Bowing before Linji

This is from Having Once Paused: Poems of Zen Master Ikkyu (1394-1481) translated by Sarah Messer and Kidder Smith.

Once there was a monk known only as Old Ding. He asked Linji, "What is the great meaning of Buddha's dharma?" Linji got down from his dais and slapped him. Ding just stood there, frozen. The monk sitting next to him said, "Ding, why don't you bow?" As Ding bowed, suddenly he was greatly enlightened.

Afterwards, he meets a couple of monks on the road. "Where're you coming from?" they ask. "Linji." "Give us something of him," they ask, so he tells the famous story of Linji, who said:

In this lump of raw red meat is a true man without rank.

And when someone asked Linji what that is, he'd say,

The true man without rank is just some dried shit-stick.

But the monks on the road with Ding can't grasp it. One's mouth falls open. The other asks, "Why don't you say 'Not a true man without rank'?"

Old Ding says, "A true man without rank and not a true man without rank, how far apart are they? Quickly, quickly, speak." But he couldn't answer. So Ding says, "If you guys weren't so old, I'd beat both you bed-wetting imps to death."

The bed-wetting imp is a man in great distress.

Old Ding has the right trick, the power of his blessings is deep.

Night rain. Before the lamp, confusion is already forgotten.

In the furyu tea-house, chanting ancient times.

Submitted February 13, 2018 at 10:45PM by Dillon123 http://ift.tt/2BYJiwx