“Who is there?” asks God. “It is I.” “Go away,” God says… Later… “Who is there?” asks God. “It is Thou.” “Enter,” replies God.”
Charlotte Joko Beck
Practice MeetingsFriday Jan 2, 7:00pm
This Week’s Koan
Book of Serenity #26
“Kyôzan Points to Snow”
Kyôzan pointed to the snow lion and said, “Is there any that goes beyond this color?”
Unmon said, “I would have pushed it over for him at once.”
Setchô said, “He only knows how to push it over, but he doesn’t know how to help it up.”
“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.”
Matthew 7:12
Practice MeetingsFriday Dec 26, 7:00pm
This Week’s Koan
Blue Cliff Record #68
“What’s Your Name?”
Yangshan asked Sansheng, “What is your name?”
Sheng said, “Huiji.”
Yangshan said, “Huiji is me.”
Sheng said, “My name is Huiran.”
Yangshan gufawed great laughter.
Friday Dec 20, 7:00pm
This Week’s Koan
Blue Cliff Record #34
“You Have Not Visited Mount Lu”
Yangshan asked a monk, “What place did you come from recently?”
The monk said, “Mt. Lu.”
Yangshan said, “At that time did you roam on the Five Elders Peak [at Mt. Lu]?”
The monk said, “At that time I didn’t go there.”
Yangshan said, “At that time the Preceptor did not hike on the mountain.”
[Later,] Yunmen said, “As these words were all for the cause of compassion, they have fallen into chatting in the grass.”
Friday Dec 12, 7:00pm
This Week’s Koan
Book of Serenity #90, Gateless Gate #25
“Kyõzan’s Dream”
In a dream Kyõzan Oshõ went to Maitreya’s place and was led in to sit in the third seat.
A senior monk struck with a gavel and said, “Today the one in the third seat will speak.”
Kyõzan rose and, striking with the gavel, said, “The truth of Mahayana is beyond the four propositions and transcends the hundred negations.
Hear the truth!
Friday Dec 5, 7:00pm
This Week’s Koan
Blue Cliff Record #29
“Gone with the Other”
A monk asked Dasui, “In the void of the Aeon Fire, most certainly the great many thousands are altogether destroyed, but I have not yet discerned if this one is destroyed or not destroyed?”
Dasui said, “Destroyed.”
The monk said, “In this way then, it follows the other is gone too.”
Dasui said, “It follows the other is gone.”
Verse
In the center of the light of the fire kalpa is the cause of setting up a question. The patch-robed monk is as if blocked by two difficult checkpoints. One may sympathize with the words of the one phrase “it follows the other…” Discriminations and discriminations for 10,000 miles — solitary, the going and returning.