The Mumonkan: When you have really reached the true Way beyond doubt, you will find it as vast and boundless as outer space. How can it be talked about on the level of right and wrong?

The Mumonkan: Nansen's "Ordinary Mind Is the Way" [19th Case]

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Jõshû asked Nansen, "What is the Way?"¹

"Ordinary mind is the Way," Nansen replied.²

"Shall I try to seek after it?" Jõshû asked.

"If you try for it, you will become separated from it," responded Nansen.³

"How can I know the Way unless I try for it?" persisted Jõshû.

Nansen said, "The Way is not a matter of knowing or not knowing.

Knowing is delusion; not knowing is confusion.⁴

When you have really reached the true Way beyond doubt, you will find it as vast and boundless as outer space.⁵

How can it be talked about on the level of right and wrong?"⁶

With these words, Jõshû came to a sudden realization.

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Mumon's Comment

Nansen dissolved and melted away before Jõshû's question, and could not offer a plausible explanation. Even though Jõshû comes to a realization, he must delve into it for another thirty years before he can fully understand it.⁷

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Mumon's Verse

The spring flowers, the autumn moon;

Summer breezes, winter snow.

If useless things do not clutter your mind,⁸

You have the best days of your life.

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Wandering Ronin commentary and questions:

1. Questions raise waves where there are none; what answer could possibly suffice?
2. Nansen isn't being mysterious here, as this is all a very ordinary and mundane matter.
3. Balanced carefully on the edge of a sword; it's already here, and nowhere else.
4. What can be known here? What can't be known here?
5. Are there any complications at this point? What is not mind in the first place?
6. Attachments and aversions; chains upon chains have nothing to do with the ordinary.
7. Even after a sudden realization, conditions and karma can weigh heavy.
8. The night sky can be with or without clouds, but the moon remains unaffected.

Submitted October 29, 2019 at 07:30PM by WanderingRoninXIII https://ift.tt/2PuNcTE