Baizhang v/s Wumen, Fox Case, Lesson Learned?

Wumen's comment on the Case suggests happy rebirths as a fox... What's up with that?

1.  The Baizhang Case isn't Wumen's story.  Wumen isn't saying that Baizhang was wrong and the cursed head monk was happy as a fox.

2.  The Zen argument is that enlightened people are beyond suffering from desire, and Wumen is saying if you are enlightened, the fox thing wouldn't bother you.

3.  Which raises the question was the cursed head monk enlightened, which we know he was not.

4.  Let's check the translation:

 * Sekida: If you come to understand this, you will realize how old Hyakujõ would have enjoyed five hundred rebirths as a fox.

 * Wonderwheel: If from within you are able to manifest the one single eye, then you get the wisdom of how the first Baizhang won five hundred graceful lives.

 * 前百丈 clearly references Baizhang, not the cursed head monk, enjoying rebirth... But wait, why the confusion?  IT IS DELIBERATE.  The "first Baizhang" could be the cursed head monk OR Zen Master Baizhang.  Because Baizhang is the name of the place, and the cursed head monk was a teacher from that place, hence "first".

5.  So, if we agree on all of this, the trap is twofold... And this is the kind of thing Wumen loves to do, he is a real son of a bitch:

 * Why did the cursed head monk get punished for saying something Zen Masters say?  

 * Why didn't Baizhang/Haikujo get punished with a curse if answering wrong gets you cursed, since clearly Huangbo slapping  Baizhang is a sign of Baizhang's error, which Baizhang acknowledged, since Baizhang comparrd Huangbo to Bodhidharma after the slap?

6.  If all your choices are wrong, how can you be right?  Or more to the point, if you are the head monk, how can you save yourself?  If you are Baizhang, how can you save the head monk or any of your students?  If you are Baizhang, how can you avoid being cursed for saying what the head monk said (truth), or avoid saying something false? Doesn't saying something false get you cursed?

1. What is the teaching?  Repudiate all the Zen Masters by saying causal chains bind even enlightened people, and get slapped by a Zen Master for being wrong, aka losing your life aka proving yourself an unenlightened corpse?  Or say what Zen Masters say and get turned into a fox?  A fox which is the symbol for being a liar and a fraud?

So Wumen rides in on his white horse and says don't worry, people, Baizhang got cursed too... But for Baizhang it was just a fox vacation, because you can't cause a Zen Master to suffer from a curse... and we all know Zen Masters all deserve to be foxes since they talk about transmissions beyond words, tell people to see what people already see to be free of what never originally bound anyone, and cause the disease they pretend to cure... Going around scratching the feet of suffering people without removing the people's boots.

Sorry you asked?

Submitted April 29, 2020 at 11:10AM by ewk https://ift.tt/2VKuU3u