West Evening Mountain Talk – Part 6
Originally appeared April 2024
‘The truth can be attained neither by words or by silence.’ The Patriarchs and the descendants of Bodhidharma are not supposed to rely on words and letters. Is that supposed to mean that silence is to be preferred and words are to be avoided? On the contrary, the one thing they want is for students to see that the real truth lies neither in words nor in silence.
Some of the Zen masters may sound harsh at times; their actions can seem confounding, but for some it takes a big message to break through the attachment to self. This truly is one of the biggest hurdles we encounter in practice, so subtle as to actually fool us into thinking “ah, now I really understand at last!”
Read while you listen to the Journal
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