Joachim Heintz
Lektüren I [Readings I]
Huangbo
Linji
Schrenz Verlag 2018 (= SCHRENZ 01)
(written 2017)
This small book assembles two readings, based on texts by the "old Chinese" Huangbo and Linji. Readings as expression and moulding of one's own versions, as reading that led to writing and that is articulated in writing. Reading as culling, as picking, as perpetuation - just as "language wants it", at least in the perception of the writer.
Extract: Fragments Huangbo
no beginning not past not future
not generated not extinguished
not green not yellow
no form no mark
new and old is not there
long and short is not there
large and small is not there
be a rock to understand
contemplate to miss it
this being
mind not mind
hard internally
with a core
externally like the void
without limits and obstacle
without I and you
without place
without qualities
without achieving and losing
to come to not mind
anon the end is reached
Extract: LINJI oder SCHIMPFEN SCHLAGEN SCHREIEN [LINJI or BLUSTER BEAT BRAY]
day in day out I teach you I teach you but you remain dull you don't notice it you don't notice what is right now what is right here right now and is moving
you're stuck on the grass and the leaves like cattle not even you're bamboo and tree souls not even you are fox's minds that chew on clumps of dung the stupid herd has left them behind and you chew and chew and chew you chew on your buddha but there is no buddha you chew on your truth but there is no truth you chew on your exercise but there is no exercise you chew on your enlightenment but there is no enlightenment so what are you looking for with your empty eyes so where are you stumbling to the left to the right on your head another head has grown and on that one another and with your enormous antler heads you stagger around and against walls and then you complain about my caning
what do you want
many come to me all hung up on something none of them is free so I hit I strike I strike at what they're hanging onto someone hung up on their gestures I strike their hands someone hung up on their gab I strike their mouth someone hung up on their eyes I strike their eyes
you shouln't complain about that complain when I stop striking you
do you know the reason for your sickness you clattering carcasses you don't dare you hesitate you falter you doubt you whine you rationalize you drive yourself up the wall with questions but you don't believe yourself you don't even see you're sick you happen from circumstance to circumstance and the ten thousand things trifle with you
what is it that can really comprehend your spleen your stomach your liver your bile the empty space don't you see you sleepwalkers what's right in front of me clear as daylight shapeless luminescent
you talk of understanding but you're just building names and words you look down at the people and you bow to the officials the custodians of the old masters the gravediggers of the old masters they wrote the old masters' speeches into a weighty book they shrouded the book in cloths three times five times they let no one see it and they say there there in this book in our book there is the secret the secret knowledge that you want and you you swim after it like a shoal of minnows with rigid eyes and large mouths and bubbles rising blubb blubb blubb
you petty pinheads how do you press sap from weathered bones
A PDF with the full text (in German) can be downloaded from here.