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In response to recent posts distinguishing silent illumination and shikantaza, a couple practitioners wondered, \u201cSo what?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n This is an important question. Simply put, imho, because the Buddha dharma<\/a> is infinitely subtle (and incomparably profound too, as the verse before the dharma talk says). <\/span><\/p>\n When the Buddha held up a flower and Mahakasyapa smiled, the Buddha recognized that he had realized the eye of the subtle dharma. Dogen wrote the nearly 100 chapters of the Shobogenzo to roll around that jewel.<\/span><\/p>\n And I can report that after 30-odd years of practice, that this sure is in line with my experience \u2013 subtle and ungraspable \u2026 and yet is not nothing. Therefore, careful understanding and practice it is necessary to discover and play with the real McCoy.<\/span><\/p>\n That said, there are other reasons that we moderns, like the ancients, quibble about practice details and our understanding. Like J.P. Morgan said, \u201cA man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s a bit cynical (although I\u2019d self-servingly rather regard it as having worked through my idealism) but it does point to how we\u2019re all complex and a thick (rather than thin and one dimensional) explanation for what we do and say embraces more of the complexity of our human personalities. <\/span><\/p>\n Take the silent illumination\/koan debate Song Dynasty China that has continued through Japan to today. Hongzhi and Dahui (and many others that they represent) were certainly, imv, deeply, authentically concerned with the freedom of their students and so taught silent illumination and koan introspection, respectively. At the same time, they worked to establish the authenticity of their lineages, sometimes stretching and gluing together stories that legitimized them to their political and economic supporters in order to perpetuate their lineages. Once again, see <\/span>How Zen Became Zen: The Dispute Over Enlightenment and the Formation of Chan Buddhism in the Song-Dynasty China<\/span><\/span><\/a> by Morten Schlutter for more on this.<\/span><\/p>\n
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