One day in his hermitage, Layman Pang asked his daughter Lingzhao, "An ancient said, 'the bright clarity of the ancestral teacher's mind is the bright clarity of the hundred grass tips.' How do you understand this?"
"Such a venerable elder and yet you talk like this!" admonished Lingzhao.
"Well, what would you say?" asked the layman.
"The bright clarity of the ancestral teacher's mind is the bright clarity of the hundred grass tips," replied Lingzhao. The layman laughed.
Layman P'ang [740-808], source: Terebess
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Commentary: Concepts, words, understandings, challenges and agreements. What is there to really be done about the situation at hand? The conditions that lead up to what you are about to say or not meet the conditions that lead up to what I'm about to say or not.
When Lingzhao repeated the words of Layman P'ang here, what was the difference? It would appear that the Layman doubted himself for a moment from Lingzhao's challenge and was compassionately cut down. Understandings are asserted and proven with skillful dharma combat such as this, leaving the potential for the refinement in understanding of the Dharma with everyone involved, including the student of these historic cases.
Submitted February 11, 2020 at 08:26PM by _WanderingRonin_ https://ift.tt/2HgjLPQ
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