Measuring Tap 35, Again: Bensheng's Staff again

I did this before, but I wasn't satisfied.

Bensheng showed the assembly his staff and said, "If I pick this up, you then make a principle of before picking it up; if I don't pick it up, you make out picking it up to be mastery. Tell me, where is it that I help people?"

Then a monk came forth and said, "I do not presume to create subdivisions arbitrarily."

Bensheng said, "You are not out of place in this."

The monk said, "Leveling the lowest place, there is excess; gazing on the highest place, there is insufficiency."

Bensheng said, "You're producing subdivision upon subdivision."

The monk had nothing to say.

Bensheng said, "Covering your nose to steal incense, you incur blame for wrongdoing uselessly."

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Welcome! ewk comment:

The "staff" is a bunch of donkey hair on a stick that you use to get the flies off you without killing them, because PRECEPTS MATTER.

But since people with a stick like that who talk all the time got famous, it's called a "staff of mastery" now. The guy with the donkey tail is the master.

So, if Bensheng picks up the donkey stick, then people think there is a "before" he picked it up: That's wrong.

If Bensheng doesn't pick up the stick, then people think "picking up the stick" is mastery.

So how can he help anybody? What can he do without giving a false impression?

We are so use to this idea that churches and philosophies have answers that we might be surprised at how furious Zen Masters are at the way questions are misleading.

There are no questions! No questions!

"Take care of yourselves".

That's the old timey Zen way of saying, "drive safely".

Submitted March 10, 2022 at 08:47AM by ewk https://ift.tt/BabjhRV