![\"\"](\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_0uPSljNE9f4\/SWs4uHLkfwI\/AAAAAAAAANk\/MhxXqsZvlNA\/s1600-h\/101_0402.JPG\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMike also suggests that there is another type who know they\u2019re phoneys and generously includes me in that noble camp. I notice that the moment that I take the bait, pretentiously believing in any reflection of the self, I\u2019m a phoney who doesn\u2019t know that I\u2019m a phoney.<\/p>\n Or in \u201ccrooked-belly-button\u201d language (see a couple posts down for more on this), my center is off-kilter but I believe it (or rather \u201cme\u201d) to be aligned with the North Star. Wishing upon a star or swirling in thinking trying to right the crooked belly button is just misplaced effort.<\/p>\n Our belly buttons are crooked.<\/p>\n We are corruptible and that\u2019s the place to begin (again and again) precept practice.<\/p>\n I hear that an American Zen teacher once told a student, \u201cI\u2019m sure that you will never do anything unethical.\u201d<\/p>\n Phoney! Phoney!<\/p>\n Just like the Wild Fox koan, when the past Baizhang asserts himself as someone who is free from karma, he\u2019s a phoney who is blind to phoniness and is reborn for 500 lives as a shapeshifting fox.<\/p>\n
In a comment to my last post, Mike Cross raises the issue of Zen phoneys (especially those who don\u2019t know they\u2019re phoneys) using Japanese words like \u201csesshin\u201d to portray a false sense of legitimacy \u2013 that\u2019s my reading of his point.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n