Are you Puzzled by Form?

Xuefeng

August 6, 2020

Buddha said that everything with form is unreal; all that is void of form is Buddha. Buddha also said not to abide our minds in form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharma, but to actually abide nowhere.

The article “The Xuefeng Pirate Ship Has Set Sail” frightened a Buddhist student. Reading the expressions “beauty kidnappers” and “love affair makers” seemed as a change of color; reading “seducing” and “flirting” scared the wits out of the student. Who is the one “professed love of what one actually fears”?

Puzzled by names and forms without seeing their essence; puzzled by Dharma without seeing the law! A bowl of bird’s nest porridge, whether it is called “horse urine” or “dog shit soup” is still nutritious bird’s nest porridge.

Whether you call Celestials vulgar or elegant, they are still celestials. “Tao that can be described, is not Absolute Tao. Names that can be given, are not Absolute Names”. Buddha has no absolute Dharma, but Buddha's Dharma always varies according to the situation.

“When the highest type of followers hears Tao (the truth), they try hard to live in accordance with it. When mediocre types hear Tao, they seem to be aware and yet unaware of it. When the lowest types hear Tao, they break into loud laughter. If it is not laughed at, it is not Tao.”

“When they do not command faith, some will lose faith in them”. Those who lack faith in Xuefeng will find many other things with which to lack faith.

Mere humans are always obstructed by their own ideas; “sophisticates” are always fascinated by names and forms, Alas!

The vulgar are knowing and luminous; I alone am confused and dull. The vulgar are clever and self-assured; I alone am depressed.