Monday, 15 August 2022

Measuring Tap, Sounding Strike: Wild Mountain Zen

Measuring Tap, Sounding Strike

5$ on Amamzon

Genuine book of Zen Master instruction.

Case (chosen by Xuedou) 42. Xianglin's patch robe

A monk asked Xianglin, "What is the task in the patch robe?"

Yuanwu interrupts: (Have you ever gone traveling?)

Xianglin said, "Fire burns a mountain in December."

(A thousand layers, ten thousand circuits, a drop of water, a drop of ice.)

Commentary by Xuedou:

Xuedou cited this and said, "Burning a mountain in December-myriad kinds, a thousand types.

Yuanwu interrupts: (They come along together.)

A crane circling a pine tree is cold,

Yuanwu interrupts: (A half pound in the left eye...)

& man walking in the snow is chilled.

Yuanwu interrupts: (...eight ounces in the right eye.)

Bodhidharma didn't understand.

Yuanwu interrupts: (This still amounts to a little bit.)

Very difficult, very difficult!"

Yuanwu interrupts: (What difficulty is there?)

.

Welcome! ewk comment: There is a bunch of stuff going on here, but the main thing you'll probably notice is WTF? The book is a riff by Yuanwu on a riff by Xuedou on a historical record of Xianglin. Who the @#$# is Xianglin, you ask? I don't know either. Google his ass.

That's only the start of the problem, because Xuedou isn't making a lot of sense, and Yuanwu, going with tradition, is adding more not-making-sense rather than explaining anything.

Somebody asked the other day what "study" is.

  1. Understand the history of record. Who is involved. When.
  2. Understand the translation.
  3. Understand the doctrinal aspects
  4. Understand the riffs
  5. Understand the mind of the riffers.

That's five different kinds of study right there!

I can't get Buddhists on social media to take responsibility in their own churches for even one of those!

I guess I'm asking more of you...



Submitted August 16, 2022 at 06:24AM by ewk https://ift.tt/q0ey9QE

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