One day Master Guishan asked Yangshan, "How do you understand inconceivable, clear bright mind?" Yangshan said, "Mountains, rivers, the great earth, the sun, the moon, and the stars." The master said, "You only understand things." Yangshan said, "Master, what did you ask me?" The master said, "How do you understand inconceivable, clear bright mind?" Yangshan said, "Why do you call it things?" The master approved.
Yangshan Huiji [807-883]
Commentary and questions: This case is a perfect example of Dharma combat between a gifted student and his skilled master. "How do you understand inconceivable, clear, bright mind?" the master asks Yangshan. Within this opening question is a skillful conceptual trap: how can one understand that which is inconceivable?
Yangshan, undaunted, answers "Mountains, rivers, the great earth, the sun, the moon, and the stars," revealing his grasp of the ordinary without being bound by concepts. To this, the master challenges "You only understand things," which presses Yangshan even further.
Yangshan then lays out his own trap to turn the tables; "Master, what did you ask me?", to which the master asks his opening question again. Yangshan then asks "Why do you call it things?", completely upending the dynamic all at once and settling the matter. As common in Zen history, this case is a meeting of understandings; the questions, statements, moves and counters are always in a compassionate effort to reveal and expound the underlying principle of the Dharma.
Submitted November 15, 2019 at 08:38PM by TFnarcon9 https://ift.tt/2QngzYo
No comments:
Post a Comment