(Blyth again, obvs)
The Case
A monk said to Kempo, "The Bhagavat of the ten directions have one road to Nirvana. Where, may I ask, does that road begin?" Kempo lifted up his stick, drew a line, and said, "Here". Later, the monk asked Ummon's help. Ummon held up his fan, and said, "This fan has jumped up to the thirty third Heaven, and hit the nose of the Deity there. The Carp of the Eastern sea gives one stroke, and it rains cats and dogs."
The Commentary
One goes the bottom of the deep sea, and, scratching in the dirt, raises dust. The other goes to the top of the highest mountain, and raises foaming waves that touch the sky. One grasping, the other one releasing, with his one hand each supports the deep doctrine. They are just like two riders, neck and neck. In this world, such people who grasp truth directly are difficult to find. But if we look at these two great teachers with a true eye, neither of them really knows where the Nirvana road is.
Blyth's Commentary
This last statement by Mumon, which looks like a reversal of all he has said before, is so. However many lines Kempo draws, however wildly Mumon may speak, each has only half the entrance, half the way; that is, they do not, as Mumon says, know where the road starts, because it is something unknowable. When we really know that it cannot be known, when we see the universe as one great question mark, we are on the way to the Way.
wrrdgrrl: How can we "know that it cannot be known" when all we are using is our measly intellect? Where then, is the actual start of the road?
Submitted March 21, 2018 at 01:47AM by wrrdgrrl http://ift.tt/2FYqhbO
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