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Category: Teachings
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Gateless Gate Case 2, Hyakujō’s Fox
This video discusses Case 2 of the Gateless Gate. (The koan is written here below if it is unfamiliar of for interest as the video does not recite the it..)
Whenever Hyakujō delivered a sermon, a certain old man was always there listening to it together with the monks; when they left the Hall, he left also. One day, however, he remained behind, and Hyakujō said to him, “Who may you be?” The old man replied, ” I am not a human being. In the far distant past, in the time of Kashō Buddha, I was the head monk here. On one occasion a certain monk asked me whether an enlightened person fell into cause and effect, and I answered that they did not. Thus for five hundred lifetimes I have been reborn a fox. I now beg you to release me from these rebirths with a turning word.”
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The Heart of the Heart Sutra
The Bodhisattva of Compassion
Practicing the deepest wisdom
Sees clearly the emtiness of the five skandas
And relieves all suffering
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Blue cliff Record Case 53
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Dogen’s Fukanzazengi
This video is related to Kusen No. 274.
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“Like an electron”
More from Kusen 268.
Are you interested in bodywork, preparation for zazen sitting, or the differences between Japanese and Western mindfulness? In this NHK film Soto zen monk Issho Fujita and Rinzai monk Takafumi Kawakami discuss letting go and listening to the body in the age of information.
Link to the documentary at the NHK website. (No longer available)
Watch Takafumi Kawakami talk on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/B_6VKzLR7vQ
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About the Robe Verse Takkesage
The verse for draping on the Okesa (kasaya – dull colour) robe, or the smaller portable robes such as Rakusu. Chanted usually in the morning at the end of the zazen period (slowly). Repeated three times. At some groups practitioners will keep their Rakusu folded during the first zazen and place on their head during the chanting (so that it is higher physically than their body) then put it on.
The robe of ‘freedom’ – gedatsu – can mean the robe of freedom from suffering or illusions – and therefore the robe (puku) of meditation practice which is the way to nirvana. Datsu means undressing or getting rid of – letting go of ego attachments and greed. In zazen we let go of being tightly gripped by distraction and return to open our awareness. The okesa design is based on rice field paddy shapes. It was pieced together by Buddha’s disciples from used rags. In it are teachings of impermanence and ‘form or emptiness’, ‘non material reward’ or ‘no forms/marks’ (musō). With practice and the expression of all things together we cultivate the ‘lucky/virtuous field’. The harvest is enlightenment rather than physical reward.
Wearing it we are wrapped (hibu) in the Tathāgata’s teachings (nyorai kyō). But by draping it on, freedom is not only for the wearer but spreads the robe out widely (kōdo) to embrace all other beings (sho shujō).
Read the verse here, with the English and Japanese/Chinese characters.
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