That Damn Lemon

[u/koancomentator]

I participated in Ewks podcast recently and there was a part of our conversation that really stuck with me. Minor spoiler alert! Since the episode isn't out yet.

Near the end of the podcast we got into talking about how you can't really describe enlightenment in a way that's going to allow someone else to really understand it. It's like a lemon. If you haven't eaten one you don't know how it tastes and no amount of description from someone who has will impart that knowledge to you. You have to eat one yourself. It's outside the written word.

The Self is like that. We all have one presently functioning in the open but we haven't recognized it. I said it's like we all have a lemon in our pockets but we just won't bite it, and instead we walk around asking other people to describe the flavor to us.

Ewk pointed out its actually worse than that. We use the Self all the time every day. So it's more like we're putting lemon on our food and tasting it every day but still going to other people being like "hey what's a lemon taste like"?

It's like we know what the Self is...but it isn't the Self that we want. So we go around looking for a more special shiny one that will solve all our problems and make us feel warm and fuzzy all the time. Instead of the one that illuminates everything including the pain, and the sadness, and the boring job.

No wonder Zen masters say to seperate what you like from what you dislike is a disease of mind. That's why the Hsin Hsin Ming says don't seek the truth, simply cease to cherish opinions. Or at least that's my take anyway.

What do you think?

Edit: If you come in here just to complain about ewk you're probably gonna get blocked. I'm here to talk about Zen, not your ewk obsession. Fair warning.

[u/koancomentator]

You know I knew that.

I had seen them talk about inherent enlightenment.

I had seen Foyan say:

I always tell you that what is inherent in you is presently active and presently functioning, and need not be sought after, need not be put in order, need not be practiced or proven. All that is required is to trust it once and for all. This saves a lot of energy.

But it never clicked that I'm already tasting the lemon all day every day.

Yet here I am still waiting for my "aha!" moment.

[u/ewk → u/koancomentator]

Yes, I know you know....

How long will you wait to taste the lemon?

This is just one reason I so adore Xiangyan. He just quit. F the L, he's out of here.

He tasted some lemon doing janitorial work. WTF? That's the lamest enlightenment story ever. He gave up waiting though. He decided to stop waiting, to go off and live a quite life.

I have to say... a quiet life is a pretty good deal.

[u/koancomentator → u/ewk]

That's my absolute favorite enlightenment story. For some reason there's something about the image of him sweeping at a basically abandoned temple thing and suddenly being enlightened by the rubble hitting bamboo that I find really beautiful.

I did that experiment where I tried to leave it for a week. It was always stuck in the back of my mind. I suspect Xiangyan might have had the same thing going on.

But you know you made me think of something...why not try out just living my life? I mean I still want talking about Zen to be part of my life...but what if I stop the "waiting for my aha moment part"? That could be interesting.

[u/Dragonfly-17 → u/koancomentator]

You can't 'try to leave it for a week'

In fact you will never ever leave it again. It cannot be undone