Mosquito trying to bite an iron ox

From the commentary of the 86th case of the Blue Cliff Record:

"Perceive the meaning on the hook; don't abide by the zero point of the scale."

This matter is not in the eye or in the environment. To begin to understand you must cut off knowing and seeing, forget gain and loss, and become purified, naked, and perfectly at ease; each and every one must investigate on his own. Yunmen said, "You come and go by daylight; you distinguish people by daylight. Suddenly it's midnight, and there's no sun, moon, or lamplight. If it's some place you've been to, then of course it's possible; in a place you have never been, can you even manage to get hold of something?"

(Shih T'ou's) Merging of Difference and Sameness says;

Right within light there's darkness,

But don't see it as darkness:

Right within darkness there's light,

But don't meet it as light.

Zen may not be dependant upon the letter, but without the letter, how do you communicate the meaning? How do you lower a hook?

All not depending on the letter means is that the meaning is not in the actual words themselves, rather in what's going on behind them. It doesn't mean that the words have no value or that they don't actually communicate anything.

the Buddha said: 'I truly attained nothing from complete, unexcelled Enlightenment.' It was for fear that people would not believe this that he drew upon what is seen with the five sorts of vision and spoken with the five kinds of speech. So this quotation is by no means empty talk, but expresses the highest truth.

- Huangbo in 'On the Transmission of Mind'

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Joshu said: "At my place it is easy to look at, but hard to see through."

Words are easy to see, the meaning behind the hook is not.

Yao-shan said, "When I was with Shih-t'ou, I was like a mosquito trying to bite an iron ox."

What gives people so much trouble?

Do you know? Can you tell without referring to any texts?

What are all these things going on in your own words?

Submitted June 11, 2022 at 01:59PM by TheChemicalWhisperer https://ift.tt/5ykCx89