I ended up looking up Dongshan's koans thanks to two comments by Ewk I think, he commented both that this Zen Master was important in the Caodong School, and later on specifically recommended taking a look at Dongshan's sayings for a specific reason. In both cases I think Ewk was a helpful member or r/zen towards me. My thanks to him therefore in this introduction.
From The Record of Liang-chieh of Tung-shan in Jui-chou Translated by William F. Powell https://terebess.hu/zen/dongshan-eng.html
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During an evening assembly, Yüeh-shan did not have the lanterns lit. He said, "I have something to say to you, but until the bull gives birth to a calf, I will not do so."
A certain monk said, "The bull has already given birth to a calf. It's only that you haven't told us what you have in mind."
Yüeh-shan said, "Attendant! Bring a lantern."
By the time the lantern arrived the monk had withdrawn and was lost among the assembly of monks.
Yüyen recounted this incident to the Master and asked, "What do you think about that?"
"Although the monk understood, he was simply not willing to pay homage," replied the Master.
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Paying homage to Buddhas or Masters or Enlightened persons. This whole master relationship with his disciple, the whole aspect of reverence, does this even make sense? Shouldn’t buddhism or Zen be igualitarian? If we are all Buddhas or “enlightenment is ordinary mind” this would make sense, but I don’t think it is, I don’t think it does.
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How much disrespect is from demanding homage from lesser persons? How much disrespect is refusing to give homage to equals or higher ups? All this homage and “respect” in some sort of hierarchy, with presumably Buddha and Zen Masters very high up, and ignorant, attached, unaware people at the very bottom. But who wants to be a part of this hierarchy? Who wants to pay homage to all this or to anyone? Who wants to be respectful at all?
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Apparently Bulls and Oxen are figures used by Zen Masters to talk about themselves (I previously stated otherwise) and so here the question is perhaps asking whether there is a disciple that has managed to be enlightened, managed to be a tiny version of the Bull Zen Master? I don’t know. Seems a cryptic thing to say to me “until the bull gives birth to a calf”. I wish I had been there to yell out “Moooo!” if you’ll allow me my silliness.
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Ceremonial things that are hard to understand: What is all this about lighting lanterns and leaving them off?
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Conquering Master-hood is perhaps both aquiring enlightenment and an environment where you are respected as one. Full of people who will render you homage, who will treat you with reverence, who will value your opinions, who will “follow you” and obey you. To what extent is this whole master-disciple relationship the wordless teaching, this relationship or style of relationship? “True friendship” or “Religionless Religion”? Ritual-less rituals?
In this OP in this moment here I have called your attentions to this koan and to my comments, I thank you for coming. Please do not flee without letting me know of your understanding. I’m not sure I made this for the homages I might get: it’s definitely been rewarding to get upvotes and responses. But more than homage I think both I and the person calling the meeting in the koan wanted some “connection”, but perhaps a rare kind of connection - an insightful connection - a solution to some puzzle. May you also find insights and both share them with others and have helpful insights shared with you. To me it is a joy to discover some solutions, to find echoes of myself in others, echoes of the truth of one thing somewhere else :D
Submitted May 15, 2020 at 09:33AM by 2bitmoment https://ift.tt/2T4Vti0
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