The Real Shobogenzo: Heroic March Scripture, Zen style

Dahui's Real Original, the First Shobogenzo:         

423 .  Duan Shizi’s two verses on reading the Heroic Progress scripture:

Looking for the mind in seven places, the mind does not finish;

Befuddled Ananda does not get a glimpse.

Even if by seeking you see no mind,

This is still washing a clod of earth in mud.  

The teaching of eight backtracks was delivered long ago;

Since ancient times teachers of the school have each analyzed it.

Even if you can backtrack to what is not backtracking,

This is still a shrimp leaping not getting out of the basket.

Translators Notes: Looking for the mind in seven places is an exercise given by Buddha to his disciple Ananda in the Heroic Progress scripture.  The seven places are:  inside, outside, hidden in the sense faculties, in darkness, wherever encountered, in between sense faculties and sense data, nonattachment. The eight backtracks are another Heroic Progress exercise, examining the nature of perception:  light is traced back to the sun, darkness is traced back to the new moon, transparency is traced back to doors and windows, obstruction is traced back to walls and roofs, objects are traced back to discrimination, indistinguishability is traced back to space, density is traced back to sense data, pure light is traced back to clarity.

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(Welcome link) (ewk^who?) note: Pure light traced back to clarity! Now that's an exercise! What do we think... is the meaning of this "shrimp leaping from the basket" a question we would expect undergrads to be able to write about, or graduate level Zen students?

Submitted June 05, 2020 at 06:09PM by ewk https://ift.tt/2XBg7ch