Whenever Ta Hui entered his room for private instruction, Yuan Wu brought up the same saying every time: “Having words or wordlessness, both are like clinging vines on the tree.” Questioning him with this, Yuan Wu would immediately say “Wrong, that’s not it!” as soon as Ta Hui opened his mouth. Ta Hui said, “This truth is like a dog looking at a pan of hot oil, wanting to taste it but unable to, wanting to give it up but unable to.” Yuan Wu said, “You’ve described it very well—this is the unbreakable trap, the thicket of thorns.”
I just started reading Swampland Flowers and right out of the gate this passage in the intro grabbed me. I’m in a place with my practice where this thicket surrounds me. Just when I see through, I recognize the transparency and the blinds come down. To open the mouth is to fall into corruption of meaning, to recognize the wordlessness is to lose the meaning completely. The doubt I feel can’t break with effort, it’s the recognition of itself that creates it.
Wu Tsu said, ‘Describe it and it can’t be described completely, depict it and it can’t be depicted accurately.’ I also asked, ‘How is it when the tree falls and the vines wither?’ Wu Tsu said, ‘It comes along with it.’” At these words, Ta Hui was released, saying, “I understand.”
What did Wu Tsu describe?
Interesting side note: Wu Tsu was also Foyan’s teacher.
Submitted August 02, 2022 at 10:34PM by bcntwo https://www.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/weh34k/the_unbreakable_trap/?utm_source=ifttt
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