Tuer le Bouddha?! Lin Tsi nous dépouille...

Lin Tsi's famous saying: If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha! How should we understand it? "I, the mountain monk, have no Law to impart; I only untie ties (the non-rope with which we bind ourselves). Try not to depend on things." Looking for what we depend on... the list is undoubtedly long... "All you need is to behave as ordinarily as possible. Students, there is no work to be done in Buddhism; the key is to remain in the ordinary, and without worldly concerns." Stop running, stop searching outside, but also stop searching within: this is the confidence that we have "nothing to do"... Nothing? Yes, we must surrender, let go, shed our masks, but also all the supports we seek outside ourselves. It took me a while to understand that Master Dogen and Lin Tsi were saying the same thing. Initially, I didn't particularly like Lin Tsi because I don't like loud speeches, and Master Dogen has a more measured way of expressing himself. But I realized they were saying the same thing. And at first, there were things about Lin Tsi that bothered me a bit, for example, meeting the Buddha, killing the Buddha. He tells us, "Seek no more," and Master Dogen says much the same thing: "As for the essence of this Dharma, if one inquires about it, one does not obtain it; if one seeks it, one does not find it." “ Let go of our preconceived notions—for they obscure what truly is—even our notions of “Buddha”: “If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha,” because this Buddha you think you are encountering, whether externally or internally, is merely one of your mental constructs, just as the “Three Treasures,” “bodhisattva,” etc., are. “Venerable Ones, time is precious, yet you think only of thrashing about like the waves of the sea, searching for the Buddha, searching for the patriarchs. You had a father and a mother. What more do you want? Turn your gaze inward.” Because of a lack of self-confidence (in one’s true nature, not in one’s ego!), we search externally, allowing ourselves to be “distracted by the ten thousand—innumerable!—objects.” And among these objects are the Buddha, the Three Treasures, the patriarchs! Seeking nothing is one aspect of this teaching. But of course, that's not enough, because we are still "full" of things. The other side consists of stripping the student of the Way of everything they believe they have seen, found, and understood. "Everything you encounter outside and even within yourself, kill it. If you encounter a Buddha, kill the Buddha. If you encounter a patriarch, kill the patriarch." Encountering a Buddha is still forming an idea, locking oneself into the error of the duality of subject and object. Have no point of reference, because all points of reference are merely phenomena, therefore created, subject to change. Therefore, he will strive to remove all supports, all dependence on our ideas, our concepts, our understanding that lead us to construct a reality based on what we see (little and poorly!). (As an aside: Chinese Dharma texts, the writings of Master Dogen, and many haikus are full of wordplay!) Here, a play on the sound "Yi": written one way, it's the word for clothing; but written another, it means support or dependence. It is these supports that Lin Tsi wants us to get rid of; it is on this wordplay that Lin Tsi will play in a very famous text: "As for my own way of acting, the one I use today, it is truly both creative and destructive. If someone comes looking for the Way, I go out to look at them, and they don't recognize me." Then I put on all sorts of garments (Yi) that give rise to interpretations in the student, and they are taken in by my words. These blind, shorn men, these men who lack the eye (of the Law), seize upon the garments I have put on to see me as blue, yellow, red, white. And if I remove them to approach pure (spiritual) realms, behold, the apprentices immediately yearn for purity. And if I remove this garment of purity (this spiritual support) again, they are completely lost and struck with astonishment. They begin to run like madmen, saying that I am naked. I then say to them, "Do you finally recognize the man within me who puts on the garments?" and suddenly they turn their heads, and behold, they know me. (...) Master Dogen: "Please, try to let go, let go and see." To see! At first, during zazen, I would put down my supports, suitcases, my backpack—basically anything I was carrying that was in the way—but not too far away! Carefully, so I could grab it if needed at the end of zazen. Then, little by little, you can put it down further away, a little further, let it go. Try it and see! Full text: https://www.nousasseoirensemble.org/blog