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Mumonkan. Case 40. Tipping over the bottle. Trans Sekida.

When Isan Oshõ was with Hyakujõ, he was tenzo [head cook] of the monastery. Hyakujõ wanted to choose a master for Mount Tai-i, so he called together all the monks and told them that anyone who could answer his question in an outstanding manner would be chosen. Then he took a water bottle and stood it on the floor, and said, "You may not call this a water bottle. What do you call it?" The head monk said, "It cannot be called a stump." Hyakujõ asked Isan his opinion. Isan tipped over the water bottle with his feet and went out. Hyakujõ laughed and said, "The head monk loses." And Isan was named as the founder of the new monastery.

Mumon's Comment Isan displayed great spirit in his action, but he could not cut himself free from Hyakujõ's apron strings. He preferred the heavier task to lighter one. Why was he like that, eh? He took off his headband to bear the iron yoke.

Mumon's Verse Tossing bamboo baskets and ladles away, He made a glorious dash and swept all before him. Hyakujõ's barrier cannot stop his advance; Thousands of Buddhas come forth from the tips of his feet. ————————————————

Here’s my tiger

After the question, silence, dry coughs. Serried minds search the byways of logic in vain for words that were never there, never will be. Walls of doubt rear up. Watcha got? Not a lot. A verbal contrivance of what it’s not. Kick a bottle and shatter the walls. A bottle - a dead focal point in infinite space - with a simple tap of the foot is shown spinning not in the world or with the world but of the world. Then the kicker withdraws through the shocked, silent debris of logic. Victorious. ———————————————— On the other hand, the head cook was a practical, and a busy, man. After interminable minutes spent contemplating the impossible, finally thought “Fuck this fiasco. I’ve rice to cook, fires to light, pans to scrub. I’m outta here. You and your stupid bottle”. ———————————————- Either way it was there in that kickbottle moment. The right man for the job. Serendipity in action. ———————————————— Or did he simply trip over the bottle as he stumbled out?

Submitted September 12, 2020 at 12:18AM by Upsparkle https://ift.tt/33lGTqP