Practice Meetings
Tuesday Aug 27, 8:30am
Friday Aug 30, 7:00pm
This Week’s Koan
Gateless Gate #1
Joshu’s Dog
A monk asked Joshu, in all earnestness: “Does a dog have Buddha Nature?”
Joshu answered, “Mu. (No.)”
Special Note
The Sangha meeting for Aug. 30 will follow a different format. In lieu of tea, discussion and chanting, there will be three 25 minute sits interspersed with walking meditation.
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.”
Practice Meetings
Tuesday Aug 13, 8:30am
Friday Aug 16, 7:00pm
This Week’s Reading
Thich Nhat Hanh, Old Path White Clouds, Chapter 56, “Full Awareness of Breathing”.
This Week’s Koan
Blue Cliff Record #91, Book of Serenity #25
Yanguan and the Rhinoceros Fan
One day, Enkan called to his attendant, “Bring me the rhinoceros fan.”
The attendant said, “It is broken.”
Enkan said, “If the fan is already broken, bring me the rhinoceros himself.”
The attendant gave no answer.
Shifuku drew a circle and wrote the ideograph “ox” in it.
Practice Meetings
Tuesday Aug 6, 8:30am
Friday Aug 9, 7:00pm
This Week’s Reading
Thich Nhat Hanh, Old Path White Clouds, Chapter 55, “Appearance of the Morning Star”.
This Week’s Koan
Blue Cliff Record #72
Yunyan’s “Do You Have Them or Not?”
Baizhang again asked Yunyan, “If side by side you withdraw throat and lips, how do you speak to make it alive?”
Yan said, “Does the Venerable have or not?”
Zhang said, “I have lost my children and grandchildren.”
Practice Meetings
Tuesday Jul 30, 8:30am
Friday Aug 2, 7:00pm
This Week’s Reading
Thich Nhat Hanh, Old Path White Clouds, Chapter 54, “Dwell in Mindfulness”.
This Week’s Koan
Blue Cliff Record #71
Wufeng’s “You Too Should”
Baizhang again asked Wufeng, “If, side by side, you withdraw throat and lips, how do you speak to make it alive?”
Feng said, “Venerable you too should withdraw them side by side.”
Zhang said, “In the place without a person, I put my hand to forehead and gaze into the distance for you.”
Practice Meetings
Tuesday Jul 23, 8:30am
Friday Jul 26, 7:00pm
This Week’s Reading
Thich Nhat Hanh, Old Path White Clouds, Chapter 53, “Dwelling in the Present Moment”.
This Week’s Koan
Blue Cliff Record #70
Guishan’s “I Would Ask You to Say It”
Guishan, Wufeng, and Yunyan stood together as attendants for Baizhang. Baizhang asked Guishan, “If side by side you withdraw throat and lips, how do you speak to make it alive?”
Guishan said, “I withdraw and beg the Venerable to speak.”
Baizhang said, “I don’t decline to turn to you and speak, but I fear then that afterwards I would lose my children and grandchildren for descendants.”
Therefore Xuedou’s ode says:
I withdraw and beg the Venerable to speak.
The tiger’s head gives birth to horns coming out from the wild grasses.
In the ten island-continents, spring is ended and flowers are withered.
In the forest of coral trees, the sun is brilliantly bright.
Practice Meetings
Tuesday Jul 16, 8:30am
Friday Jul 19, 7:00pm
This Week’s Reading
Thich Nhat Hanh, Old Path White Clouds, Chapter 52, “Fields of Merit”.
This Week’s Koan
Blue Cliff Record #26
Baizhang Sitting Alone
A monk asked Baizhang, “So what is the peculiar matter?”
Zhang said, “Sitting alone on Great Victory summit.”
The monk ceremoniously bowed.
Zhang then hit him.
Practice Meetings
Tuesday Jul 9, 8:30am
Friday Jul 12, 7:00pm
This Week’s Reading
Thich Nhat Hanh, Old Path White Clouds, Chapter 51, “The Treasure of Insight”.
This Week’s Koan
Gateless Gate #40
Kicking Over the Water Jug
When Isan Oshõ was with Hyakujõ, he was tenzo [head cook] of the monastery.
Hyakujõ wanted to choose a master for Mount Tai-i, so he called together all the monks and told them that anyone who could answer his question in an outstanding manner would be chosen.
Then he took a water bottle and stood it on the floor, and said, “You may not call this a water bottle. What do you call it?”
Isan tipped over the water bottle with his feet and went out.
Hyakujõ laughed and said, “The head monk loses.”
Isan was named as the founder of the new monastery.
Practice Meetings
Tuesday Jul 2, 8:30am
Friday Jul 5, 7:00pm
This Week’s Reading
Thich Nhat Hanh, Old Path White Clouds, Chapter 50, “A Handful of Bran”.
This Week’s Koan
Gateless Gate #1
Joshu’s Dog
A monk asked Joshu, “Does a dog have Buddha Nature?”
Joshu answered, “Mu (No.)”
Practice Meetings
Tuesday Jun 25, 8:30am
Friday Jun 28, 7:00pm
Special Note: This Friday’s sit will be Meredith’s last with the Dancing Crane Zen Center.
This Week’s Reading
Thich Nhat Hanh, Old Path White Clouds, Chapter 49, “Earth’s Lessons”.
This Week’s Koans
Book of Serenity #8
Baizhang and the Fox
Whenever Master Baizhang delivered a sermon, an old man was always there listening with
the monks. When they left, he left too. One day, however, he remained behind.
Baizhang asked him, “What man are you, standing there?”
The old man replied, ” In the past, in the time of Kashyapa Buddha, I lived on this mountain as a Zen priest. Once a monk came and
asked me, ‘Does a perfectly enlightened person fall under the law of cause and effect or not?’ I said to him, ‘He does not.”Because of this answer, I fell into the state of a fox for 500 lives. Now, I beg you, Master, please say a turning word.”
Baizhang said, “The law of cause and effect cannot be obscured.”
Upon hearing this, the old man became greatly enlightened.
Gateless Gate #2
Baizhang’s Fox
When Baizhang delivered a certain series of sermons, an old man always followed the monks to the main hall and listened to him.
When the monks left the hall, the old man would also leave.
One day, however, he remained behind, and Baizhang asked him, “Who are you, standing here before me?”
The old man replied:
“I am not a human being. In the old days of Kashyapa Buddha, I was a head monk, living here on this mountain. One day a student asked me, ‘Does a man of enlightenment fall under the yoke of causation or not?’ I answered, ‘No, he does not.’ Since then I have been doomed to undergo five hundred rebirths as a fox. I beg you now to give the turning word to release me from my life as a fox. Tell me, does a man of enlightenment fall under the yoke of causation or not?”
Baizhang answered, “He does not ignore causation.”
No sooner had the old man heard these words than he was enlightened.
Making his bows, he said, “I am emancipated from my life as a fox. I shall remain on this mountain. I have a favor to ask of you: would you please bury my body as that of a dead monk?”
Baizhang had the director of the monks strike with the gavel and inform everyone that after the midday meal there would be a funeral service for a dead monk.
The monks wondered at this, saying, “Everyone is in good health; nobody is in the sick ward. What does this mean?”
After the meal Baizhang led the monks to the foot of a rock on the far side of the mountain and with his staff poked out the dead body of a fox and performed the ceremony of cremation.
That evening he ascended the rostrum and told the monks the whole story.
Õbaku thereupon asked him, “The old man gave the wrong answer and was doomed to be a fox for five hundred rebirths. Now, suppose he had given the right answer, what would have happened then?”
Baizhang said, “You come here to me, and I will tell you.”
Õbaku went up to Baizhang and boxed his ears.
Baizhang clapped his hands with a laugh and exclaimed, “I was thinking that the barbarian had a red beard, but now I see before me the red-bearded barbarian himself.”