Absolutely Nothing: What are They Good For!

While preparing for the Thursday night Dogen study session, I dug into Zen’s Chinese Heritage for another rendition of the genjokoan we’ve been digging into:

Mayu was fanning himself. A monk approached and said, “Master, the nature of wind is permanent and there is no place it does not reach. Why then do you fan yourself?”

“Although you understand that the nature of the wind is permanent,” Mayu replied,” you do not understand the meaning of its reaching everywhere.”

“What is the meaning of its reaching everywhere?” asked the monk again.

Mayu just kept fanning himself. The monk bowed deeply.

And found that Mayu had something to say about the monk bowing that Dogen either didn’t know about or didn’t include.

“Useless teachers and monks. There are a thousand of them. What are they good for?”

Edwin Starr’s dharma presentation (“Good God, ya all!”) came to mind and I’m digging it this Friday morning:

	Edwin Starr sings War About this file Download file Use player: Cortado (Java) (selected) QuickTime Browser plugin No player Close More… Sample of the song
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