Chickens, Ducks: Same Or Different?

Today’s photo: clear sky, far off moon and the trees reaching.

I wanted to share a personal story about karma and rebirth that could be understood to support next-life theory. I tried to write a short version now and it didn’t work so I’ll get back to it when I have more time.

For today, my priority is to share a koan with you that Dogen uses when discussing the knotty issue of Zen not relying on words or sutras but just the transmission of the One Mind. We’ll probably work with this in Ann Arbor this weekend. The koan begins with a question that is up in the moon – the intention of the Ancestors and all. The answer brings it home to chickens and ducks while not building a palace in either same or different.

The koan appears in Bukkyo (Buddha’s Sutras), here translated by by Yasuda Joshu Dainen roshi and Anzan Hoshin roshi:

Once a monk asked Baling, “The intention of the Ancestors and the intention of the sutras: Are they the same or different?”

The master said, “When a chicken is cold it climbs a tree; when a duck is cold it goes into the water.”

Dogen’s Comment: We must study this saying through practice, looking for the Ancestor’s interpretation of the Buddha Way by seeing and listening to the Buddha’s sutras. The monk’s question concerns the sameness or difference between the intention of the Ancestors and the intention of the sutras. Baling’s answer when a chicken is cold it climbs a tree; when a duck is cold it goes into the water seems to indicate a difference; however this difference is not the usual difference of most people’s views of same or different. Baling is beyond limited views of same or difference and is saying, same yet different. And so, we should not ask about same or different in that way.

“Study this saying through practice.” That’s the way of koan work in Soto Zen. Through practice. Okay? In it and through it.

If we want to live like a leaping fish, we are not to ask about the normal way of seeing same and different because that would be stuck in limited views and being stuck in limited views is just so utterly tiring and suffering.

How are we to ask about same and different? In other words, what is same and different beyond limited views?

For now, I’ll leave that for any of you who would like to come forward and speak through practice about chickens and ducks.

Chickens, Ducks: Same or Different?