All my best homies slam verses. Though some may say it's as obsolete at writing in cursive. Old fashioned relic trite and inauthentic they say. To subtle to ever get through to people today. The lines and words blur meaning into naked form. Walking alone and violating the norm. Not for god's sake but just to weather the storm. Impression of a void pressed into soft material. The outline indistinct and ethereal. The shadow of a multifaceted jewel, though it does not shine or spin, contains a hologram of the higher dimensional mind within. Like a life is a subset of Life. Like a tree is every thing that ever grew, or ever will. Like a man in battle must kill or be killed. Like an empty bucket on your head is filled. The marrow of the sages passed down throughout the ages can not be said aloud and so is outlined instead. The words are designed somehow to ring out the head. Like the essential difference between alive and dead.
So it is that people of old, seeing it so close, said, "I sit there watching you find out," and "I stand there watching you find out." That is, they never taught you to produce a model or draw a likeness, accumulating achievement and piling up merit seeking to accomplish the Way. Even if your quest is accomplished, as soon as it is done it deteriorates; you wear yourself out in vain.
When you see this said, don't then dismiss cause and effect and do hellish deeds, calling constant unconcern having no view of Buddhism, eating when hungry and sleeping when tired and taking this to be having no practice and realization, considering this to be effortlessness. Don't misunderstand: to bear this thing you have to be totally strong, cast of raw iron - how could it be taken up carelessly by your small faculties and small capacity?
Haven't you read how Linji asked Huangbo the exact great meaning of Buddhism three times and was beaten three times, then afterward got a pointer from Dayu and suddenly was greatly enlightened;
unconsciously he uttered,
"Ah, basically there's not much to Huangbo's Buddhism!"
Dayu said,
"You just said you were trying to find out whether or not you were wrong, but now you say there's not much to Huangbo's Buddhism; what have you seen, that you speak this way?'
Linji stuck Dayu twice in the ribs. Then Dayu pushed him away and said,
"Your teacher is Huangbo; it's none of my business."
Has your study of Chan gotten to be like this yet?
Master Yunan said in verse,
No provisions supplied at all
For years at a crossroads he fears being further and further away.
Immediately given threescore painful blows,
When night comes he lodges as ever in the reed flowers.
He also versified Linji's enlightenment:
Right off he says Huangbo hasn't much teaching;
How can a strong man turn away from himself?
Two fists on the ribs - clearly there's a message;
It wasn't passed on from Huangbo.
Also master Duan's verse says,
Knocking down Yellow Crane Pavilion with one punch,
Kicking over Parrot Island with one kick,
Where there is spunk, he adds spunk;
Where he is inelegant, he is still elegant.
Based on the verses of these two old fellows it is possible to succeed to Linji and be a descendant of Linji, truly, without disgracing or usurping.
Since olden times there has fortunately been such a constitution; why not apply some eye and brain to see what principle this is. This matter is like the bright sun in the blue sky - what obscuration is there?
In other places there are exceptional distinctions, the Chan of a dipper-full of ocean, with complicated details: 'this saying is examining another,' 'that saying is finding out,' 'this saying is not getting hooked on another's line, not going into another's cage,' 'this saying is interchange of relative and absolute,' 'this saying is avoidance in the sanctuary, not daring to be direct.' There is also a type who take for realization the likes of statements in the Heroic Progress scripture, Source Mirror, and verses of Linji that 'what the eyes see and ears hear is all mental - there is nothing else,' citing 'crossing the mystic peak is not the human world - outside mind there are no things; green mountains fill the eyes,' calling this the immediately present matter, calling this the basis, calling this close attention. You undeniably understand well, but if you understand this way, aren't you taking things for mind? Since the mind is your mind, how will you recognize that if you want to?
There is also a type who take Linji's three mysteries and Yunmen's three statements, and pursue the expressions to interpret, taking the sayings of the ancestral teachers from the Transmission of the Lamp and Expanded Lamp, individually categorizing methods, taking the likes of 'as soon as a mote of dust arises, the whole earth is contained therein,' 'in the lion on the tip of a hair, lions on the tips of a hundred billion hairs appear,' 'the whole earth is a door of liberation, the whole earth is one eye of a monk,' 'if people know the mind, there's not an inch of soil on the whole earth; mountains, rivers, and land, light and dark, form and void, are all things in the wonderfully clear true mind,' and categorize them as the mystery within the substance, the expression containing heaven and earth. They take 'a three legged donkey romps,' 'sawing apart of balance beam,' 'an insect swallows a tiger in a fire,' 'Manjusri gave rise to the notion of Buddha and the notion of Dharma and was banished to two iron enclosing mountains,' 'the eastern mountain walks on water,' 'hide the body in the North Star,' generally anything that can't be explained in words, and say 'a mosquito climbs an iron ox; no place for you to get your beak into,' calling this type 'the mystery within an expression' and 'expression that cuts off all streams.' They take the likes of 'stepping on a balance beam, hard as iron,' 'mountains are mountains, waters are waters,' 'when going, just go; when sitting, just sit,' 'a long month is thirty days, a short one twenty-nine,' and call them 'the mystery within mystery,' and 'expression of going along with the waves.'
Haven't you seen master Fenyang's verse saying,
The three mysteries and three essentials are hard to distinguish in fact;
When you get the meaning and forget the words, the Way is easy to draw near.
One expression very clearly includes myriad forms;
On the ninth day of the ninth month the chrysanthemum flowers are new.
This old master has clearly pointed out the marrow of Linji to you, but you come back adding line by line interpretations, saying 'the three mysteries and three essentials are hard to distinguish in fact' is a comprehensive versification; 'when you get the meaning and forget the words, the Way is easy to draw near' is 'the mystery within the substance,' 'one expression very clearly includes myriad forms' is 'the mystery within the expression,' 'on the ninth day of the ninth month the chrysanthemum flowers are new' is the 'mystery within the mystery.' There were among our predecessors those who were famous and had genuine enlightenment, but incompetents who don't understand the great teaching and have no teacher's transmission blind people like this. As for the rest, the hucksters, they are nothing to talk about. I imagine old Fenyang wouldn't nod. He clearly tells you that the three mysteries and three essentials are in fact hard to distinguish; when you get the meaning and forget the words, the Way is easily approached. One expression clearly includes myriad forms; on the ninth day of the ninth month the chrysanthemum blossoms are new. This having been said, if you go on to add a handle to a bowl, don't say you have a great reputation, great eloquence, and great knowledge. If even the great teacher Bodhidharma came forth and acted like this, he should be arrested and buried alive, to avoid letting him spoil the men and women of other people's families.
One blind person leads many blind people. When asked about the three essentials and they can't explain, then they equate this with Deshan carrying his bowl, Yantou's last word, Nanquan's killing a cat, Baizhang's wild fox, Guizong's killing a snake, Dasui's burning off a field, Zhaozhou's checking the woman and checking the hermits, Muzhou's 'carrying a board,' ministry president Chen Cao testing monks, Xuansha's 'I dare say the old brother isn't through yet,' Dongshan's 'you've said it alright, but you've only said eighty percent,' and Bodhidharma's returning west with one shoe - they call all examples like this 'the last word,' and cite Luopu's saying, "at the last word you finally arrive at the impenetrable barrier.' 'Cutting off the essential ford, not letting ordinary or holy pass,' 'let the whole world delight happily - I alone do not agree' they call 'I am king of Dharma, independent in respect to Dharma.' 'You students may freely exercise all your spiritual powers and show all your skills; I will just hold you still and not allow you' they call the impenetrable barrier. They just wait to be promoted to set up a community and be abbot of a monastery, giving transmission from mouth to ear in a closed room. Types like this destroy the right basis themselves, and instead carry on bedeviling talk.
There is also a type who say stories like Nanquan killing a cat, Baizhang's wild fox, Guizong's killing a snake, Dasui's burning off a field, Zhaozhou's testing a woman and testing hermits, are set up methods, and there were actually no such events, wishing to entrap students.
There is also a type who take interchange of relative and absolute to be the message of the school. For example, as Dongshan and Yunju were crossing a stream, Dongshan asked, "How deep is the water?" Yunju said, "Not wet." Dongshan said, "Crude man." Yunju asked back, "How deep is the water?" Dongshan said, "Not dry." They say 'water' is a euphemism for 'wet,' and to directly say 'wet' and not be able to interchange is called being a crude person; when Yunju instead said, 'Not wet,' this was violating the taboo and hence inability to interchange; Dongshan's saying 'Not dry' is the wordless within words: what are words? "Not dry." What is called the wordless? 'Not dry.' 'Not dry' means 'wet' - these are living words, because they are able to interchange and not violate the taboo.
Questions?
Submitted March 09, 2023 at 09:34AM by eggo https://ift.tt/jYHObMc
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