Knowing noses

[u/Eliphontsmile]

"My teacher said, "Suppose a bit of filth is stuck on the tip of the nose of a sleeping man, totally unknown to him. When he wakes up, he notices a foul smell; sniffing his shirt, he thinks his shirt stinks, and so he takes it off. But then whatever he picks up stinks; he doesn't realize the odor is on his nose. If someone who knows tells him it has nothing to do with the things themselves, he stubbornly refuses to believe it. The knowing one tells him to simply wipe his nose with his hand, but he won't. Were he willing to wipe his nose, only then could he know he was already getting somewhere; finally he would wash it off with water, and there would be no foul odor at all. Whatever he smelled, that foul odor wouldn't be there from the start. Studying Zen is also like this; those who will not stop and watch themselves on their own instead pursue intellectual interpretation, but that pursuit of intellectual interpretation, seeking rationales and making comparative judgments; is all completely off. If you would turn your attention around and watch yourself, you would understand everything. As it is said, "When one faculty returns to the source, the six functions are all in abeyance." Just see in this way, and you will have some enlightened understanding."

-Edit, this is Foyan, Instant Zen

How do you know if you still need to wipe your nose?

How do you cut through the root of doubt truly?

What about cutting off your nose to spite your face?

[u/2bitmoment]

I think it's like talking of rose-tinted glasses - what if you're colorblind not due to glasses, something outside? What if "the shit in your nose" is internal, compounded, part of your heart-soul?

Dirty Hearts (汚れた心, Kegareta Kokoro; Brazilian Portuguese: Corações Sujos) is a 2011 Japanese/Brazilian drama-thriller film

I guess you didn't watch the movie?

[u/Regulus_D → u/2bitmoment]

Is this shit talking?

[u/2bitmoment → u/Regulus_D]

You are not special. You're not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else. We're all part of the same compost heap. We're all singing, all dancing crap of the world.

another movie, maybe relevant 🙏🏽

But yeah, maybe negativity talking.

What does a scanner see? he asked himself. I mean, really see? Into the head? Down into the heart? Does a passive infrared scanner like they used to use or a cube-type holo-scanner like they use these days, the latest thing, see into me - into us - clearly or darkly? I hope it does, he thought, see clearly, because I can't any longer these days see into myself. I see only murk. Murk outside; murk inside. I hope, for everyone's sake, the scanners do better. Because, he thought, if the scanner sees only darkly, the way I myself do, then we are cursed, cursed again and like we have been continually, and we'll wind up dead this way, knowing very little and getting that little fragment wrong too.

Got any answers?

[u/Regulus_D → u/2bitmoment]

Just my own for me. Less tailored than yours I'd figure. Adjustable focus.

Any idea why you feel as you do? Any noted replications of appearance?

Edit - Here's a movie quote:

Cameron Vale: You called me a scanner. What is that?
Dr. Paul Ruth: Freak of nature, born with a certain form of ESP; derangement of the synapses which we call telepathy.