{"id":2315,"date":"2014-02-09T10:54:26","date_gmt":"2014-02-09T16:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/?p=2315"},"modified":"2019-09-15T14:20:39","modified_gmt":"2019-09-15T20:20:39","slug":"watch-out-for-the-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2014\/02\/watch-out-for-the-dog.html","title":{"rendered":"Watch Out for the Dog!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I stumbled on a Zen story a little while back that\u2019s been tugging at me. I\u2019m sure I\u2019ve read it before but somehow it didn\u2019t bite the first few dozen times through.<\/p>\n

Then Steve Heine pointed to it in Like Cats and Dogs: Contesting the Mu Koan in Zen Buddhism<\/a> <\/a>(review by yours truly here<\/a>) and it sunk it\u2019s teeth into my behind.<\/p>\n

One place the story shows up in classical literature is in the Blue Cliff<\/em> commentary on Case 96, \u201cZhaozhou\u2019s Three Turning Words\u201d in the section for \u201cA gold Buddha does not pass through a furnace.\u201d And there\u2019s occasional reference to \u201cZihu\u2019s dog\u201d in the comments to various koans.<\/p>\n

It goes like this:<\/p>\n

\u201cZihu set up a sign on his outside gate; on the sign were words saying,<\/p>\n

\u2018Zihu has a dog: above, he takes people\u2019s heads; in the middle, he takes people\u2019s loins; below, he takes people\u2019s legs. If you stop to talk to him, you\u2019ll lose your body and life.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever Zihu saw a newcomer, he would immediately shout and say, \u2018Watch out for the dog!\u2019<\/p>\n

As soon as the monk turned his head, Zihu would immediately return to the abbot\u2019s room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those of you who\u2019ve been at our Transforming Through Play Temple, know that the blog dog Bodhi is such a dog. We keep him locked up when we have company so he doesn\u2019t take people\u2019s heads, loins, or legs! So I can relate to this dog and this Zen teacher.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s not only a lot of dogs, cats, foxes, and oxen in these old Zen stories but a lot of dismemberment (or threat thereof) too, pointing to our divided lives in the midst of wholeness. Like Uncle John\u2019s Band sings, \u201cI live in a silver mine but I call it beggar\u2019s tomb.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, I smile every time I think of wily Zihu calling \u201cDog!\u201d and ditching the practitioner who looks off. And I tense with the practitioner who does the normal self-protective thing and winds up like the guy on the deserted island \u2013 a person alone in the universe.<\/p>\n

Now Zihu was a dharma<\/a> brother of Zhaozhou \u2013 that old guy who also had a dog who either had or didn\u2019t have buddha nature. They seem to share a family style of putting dogs front and center.<\/p>\n

The koan for which the above story is context asks, \u201cWhy could Zihu\u2019s dog not bite Zhaozhou?\u201d<\/p>\n

If you know the meaning of \u201ca gold Buddha does not pass through a furnace\u201d\u00a0in the activity of a fully engaged life, you\u2019ll also know \u201cWhy could Zihu\u2019s dog not bite Zhaozhou?\u201d<\/p>\n

It might seem rather strange and obscure at first, so it is necessary to enter into the body of the koan to taste this one. There\u2019s something very important here for our path of practicing enlightenment, but if you stop to talk about it, you\u2019ll lose your body and life.<\/p>\n

Oh, hey, watch out for the dog!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 I stumbled on a Zen story a little while back that\u2019s been tugging at me. I\u2019m sure I\u2019ve read it before but somehow it didn\u2019t bite the first few dozen times through. Then Steve Heine pointed to it in Like Cats and Dogs: Contesting the Mu Koan in Zen Buddhism […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[81,26],"class_list":["post-2315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dogs-and-zen","tag-soto-zen"],"yoast_head":"\nWatch Out for the Dog!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"          I stumbled on a Zen story a little while back that's been tugging at me. I'm sure I've read it before but somehow it\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2014\/02\/watch-out-for-the-dog.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Watch Out for the Dog!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"          I stumbled on a Zen story a little while back that's been tugging at me. I'm sure I've read it before but somehow it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2014\/02\/watch-out-for-the-dog.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Wild Fox Zen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dosho.port\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-02-09T16:54:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-09-15T20:20:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/88\/2014\/02\/beware-of-dog-300x172.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dosho Port\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dosho Port\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2014\/02\/watch-out-for-the-dog.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2014\/02\/watch-out-for-the-dog.html\",\"name\":\"Watch Out for the Dog!\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-02-09T16:54:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-09-15T20:20:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/45224391b7690e99673782337bd0eabd\"},\"description\":\"          I stumbled on a Zen story a little while back that's been tugging at me. I'm sure I've read it before but somehow it\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2014\/02\/watch-out-for-the-dog.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2014\/02\/watch-out-for-the-dog.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2014\/02\/watch-out-for-the-dog.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Watch Out for the Dog!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/\",\"name\":\"Wild Fox Zen\",\"description\":\"Living the Dream\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/45224391b7690e99673782337bd0eabd\",\"name\":\"Dosho Port\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b9712e98924dea6c08d55890403352f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b9712e98924dea6c08d55890403352f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dosho Port\"},\"description\":\"Dosho Port began practicing Zen in 1977 and now co-teachers with his wife, Tetsugan Zummach, with the Vine of Obstacles Zen. Dosho received dharma transmission from Dainin Katagiri Roshi and inka shomei from James Myoun Ford Roshi in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. He is the author of \\\"Keep Me In Your Heart Awhile: The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri,\\\" \\\"The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans,\\\" and \\\"Going Through the Mystery's One Hundred Questions.\\\"\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.vineobstacleszen.com\/\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dosho.port\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/author\/doshoport\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Watch Out for the Dog!","description":"          I stumbled on a Zen story a little while back that's been tugging at me. I'm sure I've read it before but somehow it","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2014\/02\/watch-out-for-the-dog.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Watch Out for the Dog!","og_description":"          I stumbled on a Zen story a little while back that's been tugging at me. I'm sure I've read it before but somehow it","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2014\/02\/watch-out-for-the-dog.html","og_site_name":"Wild Fox Zen","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dosho.port","article_published_time":"2014-02-09T16:54:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-09-15T20:20:39+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/88\/2014\/02\/beware-of-dog-300x172.jpg"}],"author":"Dosho Port","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dosho Port","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2014\/02\/watch-out-for-the-dog.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2014\/02\/watch-out-for-the-dog.html","name":"Watch Out for the Dog!","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-02-09T16:54:26+00:00","dateModified":"2019-09-15T20:20:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/45224391b7690e99673782337bd0eabd"},"description":"          I stumbled on a Zen story a little while back that's been tugging at me. I'm sure I've read it before but somehow it","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2014\/02\/watch-out-for-the-dog.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2014\/02\/watch-out-for-the-dog.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2014\/02\/watch-out-for-the-dog.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Watch Out for the Dog!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/","name":"Wild Fox Zen","description":"Living the Dream","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/45224391b7690e99673782337bd0eabd","name":"Dosho Port","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b9712e98924dea6c08d55890403352f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b9712e98924dea6c08d55890403352f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dosho Port"},"description":"Dosho Port began practicing Zen in 1977 and now co-teachers with his wife, Tetsugan Zummach, with the Vine of Obstacles Zen. Dosho received dharma transmission from Dainin Katagiri Roshi and inka shomei from James Myoun Ford Roshi in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. He is the author of \"Keep Me In Your Heart Awhile: The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri,\" \"The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans,\" and \"Going Through the Mystery's One Hundred Questions.\"","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.vineobstacleszen.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dosho.port"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/author\/doshoport"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}