Chan Master Lanzan's Poem:
Worldly affairs pass slowly by,
Incomparable to the mountains and hills,
Lying under wisteria vines,
With a stone for my pillow.
No audience with the Son of Heaven,
Why envy princes and nobles?
No worries about life and death,
What further distress could there be?
Afterwards, when the poem reached the ears of the Tang Emperor Dezong, Dezong very much wanted to meet this Chan Master and see what kind of person he was. Therefore, he dispatched an official to welcome the Chan Master to the imperial court.
The official, carrying the imperial decree, found the cave just in time to see the Chan Master cooking inside the cave. At the mouth of the cave, the official then cried out loudly, “The imperial decree has arrived. Quick! Kneel down to receive it!”
Inside the cave, Chan Master Lanzan, pretending to be deaf and dumb, did not pay him the slightest bit of attention. The official poked his head in and only saw the Chan Master using cow dung to stoke the fire. Roasting in a clay pot were sweet potatoes.
The fire burned more and more intensely, smoke permeated everywhere, and black fog swirled around and around completely engulfing the inside and outside of the cave. Smoke assailed the Chan Master, causing tears and mucus to run down his face. Seeing this, the attending guard could not help but call out,
“Hey Chan Master! Snot is dripping down your nose! Why don’t you wipe it off?”
Chan Master Lanzan, without even turning his head, replied, “I don’t have the time to clean off snot for ordinary people!”
After Chan Master Lanzan said this, he immediately picked up a piping hot sweet potato, put it in his mouth, and said again and again in praise, “Delicious! Delicious!”
Seeing this, the official was stunned speechless because what Chan Master Lanzan was actually eating was one rock after another. While Chan Master Lanzan was eating, he casually picked up two more and handed them to the official, saying, “Please eat them while they’re hot! The three realms are only of the mind; the myriad dharmas are only of the consciousness. Poor and rich, noble and mean, raw and cooked, soft and hard—in the ground of the mind and the ocean of consciousness, do not separate them into two.”
The official, seeing the Chan Master’s unusual behavior and hearing his inscrutable Dharma teaching, did not dare answer, so he hurried back to the imperial court and faithfully reported to the emperor.
After listening to this, Emperor Dezong sighed with great emotion and said, “That our country has such a Chan master is truly everyone’s blessing!”
My comment:
This story appears in "Chan Heart, Chan Art" by Xing Yun as translated by Pey-Rong Lee and Dana Dunlap.
Some observations I made about this tale are as follows:
...No audience with the Son of Heaven, Why envy princes and nobles?
the poem reached the ears of the Tang Emperor Dezong, Dezong very much wanted to meet this Chan Master...
From the solitude of his cave, master Lanzan reaches the Emperor's ears with a few lines of poetry, and summoning the Emperor to attend his call.
...The imperial decree has arrived. Quick! Kneel down to receive it!” ... Chan Master Lanzan, .. did not pay him the slightest bit of attention.
A true man of no rank master Lanzan reiterates: “I don’t have the time to clean off snot for ordinary people!”
As he continues with the official master Lanzan draws the bow back, and spouts two lines sending the arrow packing.
He flawlessly hits the bullseye: Emperor Dezong sighed with great emotion and said, “That our country has such a Chan master is truly everyone’s blessing!”
The commentary on this story states: Some bhiksus living among people are in the mundane world, but their minds are in the mountain forests. Some bhiksus living in seclusion are in a place of practice, but their minds are in the secular world.
Some masters lived among people are interesting. But it is the masters whose teaching reached the masses from complete seclusion, never leaving the cave or wilderness transcends time nonetheless.
I have come across a few other stories involving a secluded master. I'd be grateful if any of you could share any secluded master stories you might recall or can refer me to.
Submitted February 23, 2023 at 02:25PM by InfinityOracle https://ift.tt/JdsDLom
No comments:
Post a Comment