Weekly Dose of Serenity: Case 54

This is the 54th case from Wansong's Book of Serenity,

Yunyan asked Daowu, "What does the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion do with so many hands and eyes?"

Daowu said, "It's like someone reaching back for the pillow at night."

Yunyan said, "I understand."

Daowu said, "How do you understand?"

Yunyan said, "All over the body is hands and eyes."

Daowu said, "You said a lot there, but you got only eighty percent."

Yunyan said, "What about you, elder brother?"

Daowu said, "Throughout the body is hands and eyes."

In his intro to the case, Wansong says, "Crystal clear on all sides, open and unobstructed in all directions, emanating light and making the earth tremble in all places, subtly exercising spiritual powers at all times--tell me, how is this manifested?" And it’s very interesting to me to read this and the case and the verse and the commentary to all of it and still have people today come into the forum talking about how meditation is a Zen practice.

Any practice you come up with, no matter how hard you try to convince yourself that it isn’t a practice through verbal gymnastics, is never going to be it. It’s never going to be "like someone reaching back for the pillow at night." It's never going to have the serenity of Daowu pwning Yunyan with a single phrase.

Then Tiantong ends his verse by saying, "The great function works in all ways--what is taboo?" And Wansong responds, "(No right or wrong.)" Practices like meditation are not good or bad. They are just not Zen.

Submitted May 13, 2023 at 08:15AM by astroemi https://ift.tt/7cGHhm5