Baiyun Duan 60: Xuefeng's Turtle-Nosed Snake

Xuefeng said in a lecture, "On South Mountain there's a turtle-nosed snake—you people urgently need to take a good look."¹

Changqing came forth and said, "In the hall today, there are a great many people losing their bodies and losing their lives."

Yunmen threw his staff before the teacher in a gesture of fright.

There was a monk who brought this up with Xuansha, who said, "It must be that only Elder Brother Leng² is capable of this—though it is so, to me this is not the case."

The monk asked Xuansha, "What does the Master mean?"

"What's the function of 'South Mountain'?"

[0300b09] 雪峰上堂。南山有一條鼈鼻蛇。汝等諸人。切須好看。長慶出曰。今日堂中大有人。喪身失命。雲門。以拄杖攛向師前。作怕勢。有僧舉似玄沙。沙曰。須是稜兄始得。然雖如是。我即不然。曰和尚作麼生。沙曰。用南山作麼。

The image of a turtle-nosed snake on the main road,
It's a pity Master Leng immediately loses his body—
Though Yunmen manages to keep his life,
Why not be like South Mountain, with no use being close?

[0300b14] 象骨鼈蛇當大路。稜師可惜便亡身。雲門弄得雖然活。爭似南山不用親。

¹ It is likely that "a turtle-nosed snake" doesn't refer to an actual species of reptile that would be found on Nanshan—for more about this case, you can refer to case 22 of the BCR, and case 24 of the BoS.

² Changqing Huileng.

...

The language in this case is very particular, so it took me on quite a deep-dive while looking into the various possibilities and what might be at play here. Astroemi did an OP on it;

https://www.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/128wk8v/xuefeng_the_snake/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Submitted April 02, 2023 at 01:32AM by surupamaerl2 https://ift.tt/3Lf1egm