BCR#6: Yunmen's Good Day

CASE

Yun Men said, "I don't ask you about before the fifteenth day; ¹ try to say something about after the fifteenth day." ²

Yun Men himself answered for everyone, "Every day is a good day." ³

YUANWU'S NOTES

^1. Half south of the river, half north of the river. We don't keep old calendar dates here.

^2. Inevitably it will go from dawn to sunset; just don't say that the next day is the sixteenth. Days and months seem to flow by.

^3. He's gathered it up. Though the frog jumps, he can't get out of the basket. Whose house has no bright moon and pure wind? But do you know it? The sea god knows its value, he doesn't know its price.

...

Jungle Toad's ramblings

I used to find all of the stuff about calendar dates in this famous case to be confusing and seemingly non-sequitur. I since discovered that that the lunar calendar is centered around the 15 days leading up to the full moon, and the 15 days following the full moon. The moon is often used as a symbol of enlightenment, as in the expedient means of the Buddha's teachings being his "finger pointing at the moon." Realizing this helped me see this case in a new (moon)light. Yunmen doesn't ask you what it is like to have not had the realization yet, he asks (and answers) for what it is like after the realization. Every phase of the moon is a good phase. The moon was there all along. So who here is going to realize their Buddhahood today? It seems like a good day for it. 😉

And now for a little bit of my signature "Dad Joke Zen":

Why did Yunmen get fired from his job as a calendar maker?

Because he took too many days off

Submitted June 13, 2020 at 04:47AM by jungle_toad https://ift.tt/2C3zpPp