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Once in awhile, I hear some trash talk about me and my practice and teaching in both just-sitting and koan introspection Zen. Builds character, you know. But some folks say it just shows a lack of understanding about just-sitting.<\/p>\n
Be that as it may be, on the other hand, my first teacher, Katagiri Roshi, once encouraged us to return to what he called \u201cZen before the Sixth Ancestor,\u201d meaning, before the split between the\u00a0S\u014dt\u014d and Rinzai lineages. Another way to put that would be \u201cWhat is original Zen?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I took that admonition to heart, travelled around visiting a bunch of teachers, and eventually had the good fortune to work through the Harada-Yasutani reform k\u014dan curriculum, thanks to James Myoun Ford Roshi and company. <\/span>I\u2019ve also done some studying, and that\u2019s helped a lot, really, to have a sense of our ancestors in context. One thing that I\u2019ve learned is that Katagiri Roshi\u2019s question might have been more about Zen before D\u014dgen, because it seems that it wasn\u2019t until Japan that Zen got all divided up into very distinct schools (2).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In Complete Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn<\/em>, #16, Hakuin tells the story of when the last Chinese ancestor in the\u00a0C\u00e1o<\/span>d\u00f2ng (Japanese, \u201cS\u014dt\u014d\u201d) lineage met with the last Chinese ancestor in the L\u00ednj\u00ec\u00a0 (Japanese, Rinzai) succession. Namely, that would be Rujing and Xutang (3). These two old teachers knew each other, and it appears to me that Rujing was a teacher of Xutang (he was twenty-three years senior), even though the latter probably received dharma<\/a> transmission when they met.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Xutang would later write a preface to the collected works Rujing\u2019s Japanese student, D\u014dgen. Not only that, but a student of D\u014dgen, Tetsu Gikai, may have introduced Nampo<\/span>\u00a0J\u014dmy\u014d<\/span> to Xutang. Nampo became the first generation in the Rinzai successor in Japan. So they all knew each other. For me, that is just really cool.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s the recorded encounter between Rujing<\/span> and Xutang:<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Zen master Xutang<\/span> met Head Priest Rujing<\/span> of Ch\u2019ing-tz\u2019u temple, Rujing<\/span> said, \u2018Your parents\u2019 bodies are rotting away in a thicket of razor-sharp thorns. Did you know that?\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018It is wonderful,\u201d replied Xutang<\/span>, \u201cbut it\u2019s not something to act rashly about.\u2019<\/p>\n Rujing<\/span> gave Xutang<\/span> a slap.<\/p>\n Xutang<\/span> extended his arms, saying, \u2018Let\u2019s take it slow and easy.\u2019 (1)<\/p>\n The master [Hakuin] said: The means employed by these two old veterans are exceedingly subtle and mysterious. Scrutinize them carefully and you will find that Rujing<\/span>\u2019s question is as awesome as the great serpent that devours elephants whole and excretes their dry bones three years later. Xutang<\/span>\u2019s reply has the vehement purpose of the evil P\u2019o-ching bird, which seeks to devour its mother as soon as it is born.\u201d<\/p>\n Rujing<\/span> is probably referring to Xutang<\/span>\u2018s dharma parents whose truth is buried beneath a thicket of razor-sharp k\u014dan. Click here<\/a> for a post about Rujing and the mu k\u014dan. In this case, Ju-ching is really laying it down and testing the young teacher, Xutang. Xutang certainly maintains his cool. No stereotypical Rinzai-like shouting or beating even.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This case deserves extended scrutiny to get a sense of the subtle and mysterious.\u00a0The question for us today is how we get to the rotting bodies or our dharma ancestors so that we might thoroughly digest the truth of Zen before our parents were born. And then give the corpses a decent burial.<\/p>\n (1) The last two lines are included in Waddell\u2019s notes but not cited by Hakuin.<\/p>\n (2) Except for a brief period when Dahui was raising hell in the mid 1100\u2019s with the silent illuminationists but that\u2019s not the theme in this post.<\/p>\n (3) Waddell uses the the old Wades-Giles system for Romanizing the Chinese characters so I go with that here. Pinyin has the names like this: Ti\u0101nt\u00f3ng R\u00faj\u00ecng\u00a0(\u5929\u7ae5\u5982\u6de8; Japanese:\u00a0Tend\u014d Ny\u014djo, 1163\u20131228) and Xutang Zhiyu \u865a\u5802\u667a\u611a (Japanese Kido Chigu, 1185\u20131269).<\/p>\n D\u014dsh\u014d Port began practicing Zen in 1977 and now co-teaches with his wife, Tetsugan Zummach Sensei, with the Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for Zen Training<\/a>, an 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. D\u014dsh\u014d\u2019s translation and commentary on The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans,<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is now available (Shambhala). He is also the author\u00a0of\u00a0Keep Me In Your Heart a While: The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri<\/a><\/i>. Click here<\/a> to support the teaching practice of Tetsugan Sensei and\u00a0 D\u014dsh\u014d R\u014dshi.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Once in awhile, I hear some trash talk about me and my practice and teaching in both just-sitting and koan introspection Zen. Builds character, you know. But some folks say it just shows a lack of understanding about just-sitting. Be that as it may be, on the other hand, my first teacher, Katagiri Roshi, once […]<\/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],"class_list":["post-4746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hakuin"],"yoast_head":"\nCase in point<\/h4>\n
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