The Last Word of Zen

This is the 50th case from Wansong’s Book of Serenity,

When Xuefeng was living in a hut, two monks came to pay respects to him. Xuefeng, seeing them coming, opened the door, popped out, and said, "What is it?"

A monk also said, "What is it?" Xuefeng lowered his head and went back inside.

Later the monk came to Yantou. Yantou asked, "Where have you come from?"

The monk said, "South of the range."

Yantou said, "Did you ever go to Xuefeng?"

The monk said, "Yes."

Yantou asked, "What was said?"

The monk recounted the preceding story: Yantou asked, "What did he say?"

The monk said, "He didn't say anything--he just lowered his head and went back inside."

Yantou said, "Too bad I didn't tell him the last word before. If I had told him the last word, no one in the world could affect old Xuefeng."

At the end of the summer the monk again brought up the foregoing story and inquired further about it.

Yantou said, "Why didn't you ask before?"

The monk said, "I didn't dare to take it easily."

Yantou said, "Though Xuefeng is born of the same lineage as me, he doesn't die of the same lineage as me. If you want to know the last word, 'just this' is it."

Wansong says in his commentary that Yantou "is so sure of himself that above, he doesn't agree with his own teacher, and below, he doesn't concede to his Dharma-brother." Is he creating subdivisions arbitrarily or is he on to something?

Then he says that even Deshan was called into question, "Later on they also pointed out Deshan as not understanding the last word either, but he would hardly stand for it." In Zen, no one is safe. No one gets to say, "but look at all I've done." They have to stand on their own two feet at every turn.

Though they are born from the same lineage by nature, they don't die of the same lineage by learning.

Submitted April 06, 2023 at 04:51AM by astroemi https://ift.tt/GdA2Ur3