Korean Seon: Taego Bou

More on Taego Bou, a major figure in Korean Seon (last post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/urzh19/korean_seon_taego_bou/). This is a section from a “Formal Sermon to Suppress Warfare held in the Royal Palace” in 1357. From the annotations, “When the state was faced with the threat of invasion and civil war, this nation-protecting Buddhist ritual was performed to stop the strife through the power of Buddhism. It was fashionable in the Goryeo period.“

…To continue this talk will make it too long, (and so) I confer upon the staff (the task of) speaking clearly and frankly again for the king of the state, the princess, the queen, the great ministers and the generals and the councilors, the inner and outer ministers and the officials.”

He put down his staff once and then picked it up, saying, “Since this staff lacks sentient consciousness, how can it be right or wrong? I request that the king of the country and the great ministers control their minds well and listen, and not allow any (of these teachings) to leak out.”

Again he put down his staff once and said, “If you are involved in hesitation you will not achieve admirable matters.”

Again he put down his staff once and said, “If you act most fairly and without bias, Heaven will protect and be mindful of you.”

Once again he put his staff down once and said, “If you respect the Buddha and are in awe of Heaven, who will not be at peace?”

Again he put it down once and said, “If you make it a rule to oppose this, it will be difficult to speak of (the consequences) even though you have a mouth.”

Again he put it down once, saying, “If the saintly ruler is red with anger then many people’s minds will echo him.” Again he put it down once and leaned on the staff.

He goes on for a quite a while after this. A few interesting things. He appears to be mostly giving practical advice about governance to the ruling class in this passage, rather than giving a ‘Zen talk’ (although "If you make it a rule to oppose this, it will be difficult to speak of the consequences even though you have a mouth" is a little more intriguiing). I remember Joshu throwing some nonspecific shade at some incompetent/violent kings, but otherwise this kind of interaction doesn’t come up much in the Chinese canon as far as I’m aware. Is that because it didn’t happen? Maybe it happened but wasn’t the kind of thing monks studied?

What he’s doing with the staff is a little unclear to me; he’s putting it down and then brandishing it before each nugget, right? And why open this little litany of wisdom by questioning whether his “I’m the teacher” staff can be right or wrong?

Submitted May 20, 2022 at 08:03AM by en_le_nil https://www.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/utjdju/korean_seon_taego_bou/?utm_source=ifttt