Good friends, this is the second instalment of a little series on enlightenment verses composed by various ZMs across the ages.
Traditionally presented to the master to put and end to his disapproving beard flicks as the attainment of the student finally shines in bright poetry. Deeply personal and yet profoundly universal.
Featured previously
- Wuzu Fayan (1024-1104) and his charming breeze.
Today's submission is from Layman P'ang, a famously non-ordained student of Mazu, who reportedly intentionally sunk all his family's belongings by scuttling a boat and thereafter lived a simple life of selling bamboo utensils made with his wife, daughter and son. Mrs P'ang and daughter Ling-chao, at least, were not short of zen themselves. What a family.
The Layman is a prime example of a master that remained outside of formal monastic commitments all his life, despite a bit of teasing around the topic as he was of course a frequent visitor within the gates to see his real true friends and quibble about it all. Similar to Wuzu, P'ang posed a question to the master he studied with, but instead of a shout, the great Mazu just said he would withhold the response until P'ang had gulped all of the water in the West River at once. That, of course, was the master's apt device.
We've got two versions of his attainment verse that followed the exchange here, a shorty from The Sayings of Layman P'ang (Green) and a more comprehensive version featured in the Ancestor's Hall Collection.
Version 1
With an empty mind, the examination is passed.
Version 2
Coming to this place from all directions
They all study nondoing (wu-wei).
But right here where Buddhas are selected,
The examination is passed with an empty mind.
The first contains the core point of his verse only, the second provides valuable context. Once again, there is no discrepancy here, so we can accept this with good confidence.
In his past, P'ang planned to take the Civil Service Exam but decided against it - that exam would have been passed with a mind full of scholarly facts, however, the examination the Layman passed under Mazu is instead passed with an empty mind. This choice of words may just hint at his intimate realisation of the contrast between relative and absolute in relation to his own life.
The set up to this memorable statement in the second version appears to describe the common process of seeking out a master or sangha, studying the model cases and lectures, and the moment out of time where one recognises one's own enlightened nature. Note how suitably the two, seeking and attaining, are delineated with a 'but', not an 'and' — Wu-wei or nondoing, that concept of effortless and unintentional harmony, emphasised in Taoism and preceding even Bodhidharma by a thousand years, is what everyone studies. Ha! Like trying to open your palm by clenching your fist. Or drinking an entire river.
Now let him take us beyond this notion of intellectual study, into controversial waters. One day the Layman saw a priest lecturing on a sutra (refer to case 50 in The Sayings, Green) and pointedly said,
"I recommend giving up trying to get there by meditation, but rather directly seizing the reality at hand".
P'ang is clear: Buddhas are selected right here. It's our all-inclusive experience. It does not lie on the back cover of the next book or at that silent retreat. It's not like we see accounts along the lines of "One day old P'ang, at last, got up from his cushion with a light bulb hovering over his head and henceforth spoke in riddles referring to an experience he had". Zhaozhou quietly whispers from all cardinal directions: "IT'S ALIVE!"
The mind empty, dear Layman, what does that even mean? False identities forever exposed!
As Sung-shan once said, putting his arm around his Layman friend after one of their bloody dharma battles, "You're always in an unspeakable place, aren't you, old man?".
Submitted September 30, 2020 at 04:53PM by Coinionaire https://ift.tt/36l1M8K
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