Upon request of Mr. Ewk.
Characters translated as Guest & Host:
客 (Guest) | 主 (Host)
While typically rendered as 'guest' and 'host' there are some instances in which we see it come up translated (often inconsistently) as 'traveler/visitor' and 'master/patriarch'.
When compounded with other characters we can see 客 take on the role of a profession/occupational marker,, e.g., 劍客 (swordsman--"When you meet a swordsman. . ."), 塵客 (Dust-worn traveler), 鹽客 (salt-peddler) or 禪客 (Zen Guest/Student). There is lots of untranslated word-play.
When 主 is compounded with other characters, it can take on a status-marker, examples include, 院主 (temple superintendentone of the terms that is inconsistently and awkwardly translated as 'abbot'), 主公 (Your Highness)
There is also the character 賓 which is -specifically- a term for a guest and frequently compounded as 賓主.
Side comment: I've been reading a lot of Anderl's translations lately...he let's the reader know when he decided to throw in the towel. That sort of honesty-to-one's-craft is totally foreign to the culture of misrepresentation that has characterized Japanese missionary translation efforts of the past 60 years.
From Zen Cases:
Book of Serenity: Case 2
卒客無卒主。宜假不宜真
For an impromptu guest there is no impromptu host; what's appropriate provisionally is not appropriate for the real.
Book of Serenity: Case 38
示眾云。以賊為子。認奴作郎。破木杓豈是先祖髑髏。驢鞍橋亦非阿爺下頷。裂土分茅時如何辨主。
Taking a thief for one's son, taking the servant for the master. Can a broken wooden ladle be your ancestor's skull? A donkey-saddle rim is not your father's jawbone either. When breaking earth, separating reeds, how do you discern the master?
Korean 'Gong'an' Collection
雲門杲, 擧此話云,“賓則始終賓, 主則始終主. 二大士驀箚相逢, 主賓互換, 直 下發明臨際心髓.
Yunmen (Dahui) Zonggao raised this story, saying, “As a guest he was a guest from start to finish, and as a host was a host from start to finish. The two great beings508 met frankly and the (standpoints) of the host and guest were exchanged, and then and there shed light on the core marrow of Linji."
不會作客, 勞煩主人
Baiyun Zhibing's remarks, "If you on don’t understand how to play the role of guest, then you trouble the host.’”
x
趙公, 擧此話云,“且道! 如今喚底, 是主喚客喚? 他後瞞底, 是他瞞自瞞? 試與 判看.”
Zhaogong raised this story, saying, “Now speak. Is this present calling the host calling or the guest calling? Being deceived hereafter, is it someone else deceiving or is it yourself deceiving? Try to see if you can judge.”
ZEN STUDY
The Zen tradition stands apart from religious institutions, philosophical speculating, and w/e else in that public conversational demonstrations of one's understanding of their tradition is what Zen Masters engage with--anything else is taken to be reading off a script prepared by another and of no value.
In any conversation there is a guest and a host--one who comes, one who receives--it is not sufficient to play at one particular role, but, meeting the situation and appraising on the basis of the Law--Zen Masters challenge you to clearly discern the thread of the Law.
What Zen texts have you read lately?
Submitted March 06, 2022 at 03:46AM by ThatKir https://ift.tt/nJiREue
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