Practice Meetings

Tuesday Aug 20, 8:30am

Friday Aug 23, 7:00pm

This Week’s Reading

Thich Nhat Hanh, Old Path White Clouds, Chapter 57, “The Raft is not the Shore”.

This Week’s Koan

Blue Cliff Record #42

Layman Pang’s “Beautiful Snowflakes”

Layman Pang bid adieu to Yaoshan.  Shan ordered ten people who were Zen travelers to go together to the main gate to see him off.

The Layman pointed to the snow in the middle of the sky and said, “The excellent snow; flake by flake it does not fall at another spot.”

At that time there was Zen traveler Quan who asked, “At what spot does it fall?”

The gentleman hit once with a slap.

Quan said, “A Layman too cannot get careless.”

The gentleman said, “Like this you call yourself a Zen traveler. Lao-tzu has not liberated your dependence.”

Quan said, “Layman how do you make it alive?”

The gentleman again hit once with a slap and said,  “The eye sees like a blind person; the mouth speaks like a mute.”

Xuedou separately said, “At the first questioning point, yet grab a snowball then hit.”