Smarts Don't Matter

Foyan said:

>The only essential thing in learning Zen is to **forget mental objects and stop rumination**. This is the message of Zen since time immemorial. Did not one of the Patriarchs say, "Freedom from thoughts is the source, freedom from appearances is the substance"? If you just shout and clap, when will you ever be done.

When it comes to studying the way, why would it matter whether a person is smart or dumb?

We are instructed to stop ruminating and free ourselves from thoughts. There are no caveats to this point.

>Master Qinglin Jian said...In the school of the ancestral teachers, the bird's path is mysterious and subtle; when effort is exhausted, it all turns around. If you don't investigate thoroughly, it's impossible to understand. **You simply must seek apart from mind, intellect, and consciousness, study beyond ordinary and holy.**

When Zen Masters talk about investigating thoroughly, it has nothing to do with intellectual comprehension.

What is intellectualization going to get you?

Huangbo said:

>Give up those erroneous thoughts leading to false distinctions! There is no 'self' and no 'other'...Only renounce the error of intellectual or conceptual thought-processes and your nature will exhibit its pristine purity - for this alone is the way to attain Enlightenment, to observe the Dharma, to become a Buddha and all the rest. Unless you understand this, **the whole of your great learning, your painful efforts to advance, your austerities of diet and clothing, will not help you to a knowledge of your own Mind**.

Your cognitive capacity, or lack thereof, does not matter one iota in Zen. You are perfectly well equipped. Whole and complete right from the start.

High fives all around!