Blyth: Nanquan gets served before his enlightenment

Zen and Zen Classics Vol. 3, by R.H. Blyth

Nanquan and his dharma brother Guizhong:

Nanquan said, "Up to today, you and I, brother, have talked over things, and I know how you think, but afterwards, if someone should ask me about your opinion of the most important thing in the world, what should I say?"

Guizhong said, "This piece of land here would be a nice place to build a hermitage on."

Nanquan said, "Never mind about building any hermitages, what is your opinion of the most important thing in the world?"

Guizhong guldped down his tea and stood up. Nanquan said, "Brother, you have drunk your tea, but I haven't finished mine yet!"

Guizhong said, "If you talk as you ahve been, not a drop of water can be finished up." Nanquan was silent, and went of.

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ewk ^? note: Dharma combat isn't a game. After awhile, anybody that handles this sort of material can tell what the outcome is; calluses form. Elsewhere, though, people are still shocked by this sort of talk. How can you say such things! Here we have Nanquan going off, his tail between his legs. Later on he would terrorize everyone. Revenge? Even later, Zhaozhou would come along and ambush him, but who can say that Nanquan didn't deserve it?

Karma is a @!#$%.

Tell me, what is it that people in this forum deserve?

Submitted March 05, 2018 at 11:40PM by ewk http://ift.tt/2oRi6qt