Bankei on the "Mu" koan.

1.>A monk who had gone to see the Master in private interview said:

"I received the koan 'Joshu's Mu' from a certain Zen teacher and worked at it for many years,

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applying myself single-mindedly,

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exerting all my strength,

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never leaving it from my mind even when moving my hands or feet;

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but, try as I did, I couldn't solve it.

....>What's more,

even though I drove myself so hard that afterward I was ill for quite some time, nothing special happened.

In fact, on the contrary, I became a sick man, and, after a whole year of being exhausted by illness, gave up my work on the Mu koan.

When I simply kept my mind like the empty sky, I felt remarkably easy in both mind and body, and gradually recovered my health.

Today, then, I'm no longer working on the Mu koan,

and, while I don't feel I've solved it, since I always keep my mind like the empty sky, I'm quite content.

Still, I'd very much like to receive your instruction."

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The Master replied:

"To put aside the koan Mu and keep your mind like the empty sky isn't bad since it's [at least] an expression of your own spiritual power.

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But, while it's all right, it's hardly the ultimate.

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Since your Unborn Buddha Mind hasn't been realized, you can't manage smoothly in your actual daily affairs.

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In exchanging it for something like 'the empty sky,' you're obscuring the marvelously illuminating Buddha Mind,

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and the result is, you lack the eye that sees into men.

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Unless you open the eye that sees into men, you're a blind man and won't be able to see into others.

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How about it?

I'm sure the minds of others must be quite invisible to you."

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...The monk said: "Yes, it's true."

The Master told him:

"It's only natural!

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So do as I say thoroughly affirm what I'm telling you. When you accept what you've heard and conclusively realize it, then and there the eye that sees into men will appear, and you won't make any mistake about things.

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That moment is the complete realization of the Dharma."

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Did the monk need to get sick in order to move past the "Mu" koan?

Perhaps.

Work as hard as he did at it? He was single pointed about it...put his all into it!

How many years will it take you to finally give it up?

How much energy must you put into it before you realize there is nothing to get from it?

Take your time.

Submitted November 07, 2018 at 09:49PM by Pikkko https://ift.tt/2QxQT8E