“There was once a man who climbed to the top of a ten-story building and jumped off. As he passed the fifth floor on his way down, he was heard to say, ‘So far, so good!'”

– Joko Beck

Practice Meetings

Tuesday May 1, 8:30am
Friday May 4, 7:00pm

This Week’s Reading

Charlotte Joko Beck, Nothing Special, “The Fall,” p. 221.

We’ll be discussing Nothing Special until early July, then we’ll start on Thich Nhat Hanh, Old Path White Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha (Parallax Press, 1991). To order a copy from Amazon, click here.

This Week’s Koan

Gateless Gate, #43: “Shoushan’s Shippei”

Master Shoushan held up a shippei before his disciples and said: “You monks, if you call this a shippei, you are adhering to the fact. If you do not call this a shippei, you are opposing the fact. Tell me, you monks, what will you call it?”

Comment:

Shoushan (“Shuzan” in Japanese), b. 926
15th Generation
Lineage: Mazu > Baizhang > Huangbo > Linji > Xinghua > Nanyuan > Fengxue > Shoushan
Dharma Siblings: None of record.
Appears also in: Book of Serenity #65 and #76.

Wu-men adds: “You should not use words. You should not use no-words. Speak at once! Speak at once!”

A zen teacher with brocade rakusu and a shippei

A “shippei” is a short staff or stick, slightly curved, traditionally made from bamboo, and about half a meter long. It is the symbol of a zen master’s teaching authority, and the masters usually have it with them when they are giving instruction. Thus, when they need an object to illustrate a point, it’s common for them to reach for the shippei.

When Shoushan says, “you are adhering to the fact,” he means you are adhering to the superficial fact and negating the essence.

150 koans ago (which would have been over three years ago at our pace), we had a koan featuring Shoushan’s 4th-Great-Grandfather-in-the-Dharma, Baizhang. In that case, Gateless Gate #40, Baizhang took a water just, stood it on the floor, and said to the assembled disciples, “You may not call this a water jug. What will you call it?”

In that case, Guishan passed the test by kicking over the water jug and leaving the room. That was fine for Guishan, but if you were to do it, you’d just be copying. Without copying Guishan, how would you answer Baizhang’s challenge?

In the present case, a shippei is presented instead of a water jug. What will you call it to pass the examination?

Wu-men’s Verse (Yamada Koun translation):

Holding up a shippei
He issues the order to kill and to give life;
When adhering and opposing interweave,
Even Buddhas and patriarchs beg for their lives.

“Transformation arises from a willingness that develops very slowly over time to be what life asks of us. . . . Think of babies about nine months to a year, crawling about, encountering all kinds of marvels . . . They’re not crawling in order to absorb information; they’re not trying to be better babies who can crawl more efficiently. In fact, they’re not crawling for any reason. They are simply crawling for sheer enjoyment and curiosity. We need to regain the capacity to feel curiosity about everything in our life, even the disasters.”

– Joko Beck

Practice Meetings

Tuesday Apr. 17, 8:30am
Friday Apr. 20. 7:00pm

This Week’s Reading

Charlotte Joko Beck, Nothing Special, “Transformation,” p. 202.

We’ll be discussing Nothing Special until early July, then we’ll start on Thich Nhat Hanh, Old Path White Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha (Parallax Press, 1991). To order a copy from Amazon, click here.

This Week’s Koan

Blue Cliff Record, #48: “Minister Wang and the Tea Ceremony”

Minister Wang went to Zhaoqing Temple for the tea ceremony.
Elder Lang, lifting the kettle to bring it to Mingzhao, happened to overturn it.
Minister Wang said, “What is under the kettle?”
Lang said, “The god of the hearth.” [“The stove-supporting deities”]
Wang said, “If it is the god of the hearth, why has it upset the kettle?”
Lang said, “A thousand days of government service, and one accident!” [“All is lost in one morning.”]
Wang swung his sleeves and left the room.
Mingzhao said, “Elder Lang, you have long had food from Zhaoqing temple, and still you wander about the countryside, working with a stump.” [Or: “…yet you are a useless stump in the field.” “…you go off to the other side of the river noisily gathering charred wood.”]
Lang said, “What about you?”
Mingzhao said, “That is where the devil gets the better of you.” [Or: “Those who are not humans have gained the advantage.” “These non-human beings {i.e., the ‘deities who hold up the hearth’} wreaked havoc.” “The spirit got the advantage.”]

[Xuedou’s note: “Why didn’t you, at that moment, trample on the hearth?” {“…I would have kicked over the tea hearth.”}]

Comment:

Mingzhao (“Myosho” in Japanese), b. 890
14th Generation
Lineage: Shitou > Tianhuang > Longtan > Deshan > Yantou > Luoshan > Mingzhao
Dharma Siblings: None of record.
Appears also in: Book of Serenity #87.

The stove or hearth for warming the tea stood on three legs, each of which had the face of a spirit or deity carved on it. These legs, which prevented the tea from turning over, were known as “stove-supporting deities.” Minister Wang asks, “How is it that the tea kettle is turned over, even though there are deities present who are supposed to prevent that from happening?” This is a checking question to see if the Senior Monk Lang can give an answer befitting a Zen monk. His answer fails to hit the mark, as Mingzhao’s rebuke indicates.

When Mingzhao is asked for a reponse, he indicates that the tea-hearth deities have jumped in and committed a prank. As Yamada Koun comments:

“This reply is still wide of the mark, and unacceptable when seen in terms of the ultimate truth of Zen. Although Zen should always have its attention riveted on the essential world, we see here not the slightest trace of that world.”

Xuedou seems to have included this koan in the Blue Cliff Record only because it is no good — and thereby provides him a chance to say what should have been done. Yamada Koun explains that Xuedou is saying:

“If I had been there at the time when he asked what was under the stove, you know what I would have done? I wouldn’t have said anything, I would have just knocked the stove over! Why? That’s the essential world completely revealed. Here we have a spirited expression of the essential world.”

Xuedou’s Verse (Sekida translation):

Cleaving the air, the question came;
The answer missed the point.
Alas! The one-eyed dragon monk
Did not show his fangs and claws.
Now fangs and claws are unsheathed,
Lightning flashes, stormy clouds!
Surging billows rage around,
Falling back against the tide.

“Practice is nothing but that attitude of curiosity: ‘What’s going on here, now? What am I thinking? What am I feeling? What is life presenting to me? What am I doing with this? What is an intelligent thing to do with this?'”

– Joko Beck

Practice Meetings

Tuesday Apr. 10, 8:30am
Friday Apr. 13. 7:00pm

This Week’s Reading

Charlotte Joko Beck, Nothing Special, “Curiosity and Obsession,” p. 193.

This Week’s Koan

Book of Serenity, #20: Dizang’s “Most Intimate”

Dizang asked Fayan, “Where are you going, senior monk?” [“Senior monk” (joza) is an honorific for a monk who has practiced more than 10 years.]
Fayan said, “I am on pilgrimage, following the wind.”
Dizang said, “What are you on pilgrimage for?”
Fayan said, “I don’t know.”
Dizang said, “Non-knowing is most intimate.”
Fayan suddenly attained great enlightenment.

Comment:

Dizang (“Jizo” in Japanese), b. 868
14th Generation
Lineage: Shitou > Tianhuang > Longtan > Deshan > Xuefeng > Xuansha > Dizang
Dharma Siblings: None of record.
Appears also in: Book of Serenity #12

Fayan (“Hogen ” in Japanese), b. 885
15th Generation
Lineage: Shitou > Tianhuang > Longtan > Deshan > Xuefeng > Xuansha > Dizang > Fayan
Dharma Siblings: Xiushan Longji, Jinshan
Appears also in: GG 26 (BOS 27), BCR 7, BOS 17, 51, 64, 74
[GG: Gateless Gate. BCR: Blue Cliff Record. BOS: Book of Serenity]

Remember the Daoist saying: “For knowledge, add. For wisdom, subtract.” What you “know” about a thing boxes it in. If you are encountering a tree, then your knowledge about trees puts it in categories such as, “pine tree” and “about 30 years old.” Strip all that away and simply be present to the uniqueness of that situation. Subtract the knowledge, and wisdom comes forth. Subtract the knowledge, and there is nothing between you and the experience, no filter of categories, nothing. You stand naked before the phenomena, and the phenomena stand naked before you. Not knowing is the most intimate.

Hongzhi’s Verse (Wick translation):

Right now, investigation replete, it’s the same as before.
Utterly free from minute obstacles, one comes to not know.
Short’s short, long’s long. Cease pruning and grafting.
According with high, according with low, each is even and content.
A family’s manner of abundance or thrift is used freely according to circumstances.
Fields and lands excellent, sportive; one’s feet go where they will.
The matter of thirty years pilgrimage —
a clear transgression against one’s pair of eyebrows.

“By far the most difficult jump to make is from stage one to stage two. We must first become aware of our emotional reactions and our body tension, how we carry on about everything in our lives, even if we conceal our reactions. . . . . We resist doing this work because it begins to tear apart who we think we are.”

– Joko Beck

Practice Meetings

Tuesday Apr. 3, 8:30am
Friday Apr. 6. 7:00pm

This Week’s Reading

Charlotte Joko Beck, Nothing Special, “The Six Stages of Practice,” p. 187.

This Week’s Koan

Book of Serenity, #12: Dizang Plants the Rice Field

Dizang asked Longji, “Where have you come from?”

Longji said, “I have come from the South.”

Dizang said, “How is Buddhism in the South these days?”

Longji said, “There is much lively discussion.”

Dizang said, “How could that match with our planting the rice field here and making rice-balls to eat?”

Longji said, “How could you then save the beings of the Three Worlds?”

Dizang said, “What do you call ‘the Three Worlds’?”

Comment:

Dizang (“Jizo” in Japanese), b. 868
14th Generation
Lineage: Shitou > Tianhuang > Longtan > Deshan > Xuefeng > Xuansha > Dizang
Dharma Siblings: None of record.
Appears also in: Book of Serenity #20

From Andy Ferguson, Zen’s Chinese History:

Classical records say that from early childhood he [Dizang] could speak very well and would not eat meat. He was ordained at Wansui Temple, located in his home province, under a teacher name Wuxiang. At first he closely followed the teachings of the Vinaya, but later declared that just guarding against breaking the vows and adhering to the precepts did not equal true renunciation. He then set off to explore the teachings of the Zen school. Dizang first studied withe Xuefeng, but was unsuccessful at penetrating the Way. It was Xuefeng’s disciple, Xuansha, who is said to have brought Dizang to full awakening.

We need to do a practice that has no apparent rewards in it: the experiencing of our bodily sensations, our hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling, tasting. . . . Still, if we persist, at some point there is a shift, and for a second there isn’t myself and the world, but just — there are no words for it, because it is nondual. It is open, spacious, creative, compassionate, and, from the usual point of view, boring.”

– Joko Beck

This Week’s Koan

Gateless Gate, #18 and Blue Cliff Record #12: Donghshan Shouchu’s ‘Masagin’

A monk asked Dongshan Shouchu, “What is Buddha?”

Dongshan said, “Three pounds of flax [‘Masagin’ in Japanese].”

Comment:

We’re staying on this koan for another week.

Dongshan Shouchu (“Tozan Shusho” in Japanese), b. 911
14th Generation
Lineage: Shitou > Tianhuang > Longtan > Deshan > Xuefeng > Yunmen > Dongshan Shouchu
Dharma Siblings: Baling, Xianglin, Fengxian, Deshan Yuanming
Appears also in: Gateless Gate #15

Thirty-five koans ago, we were looking at a similarly-structured koan: Gateless Gate #21:

A monk asked Yunmen, “What is Buddha?”
Yunmen said, “Dried shitstick [‘Kanshiketsu’ in Japanese].”

Now we are come to Gateless Gate #18, wherein Yunmen’s disciple, Dongshan Shouchu, is asked the same question: “What is Buddha?” Is the disciple’s answer the same as his teacher’s? Or completely different? Wumen included both Yunmen’s “Kanshiketsu” and Dongshan’s “Masagin” in his Gateless Gate, while Xuedou included only Dongshan’s “Masagin” in his Blue Cliff Record. Is “Masagin” more profound? Did Xuedou regard “dried shitstick” as shock-value-merely-for-shock-value’s-sake?

Thirty-seven koans ago, we heard the story of how Dongshan Shouchu, when studying with his teacher, Yunmen, was awakened. Gateless Gate #15:

Dongshan came to see Yunmen. Yunmen asked him, “Where were you most recently?”
Dongshan said, “At Chatu.”
Yunmen said, “Where were you during the summer?”
Dongshan said, “At Baozu Monastery in Hunan.”
Yunmen said, “When did you leave there?”
Dongshan said, “August 25th.”
Yunmen said, “I spare you 60 blows.”
Next day, Dongshan came again and said, “Yesterday you said you spared me 60 blows. I don’t know where I was at fault.”
Yunmen said, “You rice bag! Do you go about in such a way, now west of the river, now south of the lake!”
With this, Dongshan had great satori.

This week, we see that the “rice bag” has turned Yunmen’s “kanshiketsu” into “masagin” — turned the dried shitstick into three pounds of flax. What goes around comes around!

Wumen’s Verse:

Thrusting forth “three pounds of flax!”
The words are intimate, mind is more so;
if you argue right and wrong,
you are a person of right and wrong.

This Week’s Reading

Charlotte Joko Beck, Nothing Special, “Listening to the Body,” p. 181.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Our regular Friday evening sit is cancelled for both Friday March 16 and Friday March 23. The Friday sit will resume in Friday March 30. Meredith will be away at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship’s retreat at Camp Montgomery on March 16, and away in Jacksonville for the Florida UU District Assembly on March 23. Our Friday sit will resume on March 30.

The experiential level is not some strange, exotic thing. It may be a tingling of the skin or a contraction in the chest or a tight face — the experiential level is quite basic and never far away. It’s what we are right now. The experiential level is nothing special, the the longer we sit, the more basic we know it to be.”

– Joko Beck

This Week’s Koan

Gateless Gate, #18 and Blue Cliff Record #12: Donghshan Shouchu’s ‘Masagin’

A monk asked Dongshan Shouchu, “What is Buddha?”

Dongshan said, “Three pounds of flax [‘Masagin’ in Japanese].”

Comment:

Dongshan Shouchu (“Tozan Shusho” in Japanese), b. 911
14th Generation
Lineage: Shitou > Tianhuang > Longtan > Deshan > Xuefeng > Yunmen > Dongshan Shouchu
Dharma Siblings: Baling, Xianglin, Fengxian, Deshan Yuanming
Appears also in: Gateless Gate #15

Thirty-five koans ago, we were looking at a similarly-structured koan: Gateless Gate #21:

A monk asked Yunmen, “What is Buddha?”
Yunmen said, “Dried shitstick [‘Kanshiketsu’ in Japanese].”

Now we are come to Gateless Gate #18, wherein Yunmen’s disciple, Dongshan Shouchu, is asked the same question: “What is Buddha?” Is the disciple’s answer the same as his teacher’s? Or completely different? Wumen included both Yunmen’s “Kanshiketsu” and Dongshan’s “Masagin” in his Gateless Gate, while Xuedou included only Dongshan’s “Masagin” in his Blue Cliff Record. Is “Masagin” more profound? Did Xuedou regard “dried shitstick” as shock-value-merely-for-shock-value’s-sake?

Thirty-seven koans ago, we heard the story of how Dongshan Shouchu, when studying with his teacher, Yunmen, was awakened. Gateless Gate #15:

Dongshan came to see Yunmen. Yunmen asked him, “Where were you most recently?”
Dongshan said, “At Chatu.”
Yunmen said, “Where were you during the summer?”
Dongshan said, “At Baozu Monastery in Hunan.”
Yunmen said, “When did you leave there?”
Dongshan said, “August 25th.”
Yunmen said, “I spare you 60 blows.”
Next day, Dongshan came again and said, “Yesterday you said you spared me 60 blows. I don’t know where I was at fault.”
Yunmen said, “You rice bag! Do you go about in such a way, now west of the river, now south of the lake!”
With this, Dongshan had great satori.

This week, we see that the “rice bag” has turned Yunmen’s “kanshiketsu” into “masagin” — turned the dried shitstick into three pounds of flax. What goes around comes around!

Wumen’s Verse:

Thrusting forth “three pounds of flax!”
The words are intimate, mind is more so;
if you argue right and wrong,
you are a person of right and wrong.

This Week’s Reading

Charlotte Joko Beck, Nothing Special, “False Generalization,” p. 173.

A student said to Master Ichu, “Please write for me something of great wisdom.” Master Ichu picked up his brush and wrote one word: “Attention.” The student said, “Is that all?” The master wrote, “Attention. Attention.” The student became irritable. “That doesn’t seem profound or subtle to me.” In response, Master Ichu wrote simply, “Attention. Attention. Attention.” In frustration, the student demanded, “What does this word ‘attention’ mean?” Master Ichu replied, “Attention means attention.”

– Old Zen Story

This Week’s Koan

Book of Serenity, #46: Deshan’s “Study Accomplished”

Great Master Deshan Yuanming instructed his assembly and said, “If you have exhausted to the end, you will realize right away that all buddhas in the three worlds have stuck their mouths to the wall [i.e., they are unable to open their mouths]. Yet there is still one person who is giving a great laugh. If you can recognize that person, you have accomplished your study.”

Comment:

Deshan Yuanming (“Tokusan Emmyo” in Japanese), b. 909
14th Generation
Lineage: Shitou > Tianhuang > Longtan > Deshan > Xuefeng > Yunmen > Deshan Yuanming
Dharma Siblings: Baling, Xianglin, Dongshan Shouchu
Appears also in: No other koans in Gateless Gate, Blue Cliff Record, or Book of Serenity

On the radio a couple days ago I heard an interview with Teller (of Penn and Teller). Teller said that when people laugh, for an instant the critical, judging mind is turned off. So if a certain magician’s trick is likely to arouse a skepticism from an audience, then do or say something to make them laugh immediately afterward.

Words, words, words inherently tend to arouse our critical, evaluative mind. That’s OK. We need that mind — it’s got important work to do. Yet we also want to be in touch with the beauty of nonjudgmental awareness. That awareness is beyond all words — including even the Buddha’s words.  At the end of our “study,” not even the Buddha can have anything to say anymore. There is only the nonlinguistic awareness — which, for example, laughter represents.

Verse by Roberta Werdinger:

Over a spangled shoulder the sambista crooks her mouth:
Deshan! no flowers on this wall.
At the end of the line, a bright response twitters above rustling forms, dips down for a drink.
The sea is the street: the whole city pours through.
A thousand scampering feet, fingers pointing to just one moon.
When a foot meets earth with no hesitation, eons of toil are wiped away.
Only brocade? More fish to hook? Deshan!
Yemaya’s watery hands nagged the fat pink one flapping on your face.

This Week’s Reading

Charlotte Joko Beck, Nothing Special, “Attention Means Attention,” p. 168.

The person we counted on who didn’t come through, the job we failed to get, the physical ailment that worries us: instead of going round and round in our thoughts, worrying about the problem, if we reestablish the foundation of our lives in immediate experience, we will see how to act appropriately. . . . It sounds crazy to say that when we have a problem we should listen to the traffic. But if we truly listen, our other senses come to life also. We feel the contraction in our body, too. When we do that, something shifts, and how to respond becomes clearer.

– Joko Beck

This Week’s Koan

Blue Cliff Record, #100: Baling and the Sharpest Sword

A monk asked Baling, “What is the sword against which a hair is blown?”

Baling said, “The moon sits on each branch of the coral.”

Comment:

Baling (“Haryo” in Japanese), b. 895?
14th Generation
Lineage: Shitou > Tianhuang > Longtan > Deshan > Xuefeng > Yunmen > Baling
Dharma Siblings: Deshan Yuanming, Xianglin, Dongshan Shouchu
Dharma Descendants: None of note
Appears also in: BCR #13

“Sword against which a hair is blown.” Also translated as, “the sharpest sword.” The idea is that the sword is so sharp that it would cut a hair blown against it by a gentle breeze.

“The moon sits on each branch of the the coral.” Also translated as, “Each branch of the coral embraces the bright moon.”

The sword represents Zen wisdom that cuts through all delusion and anxiety. The moonlight is essential nature, and the branches of coral are the relative world of multifarious objects. “The moon sits on the each branch of the coral,” means that essential nature, the absolute, shines through each ordinary, relative thing.

Imagine yourself standing by the water’s edge as twilight darkens into night. Beneath the gently rippling surface, branches of coral are visible. The ripples create reflections of the moon on each of the hundreds of branches of choral. What a beautiful image! If you were standing there, taking in this image, you wouldn’t be thinking about why the boss is mad at you (or why you’re mad at the boss), or how you’re going to get your kids to clean up their room. You’d be simply present to that beautiful moment. And that presence is the sharpest sword. Coming back to the present moment cuts through all afflictions.

John Tarrant:

Each twig of coral, each creature on earth or sea has its portion of the moonlight, and is sacred. Each moment of our lives, too, has its portion of the moonlight, a luminescence we obscure through our bustle and grasping but which we can reveal through spiritual practices. We may say too that each religion and each spiritual road has its shaft of moonlight. (Foreword to James Ford, This Very Moment, 1996)

Xuedou’s Verse,

To cut off discontent,
Rough methods may be best:
Now they slap, now they point.
The sword lies across the sky,
Snow glistens in its light,
no one can forge or sharpen it.
“The moon sits on each branch of the coral” —
Marvelous!

This Week’s Reading

Charlotte Joko Beck, Nothing Special, “Coming to Our Senses,” p. 158.

To be simply what we are is the last thing we want to do….Master [Linji] said, “Do not spend even one thought in chasing after buddhahood.” That means to be ourselves as we are, in each moment, moment by moment. It’s all we ever need to to do.

– Joko Beck

This Week’s Koan

Blue Cliff Record, #13: Baling’s “Snow in the Silver Bowl”

A monk asked Baling, “What is the school of Kanadeva?”

Baling said, “Snow in a silver bowl.”

Comment:

Baling (“Haryo” in Japanese), b. 895?
14th Generation
Lineage: Shitou > Daowu > Longtan > Deshan > Xuefeng > Yunmen > Baling
Dharma Siblings: Deshan Yuanming, Xianglin, Dongshan Shouchu
Dharma Descendants: None of note
Appears also in: BCR #100

Kanadeva (“Kanadaiba” or just “Daiba” in Japanese) was, according to legend, an Indian Buddhist master about 13 generations before Bodhidharma — i.e., around the year 200 BCE. Kanadeva was a student and disciple of another great Ancient Indian Buddhist philosopher, Nagarjuna. Kanadeva is said to have brought Buddhist philosophy to completion. Zen teaches that true nature cannot be understood by logic, can’t be explained in words, can’t be grasped by reason. Philosophical concepts cannot express but only obscure the true nature of things. So what about this Kanadeva fellow? He was strong in philosophical argument and adept at constructing — and deconstructing — elaborate conceptual schemas. What, if any, is the place of such debating skills on the Zen path?

Baling — placed about as many generations after Bodhidharma as Kanadeva was before — answers, “snow in a silver bowl.” If Buddhism is a silver bowl, the snow represents philosophical sophistication about Buddhism. Yes, the bowl will hold it. And, yes, it is rather pretty. It’s also quite cold.

Xuedou’s verse:

Remarkable, the old man of Shinkai Temple;
It was well said, that “Snow in the silver bowl.”
The ninety-six can learn for themselves what it means;
If they cannot, let them ask the moon in the sky.
The school of Kanadeva, Kanadeva’s school —
Scarlett banners flapping, the wind is cool!

This Week’s Reading

Charlotte Joko Beck, Nothing Special, “The Paradox of Awareness,” p. 149.

When events occur that we don’t like, we create pseudo problems and ge caught in them:
‘You insulted me! Of course, I’m angry!’
‘I’m so lonely. Nobody really cares about me.’
‘I’ve had a hard life. I’ve been abused.’
Our journey isn’t finished until we see there is no problem. How could there be a problem? My ‘problem’ is that I don’t like it. So out of my opinions, reactions, and judgments I build a castle in which I imprison myself. We remain imprisoned because we don’t recognize the castle or how to win our freedom. People are imprisoned in many different ways. For example, one castle can be the constant pursuit of an exciting and vibrant life, full of new things and enjoyment. People who live in this way are stimulating but hard to be around. What is your castle? What is your pseudoproblem? The answer is different from each person. If we begin to see that the current problem that upsets us is not the real issue in our lives, but merely a symptom of a deeper pattern, then we’re beginning to find our way out.

– Joko Beck

This Week’s Koan

Blue Cliff Record, #17: Xianglin’s “Sitting for a Long Time”

A monk asked Xianglin, “What is the meaning of the Patriarch’s coming from the West?”

Xianglin said, “I am tired from sitting for a long time.”

Comment:

Xianglin (“Kyorin” in Japanese), b. 908
14th Generation
Lineage: Shitou > Daowu > Longtan > Deshan > Xuefeng > Yunmen > Xianglin
Dharma Siblings: Deshan Yuanming, Baling, Dongshan Shouchu
Dharma Descendants: Zhimen ->Xuedou

The question is a common one in Zen lore: Why did  Bodhidharma (the Patriarch) come from the West? Bodhidharma is the figure credited with founding Zen in China. He was born in India, and came west (and north) to China, sat in a cave for 9 years and then began teaching students in the tradition known in China as “Chan” and in Japan as “Zen.”  To ask for the meaning of Bodhidharma coming to China is to ask for the meaning of Zen practice. The monk is asking, What is this practice all about? Why do we do it?

Xianglin’s answer suggests that we do it in order to sit for a long time and become tired. Or: We do it in order to arrive where we are — which, at that moment, for Xianglin, was a state of being tired from long sitting.

Sekida notes: “When sitting, you are sitting; when you get tired, you get tired. There is no irritation, no regret: you are as you are, all of a piece.”

Barry Magid commented on this koan:

“All of us come to practice with basic questions we’re trying to answer. Perhpas we want to know how we should live our life; perhaps we are trying to understand hyow to deal with suffering or loss or problems in our relationships. . . . The monk is still looking for an answer beyond his own simple everyday experience of this moment. . . . In our daily practice, we must discover and express for ourselves the fundamental truth that this mind, this body, this moment is all that we have, is all that there is. We come to practice believing that our minds as they are, our bodies as they are, are the problem. . . . But practice will never teach us to exchange this mind for another one or to substitute this body for someone else’s. Nor are we here to train our body and mind, to turn them into new, improved versions of what we already have. . . . Listen to Xianglin: this tired old body is not the problem; it’s the answer.”

Xuedou’s verse:

One, two, and tens of hundreds of thousands,
Take off the muzzle and set down the load.
If you turn left and right, following another’s lead,
I would strike you as Zihu struck Liu Tiemo.  

Liu Teimo [“Ryutetsuma” in Japanese], born ca. 800, a.k.a. “Iron Grinder Liu” is one of the few women who is mentioned in Chan literature as a Zen adept. As Chinese monasteries were off limits for women, she lived at the base of Mt. Guishan, and had interactions with Chan monks and students as they traveled in and out of Guishan’s monastery. She got her nickname of “Iron Grinder” from the fact that she used to grind the young monks minds to dust with her responses to them. Iron Grinder Liu has carved a unique niche for herself in the annals of Zen. See BCR 24/BOS 60. Female Zen adepts also figure in GG 31/BOS 10, and Wumen’s comment on GG 28.

Zihu was a disciple of Nanquan and a dharma sibling of Zhouzhou and Changsha. Zihu himself famously addressed the question of Bodhidharma coming from the west: “The Patriarch’s coming from the west only means that winter is cold and summer is hot, night is dark and day is light.” Xuedou’s verse references this story:
One day Liu Tiemo appeared unexpectedly before Zihu.
Zihu said, “Are you not Liu Tiemo?”
Liu said, “I don’t presume to say so.”
Zihu said, “Do you turn left or right?”
Liu said, “Don’t tip over, Teacher.”
Zihu struck her whil her words were still in the air.

This Week’s Reading

Charlotte Joko Beck, Nothing Special, “The Castle and the Moat,” p. 138.