All the Old Koans

From The Unborn, Normal Waddell Translation, pp. 78-79:

A monk: I’ve been working on “Hyakujō’s Fox” for a long time. I’ve concentrated on it as hard as I know, but I still can’t seem to grasp it. I think it’s because I’m unable to achieve total concentration. If possible, I would like to receive your teaching.

Bankei: I don’t make people here waste their time on worthless old documents like that. You don’t know yet about your unborn Buddha-mind and its illuminative wisdom, so I’ll tell you about it. That will take care of everything. Pay careful attention.

Bankei then taught him about the Unborn. The monk was completely convinced. He is said to have developed into an exceptional priest.

Another monk (who had been listening to this): If that’s true, what about all the old koans? Are they useless and unnecessary?

Bankei: When worthy Zen masters of the past dealt with those who came to them, every word and every movement were appropriate to the moment. It was a matter of responding to their students and their questions face-to-face. They had no other purpose in mind. Now, there’s no way for me to tell you whether that was necessary, or helpful, or not. If everyone just stays in the Buddha-mind, that’s all he has to do—that takes care of everything. Why do you want to go and think up other things to do? There’s no need to. Just dwell in the Unborn. You’re eager to make this extra work for yourself—but all you’re doing is creating illusion. Stop doing that. Stay in the Unborn. The Unborn and its marvelous illumination are perfectly realized in the Buddha-mind.

Note: Today, after a month (two cases per day), I finished reading Wumen’s compilation of old koans, translated by Cleary. I’ll probably read it again. I finished reading Bankei in less than 24 hours and I’m reading it again. If I were to suggest a course of reading, I would suggest reading the wiki-lineage-text-list in reverse; starting with Bankei, and working backwards to Bodhidharma. Just my opinion, lightly held.

Submitted February 27, 2019 at 08:41PM by kaneckt https://ift.tt/2NxdYrB