The Blue Cliff Record: Cut through nails and shear through iron, then you can be a genuine master of our school. If you run away from arrows and avoid swords, how could you possibly be a competent adept?

The Blue Cliff Record: Hsiang Lin's Meaning of the Coming from the West [17th Case]

POINTER

Cut through nails and shear through iron, then you can be a genuine master of our school. If you run away from arrows and avoid swords, how could you possibly be a competent adept? The place where even a needle cannot enter, I leave aside for now; but tell me, what's it like when the foamy waves are flooding the skies? To test, I cite this; look!

CASE

A monk asked Hsiang Lin, "What is the meaning of the Patri­arch's coming from the West?"¹

Hsiang Lin said, "Sitting for a long time becomes toil­some."²

NOTES

1. There have been many people with doubts about this; there is still news of this around.
2. When a fish swims through, the water is muddied; when a bird flies by, feathers drop down. Better shut that dog's mouth. The eye of an adept. A saw cutting apart a scale beam."

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Wandering Ronin commentary and questions: If you run away from arrows and avoid swords, how could you possibly be a competent adept? As master Foyan teaches, this is a matter for strong people. We have to learn what is the source of our aversions and what lies at the very heart of our suffering, and go to face it directly on the battlefield of mind.

People often attempt to push their suffering away or ignore it, which only serves to compound and further entrench their suffering. As the Buddha taught, the very first of the Four Noble Truths is that all of life is suffering. Hence, the conditioned things will always torment and eventually destroy the conditioned things, as the only constant to be found is change. What is it that is beyond all conditioning and motion? As Ikkyu shared in a poem, like vanishing dew, a passing apparition or the sudden flash of lightning -- already gone -- thus should one regard one's self. This way, the relinquishing of the conditioned body and mind among the tumultuous myriad things, is luminous in its truth. Abide within the Dharma; it's the only Way.

Submitted September 29, 2019 at 03:47AM by WanderingRoninXIII https://ift.tt/2lXruvb