They only look for debate, to find worthy for their ideology

No Master asked for the person who is doing the Jiyuan Wenda, all the Masters do, is upholding their prajna, then it is easy to reveal an accomplished one. Debating is also not Zen, like Foyan made clear.

How it is written in the Lankavatara Sutra:

"the Tathagatas neither uttered nor answered even a letter (ekam apy akṣaram), because truths are beyond the letters"

Yunmen also made clear:

"If there really is something you see, come and show it to me, I’ll discuss it with you! Don’t vainly overlook that you don’t know good from bad, and don’t hold those senseless gatherings to get caught up in words!"

For an accomplished one, such a one can go around and confront people, but he won't waste ones time on not accomplished ones, if they are unable to learn:

""If you meet a swordsman on the way, you must let him taste your sword; unless he is a poet, you must not offer him a poem.

If you meet someone who expounds the Dharma, you may converse freely with them; but with an unfeeling visitor, you should remain reserved." Zenrin Kushu

Then all effort towards them, comes from a philosophical side, trying to give them some tips, since why else are they seen wandering around in unknown territory, claiming they understood something, which they did not?

Nowadays, the buddhist landscape is full of people, who apparently only want to engage in social groups and expand on that.

The Buddha said: "I have explained that, for this reason, after the Tathāgata’s parinirvāṇa those who preserve and recite this sutra, and explain it to others, who copy it or move others to copy it and who pay it homage to it no longer have to build stupas, monasteries, or erect chambers for the monks, or revere the sangha." Lotus Sutra

So neither does an accomplished one need to run around trying to debate with people, since most likely, after a few moments it's already clear, nor does he need to have a Sangha. Since in Zen we say, that out of 1000 only 1 or a half gets it and the authentic Masters always complained about the masses of fraud students and teachers, the monasteries more or less also had a different purpose, to just be a resting place for errants in a cold world.

Accomplished ones are rare. Some Masters said, that only every few hundred years someone comes, to clear up the buddhist mess and misinterpretations that might have spread and already the Mahayana Buddha knew, that his greater teaching was rarely understood.

But since errants obstruct and cloud the view for worthy students with spiritual bones, I generally use errants to formulate what the Buddhas passed down, just to wait for they chance, that maybe one or two, who might have a chance see it.

"However, there are those who accept attunement and those who do not; there are the foolish and the wise, there are those who can be saved and those who cannot be saved." Foyan

So if errants have to claim a tradition they are not a part of, just like the Buddha has said, I go walk under them and expound a teaching they did not hear before. The Buddha, to stay safe, had to give such people some ranks to calm their egos, as also Huineng had to flee the greedy minds.

These people are not looking for the Dharma. I have no expectations.

"Guishan read Lingyun's verse and questioned him. He then confirmed Lingyun's enlightenment, saying, “Those who arrive due to conditions never fall away. From now on uphold and sustain it."

Posted Mar 1, 2026, 2:28 PM UTC

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