From Case 10
Luopu said, "If you want to know the ever-transcending people, they do not stick the words of buddhas or patriarchs on their foreheads--that would be like a turtle bearing a design, by which it brings on itself the sign of losing life, like a phoenix ensnared in a golden net, heading for the sky--how can it hope to get there?
'Turtle bearing a design' -- refers to the practice of burning turtle shells and examining the cracks as a tool for divination. Clearly you can't use a live turtle for this, hence, 'sign of losing life'.
'Phoenix ensnared in a golden net' -- Phoenixes (like the golden 'unicorn-fish/carp') is a mythical creature whose getting caught in nets comes up for consideration in Zen cases.
Here's something from Whitfield's footnotes in the Shanzhao text:
*The golden unicorn, jin lin, 金鱗, a kind of four-legged fish, one of four mythical animals in China, together with the dragon, phoenix, and tortoise, is a creature of good omen, a symbol of longevity, grandeur, felicity, and wise administration.
So, what's the deal with all these mythical animals getting caught by nets while Zen Masters don't get stuck even by Buddha?
PS: Read the paragraph before and saw that Wansong already talked about all this in the commentary...nice.
Submitted March 20, 2022 at 10:55PM by ThatKir https://ift.tt/ySCgiFB
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