Steal My Sword

The 458th case from Dahui’s Treasury,

Magu asked Linji, "Of the Great Compassionate One's thousand hands and eyes, which is the true eye?" Linji said, "Of the Great Compassionate One's thousand hands and eyes, what is the true eye? Speak quickly, speak quickly!" Magu pulled him off the Chan seat and sat in it himself. Linji then approached and said, "How are you?" Magu hesitated. Linji then shouted, dragged him off the Chan seat, and sat down. Magu thereupon went out.

Daguan said, "Chan worthies, these two venerable adepts acted like this; tell me about it. People these days all speak of illumination and function; illumine what bowl? Everyone just knows how to ride a horse by themselves to go catch a brigand, wield a sword themselves to kill a brigand; these two men were able to take away a brigand's horse to catch the brigand, snatch away the brigand's sword to kill the brigand. Even so, though Linji got the advantage, after all this was losing the advantage."

-I think it’s very interesting how Zen Masters are less interested in beating you over the head with their fancy words and legendary swords, and more in showing you were your words fail and snatching away your own sword to use against you. When someone comes into the forum and thinks they should be automatically understood just because they said some words, I think that’s different from when someone finds out how to make themselves understood by having a conversation about how the other person understands things.

Magu and Linji kept stealing the sword from each other. But in the end, what does it amount to?

Submitted March 07, 2023 at 01:58PM by astroemi https://ift.tt/6aemPoq