Friday, 14 July 2017

Dahui Shobogenzo: Pushing the Pillow

A monk asked Yangshan, “Can the reality body teach?”

Yangshan said, “I can’t say—someone else can say.”

The monk asked, “Where is the person who can say?” Yangshan pushed out a pillow.

Guishan heard of this; he said, “Yangshan uses the business of the sword blade.”

Dahui commented, “Guishan truly ‘took pity on his son, mindless of being unseemly.’ When Yangshan pushed out the pillow, this was already indulging; to further put a name on it, calling it the business of the sword blade, misleads literalists, who will thus accept vanity and continue an echo, circulating it further. Although I seem to be borrowing water to offer flowers, essentially there is no crooked determination of truth. Now is there no bystander who does not agree? Come forth; I want to ask you—does pushing out the pillow amount to the reality body teaching or not?”

Note: Is pushing out a pillow a Zen teaching? It is if a Master does it. So what does that say about the idea of "Zen doctrine" or "Zen teaching" to be passed down and studied?

Link to Dahui Shobogenzo: http://ift.tt/2tnfLnz



Submitted July 14, 2017 at 07:35PM by koancomentator http://ift.tt/2tQQbL6

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