{"id":1914,"date":"2007-06-17T07:21:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-17T07:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2007\/06\/on-setting-up-idols\/"},"modified":"2011-11-01T15:15:40","modified_gmt":"2011-11-01T19:15:40","slug":"on-setting-up-idols","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2007\/06\/on-setting-up-idols.html","title":{"rendered":"On Setting Up Idols"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_niPwTW3rBbU\/RnUbM4jkXNI\/AAAAAAAAANw\/1Pm8YGmcL9g\/s1600-h\/mirror+of+zen.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_niPwTW3rBbU\/RnUbM4jkXNI\/AAAAAAAAANw\/1Pm8YGmcL9g\/s400\/mirror+of+zen.jpg\" border=\"0\"><\/a>I\u2019ve noticed how much people are taken with the traditional Zen line \u201cif you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.\u201d This is a dangerous, but also, a very important point. I\u2019ve just been reading <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.shambhala.com\/html\/catalog\/items\/isbn\/978-1-59030-384-9.cfm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Mirror of Zen<\/a><\/em> by the Korean master So Sahn and I think he explicates the meaning of this term in very helpful ways.<\/p>\n<p><em>The superior person beholds the Buddhas and Patriarchs as if he were spying an enemy. He knows that if, in his search for truth, he becomes attached to the Buddha, he is hindered by the Buddha. If he is attached to the Patriarchs, the Patriarchs hinder him. Whenever you seek something outside your own mind, everything is suffering. It would be far better to just have nothing to do!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Of course the Buddha one must be most wary of is the Buddha we create in our minds. Of the three demons, greed (the constellation of grasping), hatred (the constellation of aversion) and ignorance (the constellation of certainties), the third, as Charles Dickens warns us in <em>A Christmas Carol<\/em> is the most dangerous. As the bumpersticker so wisely warns us: Don\u2019t Believe Everything You Think. Perhaps it actually should be Don\u2019t Believe Anything You Think\u2026<\/p>\n<p>We accomplish this and our nothing to do becomes one of the great miracles of life\u2026<\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/33904114-1660669659922013193?l=monkeymindonline.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve noticed how much people are taken with the traditional Zen line \u201cif you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.\u201d This is a dangerous, but also, a very important point. I\u2019ve just been reading The Mirror of Zen by the Korean master So Sahn and I think he explicates the meaning of this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>On Setting Up Idols<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I&#039;ve noticed how much people are taken with the traditional Zen line &quot;if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.&quot; This is a dangerous, but also, a very\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2007\/06\/on-setting-up-idols.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On Setting Up Idols\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I&#039;ve noticed how much people are taken with the traditional Zen line &quot;if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.&quot; This is a dangerous, but also, a very\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2007\/06\/on-setting-up-idols.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Monkey Mind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/james.ford.1029\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-06-17T07:21:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-11-01T19:15:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_niPwTW3rBbU\/RnUbM4jkXNI\/AAAAAAAAANw\/1Pm8YGmcL9g\/s400\/mirror+of+zen.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James Ford\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James Ford\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2007\/06\/on-setting-up-idols.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2007\/06\/on-setting-up-idols.html\",\"name\":\"On Setting Up Idols\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-06-17T07:21:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-11-01T19:15:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/3f37f475fb5078d1e7faa93a63a0fddb\"},\"description\":\"I've noticed how much people are taken with the traditional Zen line \\\"if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.\\\" This is a dangerous, but also, a very\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2007\/06\/on-setting-up-idols.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2007\/06\/on-setting-up-idols.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2007\/06\/on-setting-up-idols.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"On Setting Up Idols\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/\",\"name\":\"Monkey Mind\",\"description\":\"Easily distracted...\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/3f37f475fb5078d1e7faa93a63a0fddb\",\"name\":\"James Ford\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fa18971b225a3bb79f0c4c381a5fae20?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fa18971b225a3bb79f0c4c381a5fae20?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James Ford\"},\"description\":\"James Ishmael Ford is a writer and spiritual director. 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