RELG 253 Lecture Notes - Lecture 32: Mahayana, Ten Bulls, Buddha-Nature
12 May 2016
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12th c. art; zen insight is in the art pieces: in search of the ox. Metaphorical: boy represents the practitioner; ox represents zen, emptiness, awakening. Duality between the boy and the ox; human and buddha; Victor hori: realizing emptiness is not just a mental state, nor an experience, it is also a practice. We need to be reminded and to live by the koan; we need to be the koan moment by moment: seeing a trace (of the ox) Does not find the ox but finds traces of the ox; signs of where it has been and of where it is. The traces represents what we learn from others: stories, poems, teachings from masters, experiences, texts written on emptiness These things are still not our own; we have not found enlightenment by reading or hearing about enlightenment. The finger is guidance and direction for where to look, but the finger is not the moon itself.
