Baiyun Duan 41: Zhaozhou's "Go Wash Your Bowl"

A monk asked Zhaozhou, "I have just now entered the monastery—Teacher, could you please guide me?"

Zhaozhou said, "Have you finished eating your gruel or not?"

"Yes, I've finished eating the gruel."

"Go wash your bowl in the basin."

The monk suddenly understood awareness.

[0298b11] 趙州因僧問。乍入叢林。乞師指示。師曰。喫粥了也未。僧曰。喫粥了也。師曰。洗鉢盂去。其僧忽然省悟。

The plum blossoms fall when the apricots have bloomed,
Without avoiding the spring breeze that sweeps them away.
Don't say that a breath holds form—
Where can I express my gratitude to the countless selfless spirits?

[0298b13] 梅花落盡杏花披。未免春風著出褫。一氣不言含有象。萬靈何處謝無私。

...

Last night in Montreal we had a monster ice storm, and all the power went out, so it was the first day I didn't do any translation in a long time. It's still chaos today.

I'm going to be taking a week off posting. I'll be working on an essay, as well as starting to do the second pass of my current translation. Baiyun Duan is actually almost done, as I only post 1 a day, but often translate more than one. ETA on publishing is late May, early June.

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Submitted April 07, 2023 at 01:10AM by surupamaerl2 https://ift.tt/Hq8jNQv