A nice story to share with ~ Part 2

[nagaseeker]

Nothing Truely Exists

Yamaoka Tesshu, as a young student of Zen, visited one master after another.
Eventually he called upon Dokuon of Shokoku.

Desiring to show his attainment, he said,
"This mind,the Buddha, and all sentient beings, after all, do not exist.
The true nature of all phenomena is emptiness.
There is no realization, no delusion, no sage wisdom, and no mediocrity.
There is no thing to be given and nothing to be received."

Dokuon, who was smoking , listened quietly but saying nothing. Then he montioned Yamaoka to approach him.
When the student approached he suddenly hit Yamaoka with his bamboo pipe.
This made the youth quite angry, and he raised his hand to strike Dokuon.
"Stop!", yelled Dokuon, ""If nothing really exists as you say, then where does your anger come from?"

Yamaoka's anger come from ignorance....

[bambi]

LOL! That was a good story. Well, if we are that attained, we wouldn't still be here in samsara, right? Even the High Lamas don't brag about how highly attained they are. The 3 poisons will always be with us and that is why we need the Dharma to guide us onto the right path.

[vajrastorm]

Yes, this story shows that attainments are attainments only if they are established in our mind-stream.

Thus, if this young student had really attained renunciation, he would have already renounced all delusions, like anger(one of the three poisons and a main cause of true suffering) in his mind-stream.

Thus it is good to always remind ourselves that meditation will lead to realizations only when the meditation results in the dharma being mixed with the mind-stream, when  we have truly realized mind transformation and cleared away our delusions and  replaced them by positive qualities of compassion and kindness, patience and forgiving, of tolerance and letting go.

[negra orquida]

Interesting story... thanks! Was wondering, if the mind doesn't exist, then how does ignorance and anger exist since these are states of mind?

[biggyboy]

Oh my! How silly Yamaoka is.  He is just an exemplary for us to truly contemplate and meditate well on teachings we have learn and assimilate into our practice should we want to eradicate the delusions and negativities one have. Hence, one should not even talk about emptiness should we have not even understand a fraction of the subject.

[Jessie Fong]

I think Yamaoka was not attained, to begin with.  Otherwise he would not be going round boasting of it.  If he was highly attained, he would have seen the smack coming from Dokuon.  Since as he declared - nothing really exists, does Yamaoka exist?

I see in him - ignorance boastful angersome.

[Dorje Pakmo]

Nothing Truely Exists

Yamaoka Tesshu, as a young student of Zen, visited one master after another.
Eventually he called upon Dokuon of Shokoku.

Desiring to show his attainment, he said,
"This mind,the Buddha, and all sentient beings, after all, do not exist.
The true nature of all phenomena is emptiness.
There is no realization, no delusion, no sage wisdom, and no mediocrity.
There is nothing to be given and nothing to be received."

Dokuon, who was smoking , listened quietly but saying nothing. Then he montioned Yamaoka to approach him.
When the student approached he suddenly hit Yamaoka with his bamboo pipe.
This made the youth quite angry, and he raised his hand to strike Dokuon.
"Stop!", yelled Dokuon, ""If nothing really exists as you say, then where does your anger come from?"

Yamaoka's anger come from ignorance.... 

This is funny story but with good teachings. It tells no matter how much one can learn from a great master, or even a few great masters, if one doesn’t transform the mind and actually practice the knowledge learned, instead of just showing off with empty talk, then one really never did learn anything. Many can talk the Dharma because they are blessed with good memory, but how many can really live the Dharma they talk? This story gives a good example of a person who talks as if he is so highly achieved in his practice. But a simple test by a real master, expose the ugly nature behind a holy mask. Yamaoka Tesshu desires for fame and acknowledgement by showing off in front of a great master. He has an anger that is easily aroused and ignorance of not being aware of his own negative qualities. 
 
Live the Dharma.

[kris]

@Nagaseeker, thank you for sharing this story.

I think we all behave like Yamoaka in one way or another. May be we are not as arrogant to walk up to a monk and debate, but many times we pretend to know more and "twist" the Buddha's teaching to suit our laziness and comfort zone.

From this story, I struck me that most of the so called things I "realized" are only at the intellectual level, but not living it, and I think this is the main reason for this story: don't just understand the Buddhism philosophy on an intellectual level and stop there, we must continue and live the Dharma and practice it everyday.

[Aurore]

The first thing that came to my mind when I read this story was a quote I saw recently.

Your action is so loud I cannot hear what you say.

Unfortunately, attainments is not judged by all the fantastic things someone say but more of the things people do.
In reality, action do speaks louder than words.

Yamaoka prefers to show off his knowledge and attainments with words. However, when challenged, he contradicts his own preaching. His action does not back up what he speaks. In fact, it reflects poorly on his practice.

One can talk their way to sound good but can everyone walk the talk? Why not start walking the talk and the attainments will show by itself because people trust what they see more than what they hear.