Case
A monk asked Zhimen, "How is it when the lotus flower has not yet emerged from the water?"
Zhimen said, "A lotus flower."
The monk said, "What about after it has emerged from the water?"
Zhimen said, "Lotus leaves."
Yuanwu's commentary:
In treating people according to potential, Zhimen has attained a little; when it comes to cutting off all streams, he's a million miles away. Is this lotus flower before and after it emerges the same or different? If you can see thus, I'll grant you've gained access. Nonetheless, if you say it's the same, you confuse Buddha nature and cloud thusness. If you say it's different, mind and objects are not yet forgotten, and you descend to travel the road of intellectual interpretation - when will you ever cease?
Tell me, what does the ancient mean? In reality there aren't so many things. So Touzi said, "Just don't stick to names and words, classification and phrasing. If you have understood all things, naturally you won't be attached to them. There is then no multiplicity of gradations of differences; you take in all things, but all things won't be able to take you in. Fundamentally there is no gain or loss, no illusions or dreams, no multiplicity of names. You should not insist on setting up names for them. Can they fool you? Since you ask questions, therefore I say something. If you didn't ask, what could you have me say that would be right? All concerns are what you take up - none of it is any of my business.
Another Zhimen case from the commentary:
A monk asked Zhimen, "what is the body of wisdom?"
He said, "an oyster swallowing the moon."
The monk asked, "what is the functioning of wisdom?"
Zhimen said, "A rabbit becomes pregnant."
See him responding like this; no one on earth can search out the stream of his words.
From the commentary on the Zhimen case, in "The Measuring Tap" as translated by Thomas Cleary
Xuedou:
Not only does he hold the world steady, he also stabilizes the homeland. If you can investigate thoroughly, then please walk alone in the red sky.
Yuanwu:
"An oyster swallows the bright moon" - on a moonlit night in mid-autumn, an oyster takes in moonlight to produce a pearl.
"A rabbit becomes pregnant" - a rabbit becomes pregnant with a mate on swallowing the moonlit night in mid-autumn, giving birth through its mouth. The answer successfully "stabilizes the homeland."
Me:
Sakyamuni Buddha stands on the dais before the sangha twirling in his fingers a clipping from the most recent issue of Cell entitled "FAMIN Is a Multifunctional Purine Enzyme Enabling the Purine Nucleotide Cycle."
Am I sure I'm smiling at what I'm smiling at?
Submitted January 31, 2020 at 03:15AM by in_dee_nile https://ift.tt/2Gzi2ou
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