Yunmen & A Tongue Slip

Case 39 Yunmen’s Tongue Slip 三十九 雲門話墮

雲門、因僧問、光明寂照遍河沙。

Yunmen was, by a preceptor, asked about: “The radiant illumination of reality shines forth like the sand of the Ganges…”

一句未絶、門遽曰、豈不是張拙秀才語。

At the verse he was cut off; Men suddenly inquired: *“Aren’t these the words of Scholar Zhangzhuo^1?”

僧云、是。

The Preceptor said: “Yes.”

門云、話墮也。

Men said: “A tongue slip!”

後來、死心拈云、且道、那裏是者僧話墮處。

Later, Sixin² plucked this out saying: “Pray tell, at what place did the Preceptor’s tongue slip?”

¹ Zhangzhuo, heir of Shishuang Qingzhu. His extensive records are as yet (Aug, 2020) untranslated.

² Sixin "Huanglong" Wuxin, heir of Huanglong Zuxin. His extensive records are as yet (Aug, 2020) untranslated.

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Novices generally come to this forum with the expectation of finding some moral-to-the-story or nugget of Hallmark-card wisdom in Zen cases on how to practice whatever someone told them they ought to practice. Repeating religious doctrine and presenting fanfic better suited for ao3 as "Zen study" is tying your tongue up and insisting you can converse...

Awkward.

Leaving aside the instances of how wisdom as conceived of by Hallmark cards salesmen is overturned and made into a balloon animal by Zen Masters, what is the principle behind cutting off the quoted words of another Zen Master?

Submitted August 23, 2020 at 08:39PM by ThatKir https://ift.tt/31nhU6K