Brian's Blue Cliff Record Book: Patched robe monks

Brian: This list is supposedly describing how a monk should be.

This is incorrect. Here is the list:

To touch iron and turn it into gold, to touch gold and turn it into iron, to suddenly capture and suddenly release-this is the staff of patchrobed monks. To cut off the tongues of everyone in the world so that "there's no place for them to breathe out, to make them fall back three thousand miles-this is the mettle of patchrobed Monks."

In the context, I think Brian clearly misunderstands what a patched-robe monk is.

A verse of Master Xian of Guanxi said, Many years of austerities--a worn patched robe. Frayed threadbare, half flying with the clouds, I take it and hang it on my shoulders--Still it is better than the brocade robes people wear today.

and

Piercing and penetrating supernatural powers and their wondrous action would not be considered exceptional; when he gets here, with his patched robe covering his head, myriad concerns cease-at this time, the mountain monk does not understand anything at all.

and

Xitang returned to his native district: he had received Ma Tsu's patched robe .... One day Ma Tsu asked him, "Why don't you read sutras?" The master said, "Could sutras be any different (from this)?" Ma Tsu said, "Though this is so, later on you'll still have to help people." The master said, "I am sick and want to heal myself: how could I dare to speak for others?" Ma Tsu said, "In your last years you will inevitably (cause the Dharma to) flourish in the world." After Ma Tsu had died, the congregation in 791 asked the master to open the hall (and teach).

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Welcome! ewk comment: Regardless of how (precepts) a monk is supposed to act, a patched-robe monk does things. It is these miraculous powers that go along with a robe so old it has to be patched with discarded rags.

Now, sure, you could have gotten one of those cheap robes, or you could have rough elbows, making the "time to patching" faster... but where is the gradual attainment in that?

Submitted February 27, 2022 at 12:48PM by ewk https://ift.tt/fwsoMZp