Note f151 — THE MEDITATION HALL, AND THE IDEALS OF THE MONKISH DISCIPLINE

The wind is probably one of the best imageries to get us into the idea of non-attachment or Śūnyatā philosophy. The New Testament has at least one allusion to it when it says, “The wind bloweth as it listeth,” and here we see the Chinese mystics making use of the wind to depict his inner consciousness of absolute identity, which is also the Buddhist notion of the void. Now compare the following passage from Echkart: Darum ruft die Braue auch weiter: “Weiche von mir, mein Geliebter, weiche von mir”: “Alles, was irgend der Darstellung fähig ist, das halte ich nicht für Gott. Und so fliehe ich vor Gott, Gottes wegen!”—‘Ei, wo ist dann der Seele Bleiben?’—“Auf den Fittichen der Winde!” (Büttner, Meister Eckeharts Schriften und Predigten, Erster Band, p. 189.) “So flieche ich vor Gott, Gottes wegen,” reminds us of a Zen master who said, “I hate even to hear the name of the Buddha.” From the Zen point of view, “Gottes wegen,” may better be left out.