One day, Master Tan-hsiaT’ien-jan (Tanka Tennen) 1 came to visit the Layman. H e had just passed through the gate when he saw the Laymans daughter, Ling-chao, holding a basket of vegetables.
Tan-hsia said, “Is the Layman here or not?”
Ling-chao dropped the basket, stood up, and clasped her hands together on her chest. 2
Tan-hsia again asked, “Is the Layman here or not?”
Ling-chao picked up the basket and walked away, and Tan-hsia left.
When the Layman returned home, Ling-chao told him what had happened.
The Layman said, “Was it Tan-hsia?”
Ling-chao said, “He’s gone now.”
The Layman said, “You’ve spilled the milk, in the mud.” 3
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1 Tan-hsia T'ien-jan (739—823) was one of the four principal dharma heirs o f Shih-t'ou and was a friend of the Laymans when they were young men.......(etc)
2 A gesture of greeting in old China
3 A wasted effort. Layman P'ang is saying that it was unnecessary for Ling-chao to try to test Tan-hsias Zen.
Why, after all of the cases with Layman making fools of everybody did he feel that his daughter made a mistake in testing out (using what she likely got from the layman) Tan-hsia's Dharma eye?
Submitted February 22, 2018 at 11:31PM by WheresNorthFromHere7 http://ift.tt/2ForVnq
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