Eighteenth case: Silent Dog

Eighteenth case: National Teacher Chung's Seamless Monument

What do Zen Masters teach? Do they teach Zen? Let's find out!

There, I changed titles mid-season. At least now it makes more sense, right? Oh crap, this is the longest case yet. Let's see if our short attention spans can manage.

Case

Emperor Su Tsung asked National Teacher Hui Chung, "After you die, what will you need?"

The National Teacher said, "Build a seamless monument for me."

The Emperor said, "Please tell me, Master, what the monument would look like."

The National Teacher was silent for a long time; then he asked, "Do you understand?"

The Emperor said, "I don't understand."

The National Teacher said, "I have a disciple to whom I have transmitted the Teaching, Tan Yuan, who is well versed in this matter. Please summon him and ask him about it."

After the National Teacher passed on, the Emperor summoned Tan Yuan and asked him what the meaning of this was. Tan Yuan said,

South of Hsiang, north of T'an;

In between there's gold sufficient to a nation.

Beneath the shadowless tree, the community ferryboat;

Within the crystal palace, there's no one who knows.

astrocomments:

-I like when emperors offer everything to a man who wants nothing. It reminds me of some old dog in Greece. Anyways, on with the case. I've been trying to do what Lin Seed said he does in a random comment I'm not gonna bother looking up. About imagining how the actual interactions played out with the actual people moving around and not just formless pieces of dialogue. I can both imagine Hui Chung's silence as an awkward "oh shit what do I tell this guy", or as a firm silence, maybe even looking at him in the eye. So letting the disciple take over is either "someone else will clean up my mess", or "the Emperor's too dumb and I don't have the patience for this shit". Which is it?

-Here's a beautiful line: "expounding the Dharma according to the occasion". Why did Hui Chung answer such an ordinary question which boils down to "what do you need done once you die" with a riddle? Was he being a bit of a dick? In contrast, I like Tan Yuan, he feels like he is picking up the slack and his verse makes my brain tingle. Gold sufficient to a nation is a good line, because what gold is there lacking? Can gold be a metaphor for something? I wonder.

-"Quite a few people go to the National Teacher's silence for their sustenance; if they understand in this way, you at once go wrong." I distrust silence because it can be used in sneaky ways. I can answer what I can and once I don't know something instead of admitting it I can just stay silent and seem wise. That's no fun. It reminds me of the Buddha thing with the flower. Is it more like when a foreigner hears silence he hears a foreign tongue, but when a native hears silence he understands in his native tongue?

Submitted April 28, 2021 at 11:03PM by astroemi https://ift.tt/2Pv4TVA