“Since I have come to this realization, all of my reference points have fallen away. The ground for clinging to an ‘I’ and ‘you’ has collapsed… In this wild chaotic state, everything spontaneously arises in its own good time and in its own good way. When I look at others, they seem like children taking things to be real that are not real, taking things to be true that are not true, trying to possess the unpossessable. Ha, ha! I burst out laughing at this amazing spectacle.”

-Longchenpa

Practice Meetings
Friday Oct 30, 7:00pm

This Week’s Koan

BCR CASE #66: Gantô and the Sword

Gantô asked a monk, “Where have you come from?”
The monk said, “From Saikyô.”
Gantô said, “After Kôsô was gone, did you get his sword?”
The monk said, “Yes, I got it.”
Gantô stuck out his neck, approached the monk, and said, “Ka!”
The monk said, “The Master’s head has already fallen.”
Gantô laughed loudly.

Later, the monk came to Seppô. Seppô asked, “Where have you come from?”
The monk said, “From Gantô.”
Seppô asked, “What did he say?”
The monk told him what had happened.
Seppô gave him thirty blows with his stick and drove him away.

Practice Meetings

Friday Oct 23, 7:00pm

This Week’s Koan

Gateless Gate #1: Joshu’s Dog

A monk asked Joshu: “Does a dog have Buddha nature or not?”

Joshu replied: “Mu!” (No!)

Practice Meetings

Friday Oct 16, 7:00pm

This Week’s Koan

Blue Cliff Record #2: Jôshû’s “Supreme Way”

Jôshû, instructing the assembly, said, “‘The Supreme Way is not difficult; it simply dislikes choosing.’ But even if a word is uttered, it is already an action of ‘choosing’ or of adhering to ‘clarity’. This old monk doesn’t dwell in clarity. Do you monks want to keep a firm hold on it or not?”

At that time a monk asked, “You say you do not dwell in clarity. If so, what is there to keep a firm hold on?” Jôshû said, “I don’t know, either.” The monk said, “If you, Master, don’t know, why do you say that you don’t dwell in clarity?” Jôshû said, “You have already asked amply. Bow and withdraw.”

Practice Meetings

Friday Oct 9, 7:00pm

This Week’s Koan

Blue Cliff Record #51, Book of Serenity #50
“What is this?”

When Seppô was living in a hermitage, two monks came to pay their respects. When he saw them coming, Seppô thrust open the gate of his hermitage with his hands, jumped out, and said, “What is this?”

The monks also said, “What is this?” Seppô hung his head and retired into his hermitage.

Later, the monks came to Gantô. He asked them, “Where have you come from?”

The monks said, “From Reinan.”

Gantô said, “Did you ever visit Seppô?”

The monks said, “Yes, we visited him.”

Gantô said, “What did he say?”

The monks related what had happened.

Gantô said, “What else did he say?”

The monks said, “Not a word; he hung his head and retired into his hermitage.”

Gantô said, “Oh, how I regret now that in those days I did not tell him the last word!

If I had told it to him, no one under heaven could do anything against him.”

At the end of the summer practice period the monks came back to this conversation and asked him about its meaning.

Gantô said, “Why didn’t you ask me about it sooner?”

The monks said, “We could not dare to ask you about it.”

Gantô said, “Seppô was born on the same stem as I, but he will not die on the same stem. If you want to know the last word, it is just this.”