Glasgow Zen GroupOne of the founding myths of the Zen school in China is the mind verses competition between Shen-hsiu and Hui-neng, the sixth patriarch. In the story, the fifth patriarch Hung-jen asks his senior students to write a verse to demonstrate their understanding of Buddhism. Hui-neng, who is an illiterate labourer in the monastery, hears Shen-hsui’s verse and writes his own, which the fifth patriarch secretly approves and gives him the transmission
CASE 18
Tung-shan’s Three Pounds of Flax
THE CASE
A monk asked Tung-shan, “What is Buddha?” Tung-shan said, “Three pounds of flax.
WU-MEN’S COMMENT
Old Man Tung-shan attained something of clam-Zen. He opened the two halves of his shell a bit and exposed his liver and intestines. Be that as it may, tell me: where do you see Tung-shan?
A parable in the Lotus Sutra describes a man whose house catches on fire while his children are inside, absorbed in their games. In order to lure his children out of the burning house, the father tells them there is a wonderful white cow outside.
A monk asked, “The white cow outside-what is it like?”
Joshu said, “Under the moonlight there is no need for color.” The monk asked, “That cow-what does it feed on?” Joshu said, “It never bites at anything.”
The monk said, “Master, please answer.”
Joshu said, “It is only proper that I should be like this.
Question: “If one becomes [a Tathgata] without transformation and in one’s own body, how could it be called difficult?” Answer: “Willfully activating the mind is easy; extinguishing the mind is difficult. It is easy to affirm the body, but difficult to negate it. It is easy to act, but difficult to be without action. Therefore, understand that the mysterious achievement is difficult to attain, it is difficult to gain union with the Wondrous Principle. Motionless is the True, which the three [lesser vehicles] only rarely attain.”[?] At this Conditionality gave a long sigh, his voice filling the ten directions. Suddenly, soundlessly, he experienced a great expansive enlightenment.
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.”
Case 47: Zhaozhou’s “Cypress Tree”
Introduction:
The cypress tree in the yard, the wind-blown flag on the pole–it’s like one flower bespeaking a boundless spring, like one drop telling of the water of the ocean. The ancient Buddhas, born periodically, go far beyond the ordinary current, not falling into words and thought. How can you understand verbally?
Case:
A monk asked Zhaozhou, “What is the living meaning of Chan Buddhism? Zhaozhou said, “The cypress tree in the yard.”
The 2nd Chapter of Shobogenzo: Maka-Hannya-Haramitsu (Maha-Prajna-Paramita)
Lecture (1)
Rev. Shohaku Okumura
Director, Soto Zen Buddhism International Center
(This article is rewritten based on my lecture at Clouds in Water Zen Center, Minnesota in 2004, transcribed and edited by Rev. Charlie Korin Pokorny. Rev. Kando Dorsey edited the revised version.)
About the text of Shobogenzo “Maka-Hannya- Haramitsu”
This is the second chapter of the 75 chapter Shobogenzo.