Opinions!

[firecat]

I did this on Usenet once and got some interesting answers. If I can find the thread in Gooja I will post it in a couple of days.
ETA: I made a comment in this post about what happened on Usenet.

I have had the following in my quote file for a long time. I don't know whether it is an accurate quote or not, but I like it.

Joshu is my favorite Zen Master. It is said that a monk once asked him, To be holy -- what is it like?" Joshu replied, "To dump a mountain of shit on a clean plain." -- Dick Sutphen

What do you think Joshu means?

(X-posted to buddhists)

Comments

[crazed-lynn.livejournal.com]

Some of the previous suppositions come close to mine, I'll add mine anyway.

The "empty plain" has no right or wrong way of being and is a clearing for anything. The empty plain has no constraints. It is not limited by conversations of good/bad, right/wrong, should/shouldn't. For the empty plain all things are possible.

The declarative act of calling Joshu "holy" immediately constrains that which is possible.

No matter how good the declaration sounds, the empty plain is now constrained by those who want to develop it, to continue the real estate metaphor. So it might be wonderful for Joshu's followers to think of him as holy, for Joshu, it is an imposed limition.

That which could be anything is now something. And not just something, but something significant in the minds of those who apply the constraint.

constraints

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

oh, i like this one a lot.

[kmd.livejournal.com]

*hug*

This rocks.

This, this, this a thousand times this. You talk like someone who has had experience with other people wanting to call you "holy."