bodhidharma, Lin Chi, Mohammad.
That is a who's who of heavyweights. If you take all the people of the world who subscribe to a known religion/spirituality (Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Daoism, Zen), then you have maybe 99.9 percent following ideas born of wanderers.
What else were they?
Monks? Laymen?
Secular? Sacred?
No. They were nothing. All of them.
In monasteries, this is one of the points I would sometimes make -- that all these guys were just guys -- travelers. That's about the only word you could use. They just drifted around.
It is one of those conversations that goes nowhere. People just politely smile, and make no response. It is like speaking to air. They think I'm an idiot, I guess.
Like my blog. One comment. 24 posts. I don't know why I write.
But it is an important thing, this "be passerby".
Let's say you are extremely sincere about things, and let's say that meditation has changed you. You can witness the mistakes "you" make, and you can change how you see. So you can sit, and you can forgive -- deeply, in such a way that your entire world changes.
When facing an injustice, you always learn a little something when you do this kind of forgiveness. You see the pain of the other. You couldn't see it before.
Then what would ask for? What would you wish for?
Well, nothing.
BUT you would welcome anything. You would welcome the pleasant things, as you always did, and you would welcome the difficult things, because they give you a chance to grow. The difficult things are opportunities. There is something in you that the world has "hit". Before, you couldn't see it. Now you can.
Moreover, you would put no controls on the world. You would offer no set appearance. The last thing you would do would be to wear a uniform of any sort. People have a reaction to "monk". They bow and things. You don't want that. You want to see them as they are.
Think of the guy -- Goatama, leaving his father's compound, wearing some old rags.
It is important. "Be passerby". You wish to see the truth of the world. You wish to face it.
You are saying "OK world. Here I am. I have love. I have my heart, and it is all I need. Let's see what you've got. Come on! Let's see!"
This is how you come to see. This is how you come to know the heart of man.
Think about it. How else?
That's what Buddha did. And Jesus. And Mohammad. And Lin Chi. And Bodhidharma.
They were annoyed with t he traditional forms of their time, and they spoke against them. But they weren't speaking out of hatred for the men and women. They were trying to point out the way of the heart.
"Like my blog. One comment. 24 posts. I don't know why I write."
ReplyDeleteThere are two comments - now three :)
I hope you keep writing, this is probably the only "Zen" blog worth reading.