Part 1: Buddha's secret saying
You will know spontaneously--have you attained the path?
Which path?
Can environment and mind unite? May knowledge and principle be merged?
This is about a rice steward turned drummer.
Excerpts from Blue Cliff Record, Cleary, fifth case
Hsueh Feng, teaching his community, said,1 "Pick up the whole great earth in your fingers, and it's as big as a grain of rice.2 Throw it down before you:3 if, like a lacquer bucket, you don't understand4, I'll beat the drum to call everyone to look."5
1: One blind man leading a crowd of blind men. It's not beyond him.
A blind drummer--what's his rank?
2: What technique is this? I myself have never sported devil eyes.
A well designed throw!
3: I'm afraid it can't be thrown down. What skill do you have?
It lands in the bucket. Just a fluke.
4: Hsueh Feng relies on his power to deceive people. Take what's coming to you and get out!
Blind leading the blind... how could I take anything?
5: Blind! The beat of the drum is for the three armies!
Devil eyes; a grain of rice as big as the whole great earth--it really can't be thrown. But where are the three armies?
Hsueh Tou's verse:
An ox head disappears,
A horse head emerges.
In the mirror of Ts'ao Ch'i, absolutely no dust.
He beats the drum for you to come look, but you don't see.
When spring arrives, for whom do the hundred flowers bloom?
Not you, not I. What of us both?
Where has the ox left? Where has the horse emerged?
Ch'ang Ch'ing asked Yun Men, "When Hsueh Feng spoke like this, was there any place where he wasn't able to appear?"
Just here.
Men answered, "There is."
Ch'ing asked, "How so?"
Men said, "One can't always be making wild fox spirit interpretations."
Can you interpret this?
Yun Feng said, "Compared to above, not enough; compared to below, too much. I am making up more complications for you." He raised his staff and said, "Do you see Hsueh Feng? Where the King's rule is a little more strict, it's not permitted to plunder the open markets."
More! Raise your own staff and tell me, is the rule strict? Is there anything to plunder?
Che of Ta Kuei said, "I'll add more mud to dirt for you." He raised his staff and said, "Look! Look! Hsueh Feng has defecated right in front of you all. Come now, why don't you even recognize the smell of shit?"
Wild fox shit.
People these days only say that the Ancient (Hsueh Feng) made something up specially to teach people of the future fixed precepts that they can rely on. To say this is just slandering that ancient master; this is called "spilling Buddha's blood."
Can you be slandered, or can you slander me?
You will have already spilled your own blood.
When [Hsueh Feng had] arrived at Tung Shan, he served as the rice steward; one day Tung Shan asked Hsueh Feng, "What are you doing?"
Hsueh Feng said, "Cleaning rice."
Shan asked, "Are you washing the grit to get rid of the rice, or are you washing the rice to get rid of the grit?"
Feng said, "Grit and rice are both removed at once."
Shan said, "What will everybody eat?"
Feng then overturned the basin.
Shan said, "Your affinity lies with Te Shan," and he directed Feng to go see him.
As soon as he got there, Hsueh Feng asked, "Does this student have any share in this matter handed down from antiquity as the fundamental vehicle?"
Te Shan struck him a blow and said, "What are you saying?" Because of this, Hsueh Feng had an insight.
Later Hsueh Feng was snowed in on Tortoise Mountain... He told Yen T'ou, "When Te Shan hit me, it was like the bottom falling out of a bucket."
Yen T'ou shouted and said, "Haven't you heard it said that what comes in through the gate isn't the family treasure? You must let it flow out from your own breast to cover heaven and earth; then you'll have some small portion of realization."
Suddenly Hsueh Feng was greatly enlightened; he bowed and said to Yen T'ou, "Elder brother, today on Tortoise Mountain I have finally attained the Path."
Finally!
The Ancients weren't like people today with their spurious shallow talk...
...they would spit out a word or half a phrase which would spontaneously cut off the tongues of everyone on earth. There's no place for you to produce a train of thought, to make intellectual interpretations, or to grapple with principles.
See how Hsueh Feng taught his community; since he had seen adepts, he had the hammer and tongs of an adept. Whenever he utters a word or half a phrase, he's not making his livelihood within the ghost caves of mental activity, ideational consciousness and calculating thought. He just surpasses the multitudes and stands out from the crowd; he settles past and present and leaves no room for uncertainty. His actions were all like this.
Hammer, tongs and half a phrase--multiple phrases, different tools, but no livelihood made with them. Has he stood out at all? I'm not sure.
On another occasion Hsueh Feng said, "The whole great earth is the single eye of a monk; where will you people go to defecate?"
As for "Pick up the whole great earth in your fingers, and it's as big as a grain of rice"--tell me, at this juncture, can you figure it out by means of intellectual discrimination?
Here you must smash through the net, at once abandon gain and loss, affirmation and negation, to be completely free and at ease; you naturally pass through his snare, and then you will see what he's doing.
Tell me, where is Hsueh Feng's meaning? ...
Here you must be a true and genuine fellow, who penetrates the bone through to the marrow, and sees all the way through as soon as he hears it brought up, yet without falling into emotional considerations or conceptual thinking.
The earth, an eye
and grain of rice.
Am I in your sight or line
of vision? Just the words I type--
no nets, though,
or snare for bones or marrow
and you throw them down.
Do they land?
Is the bucket there?
Submitted February 28, 2019 at 09:44AM by i-dont-no https://ift.tt/2H7e6N6
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