Record Of Dongshan F17: How dare he speak like that!

Dongshan’s record series #17

The Master visited Nan-yüan. When he went up to the Dharma Hall, Nan-yüan said, "We have already met."

The Master then left the hall. But the next day he went up to the hall again and asked, "Yesterday I was the recipient of the monk's benevolence. However, I don't know where it was that we met before."

Nan-yüan said, "Between mind and mind there is no gap. They all flow into the sea of original nature."

The Master said, "I was nearly overly credulous."

Nan-yüan is a venerable Master, teacher of Zhaozhou, student of Ma-tzu. Last week u/Coinionaire made some great comments about spurious cases potentially being shoe-horned into Dongshan’s record, particularly because it was compiled 800 years after his death.

So how about this one? Nan-yüan seems to be judged as lacking by Dongshan. “I was nearly overly credulous” looks a bit like “I read too much into your words.” But, I wonder. After Nan-yüan “came down the mountain”, he had hundreds of monks, a Zen giant with 17 heirs. What are Zen words? What are ordinary words? What are teaching words?

Submitted May 04, 2021 at 07:50AM by bigSky001 https://ift.tt/3uhpg7U