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Above is Zenshin Tim Buckley, a friend and fellow traveller on this Zen way, who died on April 16, 2015. You can read more about Zenshin here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019re not here today, though, to memorialize Zenshin but to ask, \u201cWho is it that dies?\u201d<\/p>\n You can read the run up to this post, \u201cBirth Death and Intimate Self Knowledge,\u201d\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and listen to a talk about it here<\/a>.\u00a0In this post, I\u2019ll unpack a k\u014dan from the No Gate Barrier (<\/em><\/span>W\u00fam\u00e9ngu\u0101n\u00a0<\/span>\u79aa\u5b97\u7121\u9580\u95dc)\u00a0<\/span>collection, \u201cCASE 47: D\u014dushu\u00e0i\u2019s Three Barriers\u201d (my translation). In plain English, the three barriers are, Who am I? What is death? And what happens after death? All essential human questions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The happy old monk D\u014dushu\u00e0i, set up three barriers to ask students.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n \u201cParting the grasses, participating in the mystery, only seeking to meet [essential] nature. Right now, honored one, where will you know this self nature?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cJust when birthdeath is shed, when vision falls away, what will you do? <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cBirthdeath shed, then [you] know [your] destination. The four elements separate, where will you go?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n First a word about\u00a0D\u014dushu\u00e0i (1023-1104). He was a teacher in the\u00a0Hu\u00e1ngl\u00f3ng branch of L\u00ednj\u00ec. The scholar, Steve Heine, associates\u00a0this branch and the C\u00e1od\u00f2ng lineage (Japanese, S\u014dt\u014d) with the entangling-vine approach to k\u014dan introspection rather than the key-phrase method of the\u00a0L\u00ednj\u00ec branch associated with Dahui. It was this\u00a0Hu\u00e1ngl\u00f3ng branch that D\u014dgen inherited from his first teacher and esteemed sufficiently to include on his blood vein (kechimyaku). It is still transmitted today in S\u014dt\u014d Zen.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n W\u00fam\u00e9n introduces\u00a0D\u014dushu\u00e0i in an unusual way with an adjective before \u201cold monk\u201d (Japanese, \u014dsh\u014d), a rare thing in the k\u014dan collections. D\u014dushu\u00e0i is a \u201chappy\u201d old monk, no less. We like him already.\u00a0D\u014dushu\u00e0i\u2019s \u201chappy\u201d old monkness is not apart from resolving these three questions and having the chance to pose them for others.<\/p>\n First,<\/em>\u201cparting the grasses, participating in the mystery, only seeking to meet [essential] nature. Right now, honored one, where will you know this self nature?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGrasses\u201d in \u201cParting the grasses\u201d refers to the wild world of delusion. And \u201cparting\u201d is a practice instruction for how to work with delusion \u2013 touching and letting go.<\/p>\n \u201cParticipating in the mystery,\u201d could also be \u201cparticipating the darkness.\u201d Again, a practice instruction. With grasses extending to and darkening the sky, take a step.<\/p>\n Why?\u00a0\u201cOnly seeking to meet [essential] nature.\u201d<\/p>\n If you want to find freedom in this question, you\u2019ll probably want to organize your life around your practice, rather than fit in your practice in when your life allows. Only seeking essential nature. It isn\u2019t something for some other time but for \u201cright now.\u201d Show some self respect, \u201chonored one.\u201d<\/p>\n Aitken Roshi\u2019s translation has the last phrase as \u201cWhere is your nature?\u201d but this leaves out a sinograph or two. I read it as \u201cWhere will you know this self nature?\u201d The\u00a0k\u014dan is a narrow gate and penetratingly specific.<\/p>\n \u201cJust when birthdeath is shed, when vision falls away, what will you do?<\/em><\/p>\n For \u201cJust when birthdeath is shed,\u201d Aitken Roshi has\u00a0\u201cWhen you have realized your self-nature.\u201d His approach explains what is meant by \u201cbirthdeath shed.\u201d I prefer to stay close to the sinographs here \u2013 just drop birthdeath. \u201cShed\u201d (or \u201cdrop\u201d) is\u00a0\u8131, the same character D\u014dgen used in \u201cshed bodymind.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>No need to paste a belief system \u2013 heaven\/hell, rebirth, you name it \u2013 on top of it. All that is clinging to and swirling in birthdeath.\u00a0So the practice instruction \u2013 just shed birthdeath and\u00a0what death is (\u201cwhat you will do when you die?\u201d) will be crystal clear.<\/p>\n \u201cBirthdeath shed, then [you] know [your] destination. The four elements separate, where will you go?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Likewise, when birthdeath is shed and you\u2019ve realized intimate self-knowledge, when the cells of \u201cyour\u201d body (i.e., earth, water, air, and fire) begin to decompose, you\u2019ll know where you go. No need for idle speculation. This is why Zen has been handed on through the generations.<\/p>\n Enter the dark mystery completely and birthdeath will be completely dropped. Who you are, what death is, what happens after death are all clear.<\/p>\n When it\u2019s already raining, no need to water the lawn.<\/p>\n If you can arrive at three turning words, then [you] can take responsibility everywhere, meet karma and approach the [school of the] ancestors. <\/span>Before this happens, a coarse meal will easily satisfy, [but] when hungry, subtle chewing is a problem.<\/em><\/p>\n W\u00fam\u00e9n\u2019s voice, as usual, is clear and strong. The last sentence is worth a quiet sit or two. Lost in the swirl of the world, we can wolf down our food \u2013 drugs, sex, rock n roll. When we turn to practice, make only seeking self nature\u00a0the central organizing principle, we begin the subtle chewing of sitting, study, and engagement. The hunger to realize and the need for subtle chewing are the two foci that rub together and heat the room on a cold morning.<\/p>\n One <\/em>nen<\/span> is the universe seeing the immeasurable kalpa.<\/span><\/em> I\u2019ve left \u201cnen\u201d (\u5ff5) untranslated because the multiple nuances of the term make it difficult to find one fitting English word. The sinograph is composed of \u201cnow\u201d above and \u201cheart\/mind\u201d below. It means \u201ct<\/span>hought,\u201d \u201cmemory,\u201d \u201cremembering (as in nenbutsu, remembering buddha),\u201d \u201cm<\/span>oment,\u201d and is the sinograph that is translated as \u201cm<\/span>indfulness.\u201d The closest I can come to capture aspects of all these meanings is \u201cn<\/span>owfulness\u201d \u2013 \u201cOne nowfulness is the universe\u2026.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Simply put, this moment, for all its broken glory, is it.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Above is Zenshin Tim Buckley, a friend and fellow traveller on this Zen way, who died on April 16, 2015. You can read more about Zenshin here.\u00a0 We\u2019re not here today, though, to memorialize Zenshin but to ask, \u201cWho is it that dies?\u201d You can read the […]<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-3805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nCase:<\/h4>\n
Who Am I?<\/h4>\n
What is death?<\/h4>\n
What happens after death?<\/h4>\n
W\u00fam\u00e9n\u2019s Comment:<\/h4>\n
Verse:<\/h4>\n
\n The immeasurable kalpa is this matter now \u2013<\/span><\/em>
\n Now sees the broken one <\/span><\/em>nen<\/span>.<\/span><\/em>
\n Seeing the broken now is seeing the essential person.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n