Good Snowflakes (BCR 42)

Source(s): The Blue Cliff Record Translated by Thomas Cleary and J.C. Cleary, Shambhala, 2005

 

Layman P'ang's Good Snowflakes

 

POINTER

Bringing it out unique and alone (is still) dripping with water, dragging through mud. When knocking and resounding occur together (it's still like) a silver mountain, an iron wall. If you describe and discuss, you see ghosts in front of your skull. If you seek in thought, you sit beneath the black mountain. The bright shining sun lights up the sky. The pure whispering wind circles the earth.

 

CASE

When Layman P'ang took leave of Yao Shan, Shan ordered ten Ch'an travellers to escort him to the gate. The Layman pointed to the snow in the air and said, "Good snowflakes — they don't fall in any other place."

At the time one of the Ch'an travellers named Ch'uan said, "Where do they fall?" The Layman slapped him once. Ch'uan said, "Even a layman shouldn't be so coarse." The Layman said, "Though you call yourself a Ch'an traveller this way, the King of Death still won't let you go." Ch'uan said, "How about you, Layman?" Again the Layman slapped him and said, "Your eyes see like a blind man, your mouth speaks like a mute."

Hsueh Tau said besides, "When P'ang first spoke I just would have made a snowball and hit him with it."

 

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wrrdgrrl's ponderings:

1. That pointer, though! If you describe and discuss, you see ghosts in front of your skull. What the everloving flock are we even doing here, then? Sitting at the foot of a mountain.

2. Layman's provocative statement about the snowflakes. This one irks me. Is he daring someone to disagree with him? At first I thought he was making an observation about Mind (as in, this is where the snowflakes actually are falling).

3. The full case with commentary is rich with variations on a theme, too many to address in one post, but one I may revisit is that famous question, "What man doesn't keep company with the myriad things?" I encourage anyone to (re) read this case and throw any questions out to me. I feel like I could write a dissertation just on this one! Not that I would want to attempt that. More ghosts.

 

 

Submitted June 14, 2019 at 03:15AM by wrrdgrrl http://bit.ly/2XJq6Kr