Blue Cliff Record: Case X
Mu Chou asked a monk, "Where have you just come from?" The monk immediately shouted. Mu Chou said, "I've been shouted at by you once." Again the monk shouted. Mu Chou said, "After three or four shouts, then what?" The monk had nothing to say. Mu Chou then hit him and said, "What a thieving phoney you are! "
What is my own voice? What does it need to say? Ive been curious about Muchou since I found out they were Yunmen's teacher. Yunmen is an iron wall for me. I discuss it more here.
Let's look at Yuanwu:
Whoever would uphold and establish the teaching of our school must have the eye of a true master of our school, and must have the functional ability of a true master of our school. Mu Chou's mental acuity is like a flash of lightening. He liked to put lecturers to the test; he would usually utter a word or half a phrase like a thicket of brambles that can't be stepped on or touched. As soon as he saw a monk coming, he would say, "The case is complete; I let you have thirty blows of the staff." Or he would see a monk and call out "Elder!" If the monk turned his head, Mu Chou would say, "You board-carrying fellow!" Again, when he was teaching his community, he would say, "If you don't have a place to enter, you must find a place to enter; once you have gained entry, you still must not turn your backs on me." Mu Chou's efforts for people were mostly like this.
Muchou was apparently one of those hardboiled, mean-old Zen Masters that never gave their students anything to chew on. No place to enter?
This monk was also well polished and prepared, but nevertheless he had a dragon's head but a snake's tail. At the time anyone but Mu Chou would have been thrown into confusion by this monk. Like when Mu Chou asked him, "Where have you just come from?" and the monk immediately shouted: tell me, what was his meaning? The old fellow wasn't at all flustered; calmly he replied, "I've been shouted at by you once." He seems to take that shout and put it to one side, and he also seems to test him; he leans over to see how he is. Again the monk shouted; he seems to be right, but isn't yet really right-his nostrils were pierced by the old fellow, who im- mediately asked, "After three or four shouts, then what?" After all, this monk was speechless. Mu Chou then hit him and said, "What a thieving phoney you are!"
A dragon with a snake's tail is a all fangs, no jaw. How could Muchou be flustered by a shouting monk? The monk tests, tries to grab a hold, but it is Muchou who pulls the ox by the nose, and the monk is speechless. A thieving phoney; tries to grab up all the eyeballs, but nothing substantial to look at!
The aim of testing people is to know them intimately the minute they open their mouths. Too bad this monk was speechless, provoking Mu Chou to call him a thieving phoney. If it had been any of you people who had been asked by Mu Chou, "After three or four shouts, then what?" how should you have replied in order to avoid his calling you a thieving phoney? Here if you can discern survival and destruction and distinguish right and wrong, if your feet tread the ground of reality, then who is concerned with "After three or four shouts, then what?"? But since this monk was speechless, his case was decided by old Mu Chou on the basis of the facts.
It's a weird question; what would I have done? Coming in shouting is probably not my personality. Did this monk think they were spreading the Dharma with their inane shouting? Where did the learn such behaviour? No wonder they get caught stealing; there isn't any honesty to them.
The Linji lu says :
X.“Followers of the Way, our eminent predecessors from of old have all had their ways of saving people. As for me, what I want to make clear to you is that you must not accept the deluded views of others. If you want to act, then act. Don’t hesitate.
“Students today can’t get anywhere. What ails you? Lack of faith in yourself is what ails you. If you lack faith in yourself, you’ll keep on tumbling along, following in bewilderment after all kinds of circumstances and being taken by them through transformation after transformation without ever attaining freedom.
XUEDOU'S VERSE
Two shouts and a third shout:"/Adepts recognize the opportune moment to change./If you call that riding the tiger's head,/The two of them would both turn out to be blind men./Who is a blind man?/I bring it out for everyone to see.
Yuanwu says "If [Xuedou] weren't an adept, he would just be shouting wildly at random." Funny.
There is still this itch to "get it right". What is the right interpretation? To who? Part of my practice.
Yuanwu quotes the masters:
Hsing Hua said, "I see all of you shouting in the east hall and shouting in the west hall. Don't shout at random. Even if you shout me up to the heavens, break me to pieces, and I fall back down again without even a trace of breath left in me, wait for me to revive and I'll tell you it's still not enough. Why? I have never set out real pearls for you inside the Purple Curtains. As for all of you here, what are you doing when you just go on with wild random shouting?"
Lin Chi said, "I've heard all of you imitate my shouting. But I ask you, if a monk comes from the east hall and another monk comes from the west hall, and they both shout at once, which one is the guest and which one is the host? If you can't distinguish host and guest, then you must not imitate me any more after this."
This forum has a problem with everyone wanting to play host at every moment. Shouting and shouting. People get really angry when others won't play guest to a thieving phoney. This should be clear by now.
Yuanwu explains:
Therefore Hsueh Tou says in his verse, "Adepts recognize the opportune moment to change." Although the monk in the case was taken in by Mu Chou, still he could perceive the opportune moment to change. Tell me, where did he do this?
Yesterday, Oxen came and corrected me. I remained silent. I was guest. The effort and integrity they brought to the discussion was unassailable. For me not to reform is to add folly to folly. Linji taught me how to be embarrassed. There is no room in Zen for dishonesty.
Yuanwu again (I think Yuanwu gives the best sermons):
Master Hsin of Huang Lung said, "When you reach an impasse, change; having changed, then you get through." This is where the patriarchs cut off the tongues of everyone in the world. If you recognize the opportune moment to change, then when something is raised, you immediately know what it comes down to.
Some people say, "Why worry about Mu Chou saying, 'After three or four shouts, then what?'?" and just go on shouting. Let them give twenty or thirty shouts, even go on shouting until Maitreya (the future Buddha) comes down to be born, and call this riding the tiger's head: if you understand in this fashion, it's because you don't know Mu Chou. Even if you want to see the monk, you're still too far away. To ride a tiger's head one must have a sword in his hand and versatility too before he can succeed.
...
Hsueh Tou goes on to say "Who is a blind man?" Tell me, is it the guest who's blind, or is it the host who's blind? Aren't guest and host both blind at the same time? "I bring it out for everyone to see." This is the living place, where Hsueh Tou finishes the verse all at once. Yet why does he say, "I bring it out for everyone to see"? Tell me, how will you see it? Open your eyes and you can; shut your eyes and you can too. Is there anyone who can avoid it?
When guest is blind, so is host. Reflect on this. Maybe we are a group of egotistical, and pretentious, individualists trying to out clever one another. Or maybe we are members of a team, with the same goals. Foyan says "That is up to you."
Submitted September 19, 2020 at 04:50PM by surupamaerl https://ift.tt/3hIb6pb
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