Vomit take two.
佛語心爲宗、無門爲法門。
Buddhism makes mind its foundation and no-gate its gate.
既是無門、且作麼生透。
Now, how do you pass through this no-gate?
豈不見道、從門入者不是家珍、從縁得者始終成壞。
It is said that things coming in through the gate can never be your own treasures. What is gained from external circumstances will perish in the end.
恁麼説話、大似無風起浪好肉抉瘡。
However, such a saying is already raising waves when there is no wind. It is cutting unblemished skin.
何況滯言句覓解會。 掉棒打月、隔靴爬痒、有甚交渉。
As for those who try to understand through other people's words, they are striking at the moon with a stick; scratching a shoe, whereas it is the foot that itches. What concern have they with the truth?
It seems to me Mumon is reiterating that Buddhism, as the Zen lineage sees it, is entirely a "study" of the mind.
In this regard, I have questions;
Is this a rejection of Zen being a study of the external world, and rejecting the idea of Zen relating in any way to a study of the external world? Or is it a statement about the external world being a construct of the mind, and not being separate at all? Or just that you can't know anything but, since your perception of all external is actually, always internal. Can you ever see past the lens?
How can No-Gate be a gate? I suppose anything can be a gate if you believe it hinders progress, even something that doesn't exist. In itself it brings to mind several issues; a definition of what progress means to you, why you think your existence will unfold as you planned it, that you will some day reach something beyond this. Something extraordinary, as if this wasn't enough.
Or is no-gate the gate to the mind, the foundation of Zen?
---
About treasures; I've read a few zen texts that discuss treasures before. I'm never really sure what they mean. When Mumon speaks of things from external circumstance perishing in the end, at the end of what? Once you dissolve the gate, it's all you?
Through observation one can see people that regurgitate other people's words verbatim, without truly understanding. The illusion breaks under scrutiny. It always makes me think of, for example, studying a subject related to physical skill or experience, and then thinking you're an expert because you can parrot what someone with experience has told you. As if parroting an authority made you one, made you, by proxy, true. And yet in context, under pressure, it falls apart. Like thinking you can learn to be a ufc fighter by watching youtube videos for years and then getting into a cage match. I have certainly been guilty of this (not the ufc fighting, literally.)
But this is surface level to me. Beyond this lies a question greater; Which words can you say are really yours? And does experience actually grant you truth?
慧開、紹定戊子夏、首衆于東嘉龍翔。因納子請益、遂將古人公案作敲門瓦子、隨機引導學者。
In the summer of the first year of Jõtei, Ekai was in Ryûshõ Temple and as head monk worked with the monks, using the cases of the ancient masters as brickbats to batter the gate and lead them on according to their respective capacities.
竟爾抄録、不覺成集。初不以前後敍列、共成四十八則。
The text was written down not according to any scheme, but just to make a collection of forty-eight cases.
通曰無門關。
It is called Mumonkan, "The Gateless Gate."
若是箇漢、不顧危亡單刀直入。
A man of determination will unflinchingly push his way straight forward, regardless of all dangers.
八臂那咤、擱他不在。
Then even the eight-armed Nata cannot hinder him.
Anyone know what a Nata is?
縦使西天四七、東土二三、只得望風乞命。
Even the four sevens of the West and the two threes of the East would beg for their lives.
I always wonder if the statement, "would beg for their lives", is an analog for the destruction of these concepts.
設或躊躇、也似隔窓看馬騎、貶得眼來、早已蹉過。
If one has no determination, then it will be like catching a glimpse of a horse galloping past the window: in the twinkling of an eye it will be gone.
This one resonates strangely.
Get a glimpse of a gateless world, blink once, and the dream is back. Should one not fear chasing the dragon?
Verse 頌曰
大道無門 The Great Way is gateless,
千差有路 Approached in a thousand ways.
透得此關 Once past this checkpoint
乾坤獨歩 You stride through the universe.
Submitted July 15, 2020 at 03:49AM by JazzDeath https://ift.tt/2WicYNw
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