DISCLAIMER: Don’t expect entries on this blog to be as coherent as stuff on my other blogs, if you’ve ever found those coherent to begin with.
I want to relate to the above 1993 infamous NYC freestyle between Pac and Biggie from the approach, very loosely and irreverently, of the Zen Koan method, or the method of a Madhyamika master writing sastras against uncooked pasta.
Biggie: I got 7 mac-11s, about 8 38s, 9 nines, 10 mac 10s, the shits never end… 357 bitches.
Comment: In the phenomenal world biblical characters and babalawos would rightly recognize the embrace of war tools and murder kits expressed above as troubling at best. Doing needless harm to sentient beings is often considered the road to demerit.
But in the world seen as quintessence of mind (free of delusions and appearances), the sword of wisdom (mere words) can be said to be interchangeable with “9 nines, 10 mac 10s,” etc. For Zen Master Dogen, just sitting is the same as “7 mac 11s” because swords (or firearms) are only metaphors for the discipline of mind that cuts through all illusions to realize the essence of mind, i.e. tathata (thusness). The tathata that is called tathata is not tathata at all (for it is merely a concept; discrimination persists if one remains attached to notions like tathata or “357 bitches”).
Biggie asserts what could be seen as dragon-cub words here:
Biggie: Oh my god, I’m droppin shit like a pigeon, I hope you’re listening, smacking babies at their Christianing…
Comment: Master Joshu says to one who asks what Zen means, “go and wash your bowl.” Now one must forget this example. If the 5th patriarch, Hui Neng, referred inquisitors of graphic questions to their “original face,” and other masters, their “face before their parents were born,” then we can simply dispense with pleasantries and smack babies as they are “christianed.” To live a realized life is all that is necessary. Just be upright and look at everything as it is and worry little about past and future. When babies are being initiated, smack them and be blameless. That is the whole meaning of the universe. Forget the dangerous notion of “universe,” too.
2Pac: No matter how you chuck, niggaz never die, we just retaliate with hate, then we multiply…
Comment: Master Confucius, reflecting on the expectations of authoritative people, reflected thus: “What has a person who is not authoritative got to do with observing ritual propriety? What has a person who is not authoritative got to do with the playing of music?”
Meanwhile, Chuang Tzu was dismissive of authority, and introduced to us the notion of the “true man with no rank.” Others have identified that phrase with suchness, original being, and true humility. This debate is meaningless here.
If one is to “retaliate with hate,” the three-fold world (greed, anger, and delusion) can hardly be expected to descend from the horizon of existence anytime soon. Therefore Confucius is valid to question the correctness of 2Pac’s involvement with the playing of music, since in reinforcing hatred he can hardly be observing ritual propriety.
Yet Siddharta offered that ignorance is suffering, desire is suffering, the first and second “noble truths” being what we don’t like to see in our lives. Dukkha is another word for stress. We do not want stressful lives, not even if we happen to be ants or flies. So against this stress we might be seen to be “retaliating with hate.” Here of course hatred is not reified in terms of the fire that burns the house of existence, but rather as the motivator for those who seek wisdom, the first kernel of human sensitivity.
When people talk to other people about human sensitivity, human sensitivity might be seen to multiply. Then the human condition changes; 7 mac 11s become swords of wisdom, 357 bitches become mountains and rivers seen exactly as they are; and finally newborn children are smacked by their parents in a courtyard at Prospect Park, just for the hell of it, and to introduce children to the pain that burns all the world.
Thus, the Dharmakhaya (all that is, the known universe) is seen with open eyes when freestyles are spat and shoulders shake, beats dropped, tracks baked. Heads bop, then detach from the rhythm to find the meaning. 2Pac and Biggie thus find continuation of life in canned tracks, holding macs to the temple of suffering, if one chooses to see it that way.
Satori comes and goes for the unenlightened; I skipped capoeira to write this.
Lankavatara Sutra: “Those who regard the removers of obstruction [i.e., Buddhas] as neither destroyed nor departed for ever, like the sands of the Ganges, see the Tathata.” 202
Yoga Sutra (Patanjali): “The eight limbs of yoga are moral principles, observances, posture, breath control, withdrawal of the senses, concentration, meditation, and pure contemplation.” 52
Raekwon: “That’s that fire move like Schwinns, yo, invisible pens that write light, leave blends, hit with the JF Kennedy shot, smash with the Acupulco rifle got got, bolt off but got clocked.” 500
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