Jiryu, as in my experience, pretty much always, holds up various sides of the question. He is fair minded. More than fair minded, he seeks an authentic way of heart and mind. I admire him. And in conclusion pretty much falls on the side of this isn\u2019t really a good thing, this hero-mind, this standing out.<\/div>\n
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As an aside, pretty much, he expresses disdain for the hoopla around the publication of the book. This part I have little sympathy with. I\u2019m a writer. I wish any of my books had been given the attention from the publisher this one has. (Said knowing I write in a very different genre and my publisher has a different agenda & spends its money in different ways\u2026) Still\u2026 I\u2019d like it\u2026<\/div>\n
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But that\u2019s not the deal, the deal is how special can one be and be an authentic follower of the way? Or, at least that\u2019s the part of what Jiryu raises that catches my imagination.<\/div>\n
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Moving away from a fire, I found my thinking going to an old koan. I first ran across it, I\u2019m pretty sure, in
Zen Flesh, Zen Bone<\/i>s. I was both shocked and taken with it. Since then I\u2019ve not run across it very much in my formal Zen training. Master Seung Sahn treats it briefly in his anthology of koans with comments, The Whole World is a Single Flowe<\/i>r.\u201d Otherwise I wasn\u2019t even sure it was properly a koan as it isn\u2019t anthologized in the three \u201cbig\u201d twelfth century collections, the Gateless Gate<\/i>, the Blue Cliff Record<\/i> or the Book of Serenity<\/i>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Then Thomas Yuho Kirchner released his wonderful translation of the
Shumon Kattoshu<\/i>, the Entangling Vines<\/i>, first published at the end of the Seventeenth Century, and one of the major koan collections in orthodox Japanese Rinzai.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
And there it is, case one hundred, sixty-two.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
There was an old woman who supported a hermit. For twenty years she always had a girl, sixteen or seventeen years old, take the hermit his food and wait on him.<\/i><\/div>\n
<\/i><\/div>\nOne day she told the girl to give the monk a close hug and ask, \u201cWhat do you feel just now?\u201d<\/i><\/div>\n
<\/i><\/div>\nThe hermit responded,<\/i><\/div>\n
<\/i><\/div>\nAn old tree on a cold cliff;<\/i><\/div>\nMidwinter \u2013 no warmth.<\/i><\/div>\n
<\/i><\/div>\nThe girl went back and told this to the old woman. The woman said, \u201cFor twenty years I\u2019ve supported this vulgar good-for-nothing!\u201d So saying, she threw the monk out and burned down the hermitage.<\/i><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Master Seung Sahn\u2019s version of the verse goes,<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Rotten log on cold rocks.<\/i><\/div>\nNo warmth in winter.<\/i><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Actually, it is treated elsewhere, as well. Although for whatever reason, didn\u2019t particularly catch me at the time I read it. There were other illustrations that I found in the reading of the American Zen master Robert Aitken\u2019s classic study of Zen ethics,
Mind of Clover<\/i>. But, he cites the case, as well. He pulls it, as well from the Shumon Kattoshu<\/i>. It\u2019s not clear to me if this is the roshi\u2019s own translation. But, the verse here, reads,<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The withered tree is rooted in an ancient rock in bitter cold.<\/i><\/div>\nDuring the winter months, there is no warmth, no life.<\/i><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
In any case, the result is another fire, entirely, from the one that nearly consumed Tassjara Zen monastery.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Or, perhaps not.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
What I\u2019m sure of there is as little as intimate and personal, and special, as sexual infatuation. Or, quite as heroic as the efforts of those in quest of it.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Now there are just any number of ways we can distract ourselves from the heart of the matter. In our contemporary culture we can make much, should we wish, of the relationship between the old woman and the young woman she sends out to test the monk. In Master Seung Sahn\u2019s version she\u2019s a daughter. In Aitken Roshi\u2019s version, a neice. And I notice the Venerable Kirchner avoids any reference to the women\u2019s relationship.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Good. An issue, but for a different conversation.\n
And, an important point. How easily we can be distracted from the real point. <\/p><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Here the question is how do we find our authentic selves?<\/div>\n
No doubt the traditional monastic way is to bow. In fact within the Soto transmission documents as I received them there is a \u201csecret\u201d teaching, which in short says the Zen way will last so long as people bow.<\/div>\n
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It is very important to learn how to bow.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And we learn it in any number of ways. The monastic community\u2019s action together is authentic.<\/div>\n
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And not the only way to burn the forest.<\/div>\n
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And not even, necessarily the best way to burn. Or, where to put our attention regarding that burning.<\/div>\n
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There\u2019s another Zen question, a koan. \u201cThe Buddha of wood won\u2019t pass through the fire. If he does, he will surely be burnt.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
To answer this question is to understand the meaning of fire. And, of wood. And, of Buddha.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In an authentic spiritual life we must encounter the ordinary as it is. To fully engage is to present ourselves to the matter.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And that is the way of the open mind and heart.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Really, really, just this.<\/div>\n
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We need to learn to bow to the community, to be willing to not be special.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And, when the time comes, when circumstances present, and the situation calls for someone to be special, well, then grab the hoe and turn toward the fire.\n
With passion.<\/p>\n
With compassion.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Like on 9\/11 when, as people poured out of the Twin Towers, policemen and firemen rushed in.<\/div>\n
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Just this.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Taking the moment.\n
Special.<\/p>\n
Nothing special.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I\u2019ve looked around and I can\u2019t find it, but in my mind, either Master Hakuin or Ikkyu made a comment on the case of the old woman and the hermit.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
He said, were he confronted with that situation, the kiss, the hug, the log would spring to life.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
A tad crude, maybe.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
But, very much to the point.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Very much to our calling as people on the way.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And a hint at what to do with the great fire.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And how to meet it.<\/div>\n
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