Dear all
I was recently reading a Pali sutta and it made reference to mirrors in terms very similar to Shen-hsiu's poem. I don't know for sure but it seems that Shen-hsiu is being linked to this early Buddhist (or 'Hinayana' as Mahayana texts often derogatorily refer to it) teaching, in much the same way as the Prajnaramita sutras see Arhats such as Sariputra and Subhuti as having grasped preliminary teachings but not broken through to complete awakening.
Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday/lah-
I was recently reading a Pali sutta and it made reference to mirrors in terms very similar to Shen-hsiu's poem. I don't know for sure but it seems that Shen-hsiu is being linked to this early Buddhist (or 'Hinayana' as Mahayana texts often derogatorily refer to it) teaching, in much the same way as the Prajnaramita sutras see Arhats such as Sariputra and Subhuti as having grasped preliminary teachings but not broken through to complete awakening.
And how, Visākhā, is a dirty mirror cleansed by exertion? By means of oil, ashes, a roll of cloth, and the appropriate effort by the person. It is in such a way that a dirty mirror is cleansed by exertion. So too is the defiled mind cleansed by exertion.
-Aṅguttara Nikāya (Numerical Discourses), 3:70
-Aṅguttara Nikāya (Numerical Discourses), 3:70
Kokuu
-sattoday/lah-
Comment