51. Question: Why should people who are free and able to change in countless ways then deserve a beating?
Answer: Almost let go.
Verse
'Almost let go' hands on full presentation of wondrous function;
The result of appropriate application will be extraordinary.
'Seeing duty but not doing it is lack of courage,'
'Recognising a debt and repaying it is being faithful to it.'
Watch well for thorns in the mud on a narrow road;
Be careful of awls in an empty bag.
If you meet an obstinate unfaithful bloodless fellow,
Then you'll know dull iron wears out hammer and tongs.
52. Question: As for people who comprehend a hundred-fold and are right on target a thousand-fold, with what are they to be rewarded?
Answer: Zhaozhou's tea, Caoshan's wine.
Verse
Zhaozhou's tea, Caoshan's wine,
Needn't be steeped or brewed.
From time to time thirst comes on -
Why not two or three cups?
After sobering up, seven or eight gallons are alright.
Before you've done offering them more,
They may just open their mouths in pursuit of the rich flavor.
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These cases are from 'One Hundred Questions' translated by Thomas Cleary. It consists of 100 questions posed by Yuantong, answers by Wansong (commentator on the Book of Serenity), and verses by Linquan.
A few times in the text it seems like cases are presented in pairs, where two adjacent cases seem more closely related than others.
Cleary includes some notes on the tea and wine:
Zhaozhou's tea appears in case 21 of The Empty Valley Collection: "When Zhaozhou saw a monk come, he asked, 'Have you ever been here?' The monk said, 'I've never been here.' Zhaozhou said, 'Go have some tea.' Zhaozhou asked another monk, 'Have you ever been here?' The monk said, 'I have been here'. Zhaozhou said, 'Go have some tea.'
Coashan's wine appears in the commentary on case 73 of The Book of Serenity, and in case 10 of No Barrier [Unlocking the Zen Koan]. Qingshan said to Caoshan, 'Qingshui is alone and poor; please help.' Caoshan called him by name, and Qingshui responded. Caoshan said, 'You've drunk three cups of the finest wine, and yet you still say you haven't wet your lips.'
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The key in these two I think is the phrase 'Almost let go'. We see in a number of cases where Zen masters finish with a respectful-seeming response to a Dharma challenger, like 'Even so, you still deserve a beating.' Here it's opened up a little - 'free and able to change' is reminiscent of Deshan's 'acting different' (Book of Serenity 55) - I take it to mean not attached to truths or beliefs or patterns of behaviour that lock you in to a certain view of yourself. We think we're an expert at something and get offended if people don't see it, or we think we're smart, or whatever. In a way it's not up to us how other people see us - and the more we recognise that they define their world, the more we can allow ourselves in turn to recognize how we define ours. So then it's even up to us how we interpret how other people see us.
But hold up there a little. Zen masters are not solipsistic. Sure it's your mind - you're the judge, and you may even be 'the world honoured one'. Some folks worry that if people are told they don't need to practice, and don't need to refine themselves, that they will be lazy and corrupt other people and the world will become a worse place... Personally I don't think that's how it works at all. We're all Buddha - it's not that people will be evil when there are no rules and guidelines and drivers and pressures and suffering. There are reasons why people behave badly. Without reasons, there's just the same face you had before you were born, undiscriminated - the finest wine. Dongshan went to visit a hermit who said, "I saw two clay bulls fighting go into the ocean, never to be heard of since."
Self and other is distinction, same and different are distinction. Those things are rational, part of what's usually labelled by Zen masters the 'sixth sense' of reason. References to seven and eight are uncommon, but they exist. It follows that there are other ways for the mind to function if we're going to give up rationalizing and conceptualizing, no?
Do you need to jump around like a madman to prove you're 'free and able to change'? That's not really being free. Freedom is not lacking courage, and repaying debts.
Btw, Wansong's answers are great, but don't you agree Linquan is the star of the show in this selection? He's like a gold-medal-winning janitor cleaning up after the other two.
There's still a beating coming though :)
Submitted July 13, 2020 at 09:13PM by sje397 https://ift.tt/3gVhcm4
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