Treasury of the Eye of True Teaching #653
One day as officer Wang was at work, Mi Hu arrived. Wang held up his writing brush and showed it to him. Mi Hu said, "And can you judge space?" Wang then threw down his brush and went into his residence and didn't interact any further with Mi Hu. Mi Hu had doubts.
The next day, when master Huayan had a gathering for tea, he asked Wang, "What did Mi Hu say yesterday that you didn't interact with him any more?" Wang said, "A lion bites people, the hound of Han chases a clod." As soon as Mi Hu heard this, he let out a clear laugh and said, "I understand! I understand!" Wang said, "It's not that you have no understanding, but try to say it." Mi Hu said, "Please bring it up." Wang then stood up one chopstick. Mi Hu said, "This wild fox sprite!" Wang said, "This fellow has penetrated."
Dagui Zhe said, "Though Mi Hu was like this, he only got one piece. When officer Wang said 'This fellow has penetrated,' it was much like seeing a tower and making it out to be a tower. I am otherwise. Though the officer was a layman, he had the authority to give life or kill at his pen. Mi Hu was a teacher of one region, but he couldn't get out of the other's cage. At that time, when he threw down his pen, I'd say to him, 'I'd doubted this fellow hitherto.'"
—Translated by Thomas Cleary
Pretty crazy that Thomas Clearly made it all the way to 2021 with us, isn’t it? We are Thomas Cleary contemporaries. That might carry some significant weight you know. Historically speaking.
Anyway—I grok this case. I was going to say ‘I love it’, but that wouldn’t make sense in this…instance. There isn’t much to love in an official throwing down his pen, is there? Or how about this Mi Hu’s paltry question about ‘space’? Pshaw. No. The only good bit in the whole thing is Wang’s quote: “The lion bites people, the hound of Han chases a clod.” That is, in fact, quite a humdinger. To me it sounds like he’s pointing at the lion as symbolized in mahyana buddhist and chan literature vs. the dogged Han-educated mind. It sure do ring like that, anyway. Just ole official Wang highlighting the difference between two states he is familiar with. Lions and hounds of Han. Anyway, a one time view of that snappy quote. It does make an impression, though.
But it isn’t the crux of the case…Wang was only expressing something we had already seen ourselves when he threw down the pen. He chose to bite rather than “chase the clod.”
I actually like the chopstick image quite a bit. It’s one of those cases you can look at as the Zen master doing something that followed the words of the question. “Please bring it up.” Turns into Wang standing up one chopstick.
I have all sorts of funny scenarios I use in my inner theater when observing cases. One of the conceits is that I look at reality as a simulation, and the Zen master’s response being the proper baseline response to the input. Like…the Zen master’s body just does or says whatever the “law” of the simulation is in that context. Then I look at it again.
This is a highly entertaining lens through which to view a case. And then flip the switch off, and look at it like normal. As a thought experiment I find it works. In this case, I like that the “simulation” just reaches out for the simplest and most efficient action that will adequately respond. (Of course—it looks like this often.)
That’s how I observe my own body doing things, a lot of the time.
And, oddly, that applies to writing OPs and comments. Do the rest of you also find that this is so? When confronted with a challenge in your Zen study, as regards your r/zen content, do you also observe yourself responding in the manner that is most efficient over time? (If not, might wanna get that looked at.)
That’s why I like how r/zen is set up. It is very easy to seek efficiency here. Everyone is very obliging with all sorts of different personal strategies for efficiency. For example…it probably makes the zen study of scholars much more efficient when there are poets and literati around to cackle at them.
Conversely, it no doubt makes poet and literati study that much more efficient, having to dodge the American-trained lynch mob the scholars inadverntantly summon left and right—all of whom are out to get artists, quite naturally. In a way, it is very effective literary training for both sides of this little civilizational divide / spat we get to act out in our literary commentary for all to see.
You know how I went on that spin about how I look at posts and comments in r/zen as literary content?
Well, I am going to throw down my pen in the format of my seasonal lunar book report1 on that r/zen content, as I have observed it and been a part of it so far in 2022. This isn’t a long, talky video—it’s a short cinematic one with subtitles. (My last one of this scope featured the effervescent u/astroemi snatching the AMA idol as his alter ego Indians Jones, you might temember.)
It’s been a crazy year. Civlization coming apart at the seems [not a typo]. A Zen Buddhist self-immolated on the supreme court steps a couple of weeks prior to Roe v Wade being overturned leaked. A land war in Asia broke out, and NATO is militarizing in a big way.
And the best way to study Chan under a mililatry drictatorship is still the way we’ve been doing it the whole time: by ignoring it and laughing at it.
And studying Chan.
So how fun to offer this rendition of r/zen goings on, in the bedrock literary language of western civilization (as tradtionally concocted): a head-to-head conflict between two very different foundational texts, the Iliad and the Odyssey—mapped to our very own and familiar zen study right here in r/zen!
Hope it’s good for a laugh.
And oh yeah—it was inspired by a meme u/jungle_toad made. Now there’s a guy who ain’t afraid to show his age with literary allusion—nor too cowardly to confirm it!
Linseed’s Magnetic Personality
—Golden Eyebrow
Year of the Tiger
1 More on this fresh new term later.The monks hurried to the entrance of the meditation hall. At that Joshu slammed the door.
The monks were speechless. But Nansen tossed the key through the window, and Joshu opened the door.
Submitted July 07, 2022 at 11:46AM by golden_eyebrow https://ift.tt/2GCMZnX
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