by Tang Huyen

The more one quiesces oneself, the more invisible one
becomes, and the awakened, who by definition has fully
quiesced himself, is fully invisible. He only serves as a
mirror to oneself — and when one tries to hit him, all one
does is harm oneself.

Teaching in a Buddhist way is nothing other than
listening to the student and pointing out to him or her
his or her seed of awakening — which is his or her basic
and inalienable possession.

But this seed has no sign and form, and is devoid of any
sign and form, to both its owner and somebody else
looking in from the outside. When one drops all signs
and forms, one sees it, but in no other way. In fact it is
the least personal of anything that one has or is, as it
has no marking from oneself or anything or anybody else
in it. It has nothing particular about it.

As the Buddha says, his Dharma goes against the stream
— in modern terms, is counter-intuitive.

In Dharma combat and otherwise, one oozes oneself
out from all over, so when one starts an attack or
whatever, the first person to be exposed is oneself.
The bigger and more bleeding one's ego is, the more
one exposes oneself — the ego wants to be seen, by
as many people as possible — and therefore the more
easily one's opponent will locate one and hit one.
The more one quiesces oneself, the more invisible
one becomes, and the awakened, who by definition
has fully quiesced himself, is fully invisible. He only
serves as a mirror to oneself, merely as a projection
screen, and when one tries to hit him, all one does
is harm oneself.

Like dust thrown against the wind,
evil comes back to the fool
who harms a person that is harmless.
(Dhammapada 125)

Colophon

Written by Tang Huyen and posted to alt.philosophy.zen,
alt.buddha.short.fat.guy, alt.zen, talk.religion.buddhism,
and alt.religion.buddhism.tibetan on 7 January 2006.
This post appeared in the thread "Re: Ah! A Buddhist
topic! (Re: Is Zazen Wrong?)" — a discussion on
Dharma combat, correct Buddhist debate, and the
nature of teaching. Original Message-ID:
<[email protected]>.

Tang Huyen was a regular contributor to Buddhist Usenet
groups through the 2000s, distinguished by rigorous
citation of Pali, Sanskrit, and Chinese canonical sources
alongside Western scholarship. This essay develops his
account of the invisible awakened teacher begun in
earlier posts: the teacher who has dropped all signs
cannot be found, and every attack on such a teacher
returns to its sender.

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work
Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
Original Message-ID: <[email protected]>.

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