Huang Po and friends were funny dudes!

ELEVENTH CASE Huang Po's Gobblers of Dregs

POINTER The great capacity of Buddhas and Patriarchs is completely within his control; the lifeline of humans and gods is entirely subject to his direction. With a casual word or phrase he astounds the crowd and stirs the masses; with one device, one object, he smashes chains and knocks off fetters. Meeting transcendental potential, he brings up transcendental matters. But tell me, who has ever come on like this? Are there any who know where he is at? To test, I cite this: look!

CASE Huang Po, instructing the community, said, "All of you people are gobblers of dregs; if you go on travelling around this way, where will you have Today? Do you know that there are no teachers of Ch'an in all of China?"

At that time a monk came forward and said, "Then what about those in various places who order followers and lead communities? "

Huang Po said, "I do not say that there is no Ch'an; it's just that there are no teachers. "

NOTES 1. Drawing water, he's limited by (the size of) the bowl. He swallows all in one gulp. No patchrobed monk in the world can leap clear.

1. He's said it. You'll wear out your straw sandals.

2. What's the use of Today? Nothing can stop him from astounding the crowd and stirring up the community.

3. I hadn't realized. He swallows all in one gulp. He too is a cloud-dwelling saint. s. He too gives a good thrust; confronting the situation, he couldn't but do so.

4. He just can't explain. The tiles are scattered, the ice melts. He's a fellow with a dragon's head but a snake's tail.

This is where it gets really funny!

COMMENTARY Huang Po was seven feet tall; on his forehead there was (a lump like) a round pearl. He understood Ch'an by nature. It's also said that he once travelled in the company of a saint:

Once when the master was travelling to Mount T'ien T'ai, he met a monk on the way. They talked and laughed together like old acquaintances. Huang Po looked him over carefully; the light in his eyes pierced people, and his appearance was extremely unusual. As they thus travelled along together, when they came to a swollen valley stream, Huang Po planted his staff (in the ground), took off his hat, and stopped there.

The other monk tried to take the master across with him, but the master said, "Please cross over yourself." The other one then gathered up his robes and walked upon the waves as though treading on level ground. He looked back and said, "Come across! Come across!" The master upbraided him, saying, "You self-perfected fellow! If I had known you would concoct wonders, I would have broken your legs!" The other monk sighed in admiration and said, "You are a true vessel of the teaching of the Great Vehicle." As his words ended, he disappeared.

When Huang Po first met Pai Chang, Pai Chang said, "Magnificent! Imposing! Where have you come from?" Huang Po said, "Magnificent and imposing, I've come from the mountains." Pai Chang asked, "What have you come for?" Huang Po said, "Not for anything else." Pai Chang esteemed him deeply as a vessel (of Dharma). The next day he took leave of Pai Chang. Pai Chang asked, "Where are you going?"

Huang Po replied, "To Kiangsi to pay my respects to the Great Master Ma." Pai Chang said, "The Great Master Ma has already passed on." Huang Po asked, "What did he have to say when he was alive?" Pai Chang then related the circumstances of his second encounter with Ma Tsu:

"When Ma Tsu saw me approach, he raised his whisk. I asked, 'Do you identify with this action or detach from this action?' Ma Tsu then hung the whisk on the corner of the meditation seat. There was a long silence; then Ma Tsu asked me, 'Later on, when you're flapping your lips, how will you help people?' I took the whisk and held it up. Ma Tsu said, 'Do you identify with this action or detach from this action?' I took the whisk and hung it back on the corner of the meditation seat. Ma Tsu drew himself up and gave a shout that left me deaf for three days."

Huang Po unconsciously stuck out his tongue in awe. Pai Chang said, "After this, won't you be a successor of the Great Master Ma?" Huang Po said, "No. Today, because of the master's recital, I've gotten to see the Great Master Ma's great capacity and its great function; but if I were to succeed to Master Ma, in the future I would be bereft of descendants." Pai Chang said, "It is so, it is so. If your view equals your teacher, you have less than half your teacher's virtue; only when your wisdom goes beyond your teacher are you worthy to pass on the transmission. As your view is right now, it seems that you have ability which transcends any teacher." You must see for yourself how father and son act in that house before you begin to understand.

Again one day Huang Po asked Pai Chang, "How has the vehicle of the school that comes down from ancient times been demonstrated and taught?" Pai Chang was silent for a long time; Huang Po said, "You shouldn't let posterity be cut off." Pai Chang said, "I thought you were the man." Then he got up and went into his abbot's quarters. Huang Po was an informal friend of prime minister P'ei Hsiu; he explained the essence of mind" to him.

When P'ei was commander of Wan Ling, he invited the master to come to the district capital. He showed the master a book (expressing) his understanding. The master took the book and put it down on the seat without even opening it to look through it. After a long silence, the master asked, "Do you understand?" P'ei said, "I don't understand." Huang Po said, "If you had understood this way, you still would have gotten somewhere; if you're still trying to describe it with paper and ink, where would there still be room for my school?"

Submitted January 24, 2019 at 05:37AM by Theslowcosby777 http://bit.ly/2RL27vp