Knowing How to Beat the Drum

Ho shan imparted some words saying, "Cultivating study is called 'learning.' Cutting off study is called 'nearness.'¹ Going beyond these two is to be considered real going beyond."²

A monk came forward and asked, "What is real going beyond?"³ Shan said, "Knowing how to beat the drum."⁴

Again he asked, "What is the real truth?"⁵ Shan said, "Knowing how to beat the drum."⁶

Again he asked, "'Mind is budda' - I'm not asking about this. What is not mind and not Buddha?"⁷ Shan said, "Knowing how to beat the drum."⁸

Again he asked, "When a transcendent man comes, how do you receive him?"⁹ Shan said, "Knowing how to beat the drum."¹⁰

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Notes

1. The world's patchrobed monks can't leap clear of this. An iron hammerhead with no handle hole. An iron spike.
   
2. What are you doing with the one eye on your forehead?
   
3. What is he saying? I'd blow it out with a single brush stroke. There's an iron spike
   
4. An iron spike. Iron brambles. Hard, hard.
   
5. What is he saying? A doubled case. There's another iron spike.
   
6. An iron spike. Iron brambles. Hard, hard.
7. What is he saying? This garbage heap! The three sections are not the same. There's another iron spike.
   
8. An iron spike. Iron brambles. Hard, hard.
9. What is he saying? This monk encounters a fourth ladleful of his foul water. There's another iron spike.
   
10. An iron spike. Iron brambles. Hard, hard. But say, what does this really mean? In the morning he goes to India, in the evening he returns to China.
    

Forty-Fourth Case: Ho-Shan's Knowing How to Beat the Drum
Blue Cliff Record, Trans. Thomas Cleary & J.C. Cleary

Submitted August 12, 2017 at 04:56AM by _raft_ http://ift.tt/2uObkmq