Reverends, this is number four in a series on enlightenment verses mused up by various masters of the olden days.
Recited to the teacher upon breakthrough, they ought to be loaded with insight. Deeply personal and yet profoundly universal.
Featured previously
- Wuzu Fayan (1024-1104) and his breeze.
- Layman P'ang (740-808) and his exam.
- Dongshan Liangjie (807-869) and his reflection.
Today's submission is from none other than Yuanwu Keqin of Blue Cliff Record fame, his lectures on the one hundred compiled cases and his commentary on Xuedou's verses on them making up the bulk of arguably one of the greatest books of all time.
Blessed with a good memory from a young age, he travelled about looking for understanding, further driven by a close call with death when he fell ill with a serious fever. He subsequently gained some insight after "facing a wall all day sitting silently" for a year, contemplating the cases of the ancients. Little did he know what hand he would one day have in our own study of these anecdotes.
Despite his insight, however, when Yuanwu was confronted with people, it was as if he had none, it all fell apart anywhere but in his silent privacy. He knew there was more. Returning to Wuzu (the master we visited in part one of this series and whom Yuanwu also encountered before), he was diagnosed point blank as having "no insight at all". What a blow. But he did not run away a second time and stuck around as an attendant. This is where it happened one day. In Yuanwu's own words: "On day it happened that a government official asked the teacher about the Way; the master said, “Officer, haven’t you read the poem on the young beauty that says, ‘She calls her maid repeatedly, but has no task for her that needs to be done—she just wants her husband to notice her voice.’"
Raising this poem with Wuzu and asking whether these lines can "activate potential", the story goes that the master then simply uttered one of the common Chan phrases (depending on the source, this was "Hemp, three pounds.", or "Why did Bodhidharma come from the West? - The oak tree in the front garden!") at which Yuanwu was immediately greatly enlightened. Just at this time, a cock crowed, and he pointed to it asking "Do you understand Chan too?" (in other sources he hears the bird and utters to himself "is this not the sound?") - So anyway, poem with crafty words, Chan phrase, enlightenment as soon as these words were spoken, special encounter with a cock. Let's look at the verse he presented Wuzu:
Verse
The golden duck vanishes into the gilt brocade.
With a rustic song, the drunkard returns in the woods.
A youthful love affair
Is known only by the young beauty.
The first line gives the impression of a final statement of unification with his environment, the singled out golden duck is blending into the golden woven fabric (ducks were/are incidentally a common motif of textile arts in China), describing the moment when he returned to the source and no longer upheld the illusion of separation. Master Gulin remarks the following about Yuanwu's enlightenment: "You should know that Yuanwu’s enlightenment was in that and not in this; observe how he said to Wuzu, “Can these two lines awaken potential?” This is the time of a hundredfold comprehension, a thousand-fold accuracy. At that juncture, even before Wuzu had opened his mouth and said, “Hemp, three pounds,” Yuanwu would still have been like the bottom of a bucket fell out on his own; then when Wuzu said, “Hemp, three pounds,” wouldn’t have the blockage in his heart been shed? (...) when one person discovers reality and returns to the source, space in the ten directions vanishes.” - and so the duck went.
The second line rings with joy, the imagery of a rural simpleton stumbling through the forest with a lantern swinging, a belly full of wine, singing familiar songs, sobering up, in for a good night's sleep that clears the eyes. It is worth noting that 'a rustic singing songs' is also an example given by Linji for 'taking away neither person nor the surroundings', as u/surupamaerl brought to my attention. In any case, we get a sense of a joyous homecoming. Wonderful.
Lastly, Yuanwu references the poem the master pointed out to the visiting officer. I don't have to go into the weeds on these last lines — we are so lucky to have the master's own words to tell us first hand what he realised then and there:
"The official didn’t understand, but when I heard it I suddenly broke through the bucket of lacquer, and personally saw right where I was that it never comes from another. Only then did I believe that “within heaven and earth, in the universe, there is a jewel hidden in the mountain of form.” The appearance of Buddha in the world, the coming of the founder of Chan from the West, just taught people to understand this one thing. If you don’t yet know, you just fabricate knowledge and make up interpretations, staring and glaring, never knowing this is just rubbing your eyes producing visual illusions, wearing stocks handing over an indictment. When has this ever gotten freedom and ease, like a snowflake on a red-hot furnace? If you have broken through, everything, even a shout or a slap, is alright; you’ll never make up this interpretation. Only then can you put down the burden of other and self and rest completely; only then can you be unaffected by birth and death. You need to actually arrive at this state; only that will do.
(...) But how can you attain independent liberation? You must be someone who’s entered the flow in order to know such a thing."
Chan Talks, Cleary trans.
What I find interesting is the role the attentive nature of Yuanwu played here, it is quite clear how much part he had in his own enlightenment, but how could it be any other way? See also how his meditative insights, whilst surely a foundation, did not hold up anywhere but his cushion. It was not yet leather bag Chan.
In closing: Thank you, old Yuanwu, for the endless snark in that fat book of yours. Takes a special kind of dog to waffle like a waterfall without getting a drop on him. It's been real.
Submitted October 16, 2020 at 03:05PM by Coinionaire https://ift.tt/3dEzwzG
No comments:
Post a Comment