faith , object of faith

Zen Student:

 “Master, I seek refuge in the Buddha!!”

Zen Master:

“If you see the Buddha, kill him!!”

[i]Reflections:

Objects of faith and acts of faith are different. The Buddha is only an object of faith. Can the !Buddha save you? Can a statue or a mantra or some mystical incantation release you from the world?

Zen asks this simple question of all its practitioners through the ages:

“Is the finger pointing to the moon, ‘the moon’?”

Why burden yourself with more dogma when you are already overburdened in modern life?

Why make the yoke more difficult when it can be easy?

Why burden yourself when the burden can be light?

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! 如 何 佛 ？

! 殺 佛 ！

! 逢 著 便 殺

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[i] 臨 濟 語 錄； 大  正 47：500。