Real me - false me

I accidentally hit post on a draft and had to start over again. fms, which means fuck my self.

Case

五祖問僧云、倩女離魂、那箇是眞底。

Goso said to his monks, "Seijõ's soul separated from her being. Which was the real Seijõ?"

The story

The story of Sei's two souls comes in various Chinese books of ghost stories. There are several versions, but substantially the same. The best-known is in Sento Shinwa, a collection of stories by Kuyū (Chuiyu) published in the Ming Period in four volumes. It came to Japan in the Tokugawa Era, and had It great effect on the literature of the time.

In a place called Koyo lived a man, Chōkan, whose youngest daughter, Sei, was very beautiful, and the pride of her father. He had a handsome cousin named Ōchū, and Chōkan as a joke used to say they would make a fine married couple. The two young people, however, took this chaffing seriously, and thought of themselves as engaged, being in love with each other. The father, however, intended to give her in marriage to another young man, Hinryō, and tragedy could not be avoided. Ōchū left the place in indignation by boat, and after several days journey in the boat, one evening he found, to his astonishment, that Sei was on the same boat. Overjoyed, they went to the county of Shoku where they lived several years, and had two children . Sei, however, could not forget her native place, and said she had deserted her father, and wonder­ed what he was thinking of her. So her husband decid­ed to go back together with her. When they arrived at the father's house, her husband apologised to the father for taking his daughter away from her home, and begged him to forgive them. "What is the meaning of all this?" exclaimed the father. "Who is this woman?" "This is Sei," replied Ōchū. "Nonsense!" said Chōkan. "Sei became ill and was in bed for several years. That's not Sei at all!" Ōchū went back to the boat, and there was Sei, and he brought her to her father's house. The Sei lying in bed, being told of this, when the Sei came from the boat, arose from her bed, went towards her and the two became one. Chōkan said that, after Ōchū left, his daughter never spoke, and lay there as if in a stupor. The soul must have gone from the body. Sei said that she didn't know her body was in the house. When she felt Ōchū's love, and saw him go, she followed him as in a dream; but after that she remembered nothing.

Mumon's Comment

無門曰、若向者裏悟得眞底、便知出殻入殻如宿旅舎。

When you realize what the real is, you will see that we pass from one husk to another like travelers stopping for a night's lodging.

其或未然、切莫亂走。

But if you do not realize it yet, I earnestly advise you not to rush about wildly.

驀然地水火風一散、如落湯螃蟹七手八脚。

When earth, water, fire, and air suddenly separate, you will be like a crab struggling in boiling water with its seven or eight arms and legs.

那時莫言、不道。

When that happens, don't say I didn't warn you!

Mumon's Verse 頌曰

雲月是同      The moon above the clouds is ever the same;

渓山各異      Valleys and mountains are separate from each other.

萬福萬福      All are blessed, all are blessed;

是一是二      Are they one or are they two?

My comment

Whew fixing that story took quite some time as there were quite some errors (I hope I got all) when copying it over from Mumonkan (translated by R. Blyth). The rest (Chinese characters and their translation was taken from sacred-texts.com)

I often watch with great interest when I get a reply or when people talk in comment threads. If for a second you would imagine that you are actually talking to yourself and not any other, like it seems to be so prevalent(which could just be me), then we could finally realize that we are just fighting with ourselves in a quest to determine who is “real” and who is “fake”.

Who’s in error when there are two?

PS

I’ve found the length of the latest posts to be cumbersome, additionally they’re pregnant with bad formatting, so I couldn’t resist posting one to my likes.

Submitted March 20, 2022 at 01:02PM by TheDarkchip https://ift.tt/WaDmE2b