XPost: alt.buddha.short.fat.guy, alt.zen   
   From: tanghuyen@gmail.com   
      
   On 8/10/2016 8:56 AM, Ned Ludd wrote:   
      
   >  Pig-wrestling is a form of Tar-Baby Zen.  Though the one great   
   > caveat of Tar-Baby Zen is that the longer the discussion continues,   
   > the higher the probability that YOU are not the Tar Baby.  (Perhaps   
   > this could be expanded into a Law, or at least possibly a lemma of   
   > Godwin's Law.)   
   >   
   >  "Unblemished"?  Do you have something against dirt, Tang?  Or   
   > zits?  Getting in the mud, getting in the weeds, this is often the   
   > tactic of zen masters.  I'm not sure your judo will work very well   
   > in a mud-wrestling contest.  But I must say, you've definitely been   
   > in the mud for a longer stretch than I've ever seen.   
      
   Thank you for your feedback, Ned my sweet and   
   loving son. If I had money I would hire you to follow   
   me around and point out my faults and errors to me.   
   The rest of the time it would be just me.   
      
   But back to my previous post and your reply. I wrote   
   it in pure abstraction, in disregard to myself, and   
   could and can reason only in theory a priori. That   
   said, if your kind reasoning was extended to the   
   sages and Chan masters of the past (and near   
   present, like Empty Cloud and Sheng-yen), then   
   they would be entangled in tar, for they were at it   
   (namely, teaching mostly recalcitrant students) all   
   their time as teachers. But methinks they would not   
   mind, as they took it that getting in the mud, getting   
   in the weeds was their means of earning their keep,   
   for which even unreceptive students would be   
   grateful. So long as they have abandoned self and   
   what-belong-to-self, treat everything and everybody   
   like clouds passing in the sky or water sliding off a   
   duck's back, and use such a trope in a selfless,   
   salvific manner, without any self-interest from their   
   side, they remain untouched by it, as self and   
   attachment to self are the only tar.   
      
   Tang Huyen   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)