Let's compare two texts that are similar on the surface. A person with supernatural powers comes and issues a challenge.
Here's an excerpt from Sengai Stories translated by Peter Haskel:
**Sengai and the Master of Ki**
Among the teachers of jujutsu in the Fukuoka domain was one Shobayashi Mata'shichiro. A
master of ki power, Shobayashi with a single shout could reportedly knock a man over from
behind a screen and bring down a bird in flight by staring at it fiercely.
One day Shobayashi went to visit Master Sengai.
“Your Reverence, why don’t we have a little contest,” he suggested. “Your samadhi power
against my ki power.”
“Certainly,” Sengai replied. “Feel free to demonstrate your ki power at any time.”
Shobayashi chuckled sardonically. “I’m going to really teach you a lesson!” he promised, and
went into the next room, where focusing his full force he gave a powerful shout—
”EeeeEEEEEH!”
“I must have knocked that Zen master right on his can!” he gloated. But when he peered into
the room he saw Sengai calmly drinking tea. Shobayashi therefore tried again, with a second
great shout, but Sengai remained completely unfazed. Even the famous Shobayashi couldn’t
match the power of Zen meditation.
This reached the ears of the lord of the domain, and consequently Shobayashi’s stipend was
reduced by fifty koku.1When Sengai learned of this he was greatly concerned about
Shobayashi’s situation and secretly summoned him to the temple.
---------------------
“Let’s have another match,” Sengai suggested. “This time I’ll teach you a surefire way to
win.”
The Master then instructed Shobayashi in the meditation technique of counting breaths.
Returning home, Shobayashi practiced the technique single-mindedly night and day, striving
to enter the samadhi of breath-counting, till suddenly he became one with his breathing:
there was no self apart from his breath, no breath apart from his self. He shouted, and the
force of his shout filled heaven and earth. It seemed as if at that moment nothing existed in
the vast universe. At the same time, when he shouted, the entire universe suddenly
appeared.
“That’s it!” he cried out spontaneously and rushed off to see Sengai, presenting his
realization.
Astonished, Sengai exclaimed, “Shobayashi, you’ve done it! That shout is Rinzai’s 'jeweled
sword of the Vajra King.' You’ve knocked down not only me but heaven and earth and all
there is. I’ve lost the match!”
Through his practice of breath-counting meditation, Shobayashi realized the indestructible
diamond samadhi. Thereafter, not only was the fifty koku restored to Shobayashi’s stipend,
but an additional fifty, it is said, was awarded him.
What Sengai teaches is a way to win.
From the sayings of Joshu by Hoffmann:
[The monk Daiji came from the west to the capital. He said he possessed the unusual power
of being able to read minds. Emperor Daiso ordered his Zen teacher Etchu to test the monk.
The moment the monk met the master, he bowed and stepped aside to the right.
The master said, "Are you able to read minds?"
"To some extent," said the monk in reply.
"Tell me where I am at this moment," the master said.
"You, the teacher of a nation - how can you go to the West River to see the boat race?"
"Tell me where I am at this moment," the master said again.
"You, the teacher of a nation - how can you stand on Tenshin Bridge
and watch monkeys performing tricks?"
"Tell me where I am at this moment," the master said a third time.
This time the monk was unable to find the master's whereabouts.
The master scolded, "You sly fox! What's happened to that mind-reading ability of yours?"
The monk did not answer.
The master then said to the emperor, "Your Majesty, do not be taken in by foreigners!"]
Someone asked, "It is said that in his third trial, Daiji failed to find Etchu's whereabouts.
Where on earth was Etchu?" Joshu said, "He was inside Daiji's nostrils."
Joshu is saying that someone who knows their own mind can't be nailed down by someone who hasn't. He isn't teaching anybody anything whatsoever. No particular truth.
I do not see how anybody could say that the traditions these two texts stem from could have any relation whatsoever.
Submitted May 16, 2023 at 12:13PM by dota2nub https://ift.tt/Ar74a3o
No comments:
Post a Comment