A Zen Master once wrote, "Teaching one how to be enlightened is like giving medicine to the dead." What do you perceive this to mean?
by 
Metaphiz
ANSWERS: 5
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i guess it means it's futile. obviously you can't cure the dead, and i guess enlightenment can't be taught, but discovered, by the individual seeking it.
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Enlightenment is to be achieved and recognized by the person himself in order to understand its true meaning; teaching it to someone renders it useless.
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I think it means that you can't TEACH someone to be enlightened. It comes naturally.
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The zen master is talking about himself and stuggles with enlightenment.
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To teach is to impart concepts. Concepts of enlightenment, if used to "achieve enlightenment", obscure the very thing which is sought. Enlightenment is not to be sought through concepts because it is already within, undiscovered - it is one's essential nature prior to the arising of mind. It is mind which entertains concepts, and so if attention is placed on those concepts the abiding natural state of awareness (enlightenment) gets overlooked. The most any "teacher" of enlightenment can do is point to where it is - it is the student who must discover where he is pointing within himself. So, the "dead" to which this zen master refers are the belief systems and ideas (concepts) in which students seek answers. That sort of "medicine" only feeds the student more concepts to think about, and enlightenment has nothing to do with thinking.
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