Zen Master Yunmen: His Life and Essential Sayings<\/a>, recently republished by the good people at Shambhala Publications. App\u2019s rich introductory material will help the newcomer as well as the old Zen hand appreciate the Zen tradition\u2019s original sources, including the life and teaching of Yunmen.<\/p>\nYunmen was an extraordinary teacher whose awakened mind flow through his words, even, amazingly, through translation to us today. Indeed, I haven\u2019t spoken to anyone who has dived deeply into the Harada-Yasutani koan curriculum who doesn\u2019t celebrate the teaching of Yunmen.<\/p>\n
Yunmen was popular in his lifetime too, a couple hundred years later when the now-standard koan collections were created, through Hakuin\u2019s time (72 mentions in The Complete Poison Blossoms<\/em>), and, like I said, at least up until today.<\/p>\nYunmen\u2019s teaching is said to have a three-in-one quality:<\/p>\n
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1. They permeate heaven and earth.
\n2. They follow the waves and adapt to the currents.
\n3. They cut through all streams<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
True enough but a bit abstract for my taste. I\u2019d say Yunmen\u2019s teaching is like a nasturtium petal salad.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/88\/2018\/06\/bloom-salad-m-e1529068265239.jpg\")
Refreshingly, App encourages the reader to chew thoroughly and go slowly through the text. Indeed, just one passage will do. Like this koan that is popular with John Tarrant Roshi\u00a0and the Pacific Zen Institute:<\/p>\n
(15) \u201cSomeone asked: \u2018What does \u201cSitting correctly and contemplating true reality\u201d mean?\u2019
\nMaster said, \u2018A coin lost in the river is found in the river.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
What have you lost, friend, and where you going to look?<\/p>\n
Yunmen knew what he\u2019d lost and, like all the great teachers, had a provocative and instructive personal narrative that culminated in finding the coin. One of the first teachers he visited during his search was\u00a0Muzhou, an old hermit at this point in his life, having studied with Huangbo and then returned to his native place.<\/p>\n
App tells of their encounter like this:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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(278) \u201c[Master Muzhou\u2019s] one room was usually shut, and it was completely empty. When he occasionally did receive people, he allowed no deliberations. When Yunmen could freely roll in and out, he went straight to Muzhou\u2019s door and knocked.
\nMaster Muzhou asked, \u2018Who is it?\u2019
\nYunmen: \u2018It is me, [Yunmen] Wenyan.\u2019
\nMuzhou blocked the entrance and said, \u2018Why do you keep coming?\u2019
\nYunmen replied, \u2018I am not clear about myself.\u2019
\nMuzhou said, \u2018Absolutely useless stuff!\u2019
\nThen pushed Yunmen out and shut the door. In this way Yunmen attained understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the strong positives in App\u2019s text is his generous use of footnotes that help explain his translations. In this case, for example, he has\u00a0Yunmen stating, \u201cI am not clear about myself.\u201d And Muzhou answering, \u201cAbsolutely useless stuff!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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App explains that \u201cAbsolutely useless stuff,\u201d is \u201c\u2026literally: \u2018stone drills from the Qin period.\u2019 These gigantic drills were fashioned for the construction of a huge palace by the Qin emperor. Since the megalomaniac project was never realized, these tools achieved proverbial status as something that is utterly useless.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such footnotes add vital nuance to the utterances of Yunmen and the supporting cast. In this case, the self is not only \u201cabsolutely useless\u201d but also a futile, megalomaniacal project.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Record of Yunmen<\/em>\u00a0is not intended to stuff the readers heads full of fake knowledge, bolstering the futile, megalomaniacal selfing project, but to point to the heart of the great matter. App comments, \u201cThe problem that drives Yunmen to seek instruction is not something that bothers him but rather his own self. This is not one of a number of problems he has but rather the problem he himself is.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cYou must realize that what is at stake here,\u201d said Yunmen, \u201cdoes not reside in words and phrases: it is like sparks from struck flint, like the brilliance of flashing lightning. However you manage to deal with this, you cannot get around losing your body and life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yunmen\u2019s teaching is straight to the heart:<\/p>\n
(271) \u201cA monk asked, \u2018What is the problem?\u201d\u2019
\nMaster Yunmen replied, \u201c\u2019You don\u2019t notice the stench of your own shit!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
This is a nasturtium salad that has had it\u2019s own shit for compost!<\/p>\n
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(139) Someone asked, \u2018What is the pure immaculate Dharma body?\u201d\u2019
\nMaster Yunmen replied, \u2018That peony hedge!\u2019
\nThe monk asked, \u2018Is it all right if I understand it in this way?\u2019
\nThe Master said, \u2018A golden-haired lion!'\u201d<\/p>\n
The peony hedge, speaking of the pure immaculate Dharma body, formed the border on the latrine. These are the places where the lion roars.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
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(20) \u201cSomeone asked, \u2018What is the place from whence all the buddhas come?\u2019
\nMaster Yunmen said, \u2018The East Mountains walk on the river.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
About this koan, Hakuin said, \u201cIf it were me, I wouldn\u2019t say that [East Mountains walk on the river]. If someone asked me, \u2018From whence come all the buddhas?\u2019 I would say, \u2018A fragrant breeze sweeps in from the south, a refreshing coolness pervades the halls and pavilions (Waddell, \u201cComplete Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn).\u201d<\/p>\n
What is the place from whence off buddhas come?<\/p>\n
Around midnight on May 10, 949, Yunmen died. A few hours before, he wrote his death poem:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cOh! The boat of compassion having been destroyed
\nSamsara will not attain the shore of salvation.
\nThe Dharma mountain having crumbled
\nWhat have flying and walking creatures left to rely upon?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
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<\/p>\n
D\u014dsh\u014d Port began practicing Zen in 1977 and now co-teaches at the\u00a0Nebraska Zen Center\u00a0<\/a>with his wife, Tetsugan Zummach Osho. D\u014dsh\u014d also teaches with the\u00a0Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for Zen Training<\/a>,\u00a0an internet-based Zen community. D\u014dsh\u014d received dharma transmission from Dainin Katagiri R\u014dshi and inka sh\u014dmei from James My\u014dun Ford R\u014dshi in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. He is the author\u00a0of\u00a0Keep Me In Your Heart a While: The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In these later days of the buddhadharma, when most of what passes off as \u201cbuddhadharma\u201d obscures the vivid truth \u2013 the essential nature of the self \u2013 it can be useful to study and reflect on the ancient teachers. The traces of their extraordinary development in self-knowledge still flows through their breath in their recorded […]<\/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":[129,155,18],"class_list":["post-4598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hakuin","tag-yunmen","tag-zen"],"yoast_head":"\n
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