Making Your Way (Longya on Pathfinding)

Master Longya (Longya Judun - 龍牙居遁) said to an assembly,

People who investigate the mystery must pass beyond Buddhas and Patriarchs before they can get it. Master Dongshan said, "Only when the verbal teachings of the Patriarchs and Buddhas are like born enemies do you have a part in study." If you cannot pass beyond, you will be fooled by the Patriarchs and Buddhas.

A monk then asked, "Do the Patriarchs and Buddhas have any intention of fooling people?"

He said, "You tell me - do rivers and lakes have any intention of obstructing people?"

He also said, "Though rivers and lakes have no intention of obstructing people, because people cannot cross them at the time, rivers and lakes turn out to obstruct people, so you can't say rivers and lakes don't obstruct people. Although Patriarchs and Buddhas have no intention of fooling people, because people of the time cannot pass beyond, Patriarchs and Buddhas turn out fooling people; so you can't say Patriarchs and Buddhas don't fool people. If one can pass beyond Patriarchs and Buddhas, this person is beyond Patriarchs and Buddhas. Only then does one realize the intent of Patriarchs and Buddhas. Then one is the same as transcendent people. If one has not passed beyond, and only studies Buddhas and seeks Patriarchs, then one will never get out in a million years."

The monk then asked, "How does one avoid being fooled by Patriarchs and Buddhas?"

He said, "The Way must simply be realized on one's own."

Someone asked, "What is the meaning of the founding teacher's coming from the West?"

He said, "When a stone turtle can talk, then I'll tell you."

"The turtle is speaking."

"What does it tell you?"

"What did the ancients attain so that they came to rest?"

"It's like a thief entering an empty house."

Treasury of the Eye of True Teaching

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I never noticed Longya before, but today I did. The timing was perfect for a realization.

When National Teacher Shao was still a householder he asked Longya, "How is it when the sky cannot cover you and the earth cannot support you?" Longya said, "A wayfarer ought to be like this." Shao asked seventeen times. Longya said, "Wayfarer, if I told you, afterward you'd revile me." Later, when Shao was dwelling on the Mastering Mysteries peak of Mt. Tiantai, he suddenly had an insight into this previous conversation as he was taking a bath. He then ceremoniously lit incense and bowed toward Longya at a distance and said "If he had explained it all to me at that time, today I would surely revile him."

Dahui said, "Right now you're doing it quite a bit."

Treasury of the Eye of True Teaching

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Here is the poem that inspired this post:

The mornings, I see the flowers bloom, coating the trees with lustrous red,

朝看花開滿樹紅,

The evenings, I see the flowers fade, leaving the trees bald with nothingness instead;

暮看花落樹還空;

If one compares flowers with human affairs and reflects,

若將花比人間事,

Flowers and human affairs are one and the same in fact.

花與人間事一同.

Submitted March 25, 2023 at 08:32AM by eggo https://ift.tt/Wp6OF9g