Nansen's "Ordinary mind is the way"

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Joshu asked Nansen, "What is the Way?" Nansen answered, "Your ordinary mind, that is the Way." Joshu said, "Does it go in any par­ ticular direction?’’ Nansen replied, "The more you seek after it, the more it runs away." Joshu: "Then how can you know it is the Way?" Nan­sen: "The Way does not belong to knowing or not knowing. Knowing is illusion. Not knowing is lack of discrimination. When you get to this unperplexed Way, it is like the vastness of space, an unfathomable void, so how can it be this or that, yes or no?" Upon this Joshu came to a sudden realisation.

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The above case is taken from the Mumonkan, or Gateless Gate. Case 19.

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T. O. M's comment.

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Nansen says that ordinary mind is the way, yet he goes on to state that the way is not a matter of knowing or not knowing..

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Nansen differentiates here, between "Ordinary mind" and "Knowing is delusion"

So, this begs the question, what is the mind that is ordinary, yet does not get involved with knowledge or the lack of knowledge?

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Nansen's "Ordinary mind is the way" is not as simple as one may think, even though lots of people bandy Nansen's words around this place, thinking that just doing what one pleases is Zen, because Nansen said so..

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanquan_Puyuan

Submitted August 12, 2022 at 12:55PM by transmission_of_mind https://ift.tt/EJ6z8GD