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While playing around like I like to do with the designated victim being Case 5 from the Gateless Barrier<\/i>, \u201cUp A Tree,\u201d I found that Dogen has a whole, wild chapter on this koan.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Now I must have known that previously \u2026 but old age seems to be creeping up on what\u2019s left of my mind so I found it to be a delightful surprise. The Nishijima and Cross translation is online here<\/a>\u00a0 (then click volume 3 of Shobogenzo and go to #67). I\u2019ve taken some liberties and smoothed it out a bit.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Anyway, in one of his first paragraphs Dogen gives clear instructions on how to work with a koan so in my excitement I zipped it off to the wonderful and inimitable Boundless Way teachers, Melissa Blacker, James Ford and David Rynick, asking them to comment. <\/span><\/div>\n
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And this they each have kindly done. Below I present a version of the koan, then the Dogen nugget, then Melissa, James, and David\u2019s pithy reflections. I\u2019ve taken the liberty of copy\/pasting their bios from the Boundless Way<\/a> site as an introduction to their comments. Click their names to go to their blogs.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Koan<\/span><\/div>\n
Kyogen said, \u201cSuppose someone is up in a tree, holding on to a branch by her teeth, her hands without a grip on a limb, her feet without a toehold on the trunk. Someone under the tree suddenly asks, \u201cWhat was Bodhidharma\u2019s intention in coming from the west?\u201d Just at that moment, if she opens her mouth to answer she loses body and life. If she does not answer, she avoids the question. At such a moment, how would you reply?<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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Dogen
If we consider [this koan] by utilizing \u201cnot thinking\u201d and \u201cnon-thinking\u201d on our zafu, Old Ky\u014dgen will naturally be present. Once we are sitting in the mountain-still state upon the same round cushion as Old Ky\u014dgen, we will be able to understand this story in detail even before Ky\u014dgen opens his mouth. Not only will we steal Old Ky\u014dgen\u2019s eyes and glimpse [the truth], drawing out \u015a\u0101kyamuni Buddha\u2019s right Dharma-eye treasury, we will be able instantly to see through it.<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
If we consider [this koan] by utilizing \u201cnot thinking\u201d and \u201cnon-thinking\u201d on our zafu, Old Ky\u014dgen will naturally be present. Once we are sitting in the mountain-still state upon the same round cushion as Old Ky\u014dgen, we will be able to understand this story in detail even before Ky\u014dgen opens his mouth. Not only will we steal Old Ky\u014dgen\u2019s eyes and glimpse [the truth], drawing out \u015a\u0101kyamuni Buddha\u2019s right Dharma-eye treasury, we will be able instantly to see through it.<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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Melissa Myozen Blacker<\/a> is a Dharma successor to James Ford:<\/span><\/div>\n
With most students I suggest that they take on shikantaza as their primary practice and then drop their koan into this \u201cmountain-still state\u201d\u00a0 \u2014 this spacious container, and just see what happens.\u00a0 Insight into the koan is allowed to arise naturally, and can be set aside until dokusan, where the mutual connection between teacher and student allows any insight to be expressed in some way, through demonstration or through words.\u00a0 If no insight has arisen on the cushion, I encourage curiosity about whatever is arising in connection with the koan, and this exploration in itself can lead to insight in the moment of the intimate encounter in dokusan.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\n