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First, a Brief Update<\/h3>\n
As I hope you have heard, The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans<\/em>, translated with commentary by me, is due out on February 2. To preorder with a 30% discount and see reviews by Steven Heine, John Tarrant, Meido Moore,\u00a0Bodhin Kjolhede, and\u00a0Henry Shukman\u00a0click here.<\/a><\/p>\n You can also browse inside<\/a> and read Melissa Blacker Roshi\u2019s forward, my introduction, and the first case.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll soon be sharing some excerpts from the book here.<\/p>\n Finally, in terms of FYIs, this is a good time to join the Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for Zen Training. Click here<\/a> for an overview and\u00a0click here<\/a> for more detailed information. It\u2019s a good idea, btw, to attend several of our Saturday Open Zen (via Zoom) sessions, 10:00am-11:15amCT, to see if you resonate with the teachers and the community. Sign up for the email updates with information about these here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, I\u2019ve been working on another project, and will share a section of that below about disclosing Zen insight, Bodhidharma\u2019s separate transmission, and warming ourselves before the fire. The passage is from the\u00a0Tongxuan Baiwen <\/span><\/i>(\u901a\u7384\u767e\u554f),<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Going Through the Mystery\u2019s<\/span><\/i>\u00a0One Hundred Questions.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0The text features three Caodong (Japanese, Soto) teachers from 13th century China: Tongxuan (Going Through the Mystery) asks the questions; Wansong (the commentator in The Book of Serenity<\/em>) gives brief four or five character response; and Linquan (the commentator in The Empty Valley Collection<\/em>) adds a verse. Here it is, followed by my comments:<\/span><\/p>\n Tongxuan asked, \u201cThe founding teacher\u2019s separate transmission outside the teaching \u2013 to test, I invite the Zen person to disclose their insight.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Wansong replied, \u201cA great flower blossom net.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n A great flower blossom net\u00a0<\/span> Tongxuan begins his question with a reference to a famous verse by our founding teacher, Bodhidharma:<\/span><\/p>\n Separate transmission outside teaching<\/span> Another translation has it like this:<\/p>\n A special transmission outside the scriptures The first documented occurrence of this verse was by Shexian Guisheng (n.d.), a late tenth-, early eleventh-century master in the Linji line, and attributed to Bodhidharma. Our Zen Way is not established in words or texts, even those words or texts that say our Way is not established on words or texts. <\/span>Indeed, the source for the stories we tell are finally unknowable and essentially unreliable. What is reliable?<\/span><\/p>\n First, a word or two about the translation of Bodhidharma\u2019s verse. Each of the four lines of the verse has just four characters, so it has a symmetrical visual presentation:\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u6559\u5916\u5225\u50b3 You\u2019ll see above that I\u2019ve rendered it this way as well \u2013 four lines with four words each, so sixteen words in total \u2013 although, in English the symmetry doesn\u2019t quite work as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The translator in the second version has added a lot of words to this text, for a total of thirty-one. Whenever a translation is almost twice as long as the original, the translator is very likely adding meaning, doing the reader\u2019s work for them, by saying what the translator thinks the original says rather than letting the original speak. <\/span><\/p>\n With translation, though, there is always interpretation and it is impossible to succeed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Specifically, in this case, the second translation makes the verse prescriptive \u2013 <\/span>by<\/span><\/i> pointing at the mind we see our true nature and thus<\/em> attain buddhahood. <\/span>It makes sense, but those elements are added.<\/span><\/p>\n The verse can also be interpreted in other ways, including as descriptive:\u00a0<\/span>\u201cDirect pointing human heart.\u201d From this perspective, the human heart is already directly pointing. Always. Likewise, \u201cSee nature realize buddha\u201d can also be seen as descriptive. When we see the essential truth, aka, true nature (<\/span>\u898b\u6027, kensho), we\u00a0<\/span>real-ize buddha. We\u00a0do<\/em>\u00a0the awake buddha thing. And when we do the buddha thing, we are awake.<\/span><\/p>\n In this context, Tongxuan boldly asks Wansong to show him the nature that he has seen and is now seeing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cA great flower blossom net,\u201d reports Wansong. Such a beautiful image to embody in zazen. And off the cushion.<\/span><\/p>\n For the characters that Wansong uses for \u201cgreat,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u6469\u8a36,<\/span> transliterate the Sanskrit, <\/span>\u201cMaha,\u201d like in Mahayana, the Great Vehicle, instead of the more common Chinese \u201cgreat,\u201d \u5927. In this spirit, \u201cThis mind itself is buddha\u201d is a Maha flower blossom net, like the net of Indra that extends throughout the multiverse, with a multifaceted jewel at each vertex.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And look! In this net of jewels is a luminous self, a word, an idea, a whole text \u2013 quite a bouquet of flower blossoms!<\/span><\/p>\n What about Linquan\u2019s verse? Well, to appreciate that more fully, you may need some more context. <\/span><\/p>\n As you may know, as the story goes, at an advanced age, the great Indian sage, Bodhidharma, came to China and managed to get an interview with the emperor. However, the interview went badly, especially when he failed to know who he was, so he went north, and then sat facing a wall at Shaolin for nine years. Huike, a desperado waiting for a train, applied to study with the great sage by standing the snow. He finally cut off his arm to demonstrate his sincerity. In other words, \u201cStanding in the snow, holding up a flower.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The Buddha held up a flower on Vulture Peak and Mahakasyapa smiled. But here we have Huike\u2019s bloody arm held up. When we wholeheartedly enter the way, we often find that we have to give up something of great value. It might seem like an arm or a fixed idea of who we are, but it turns out to be a flower blossom.<\/p>\n In the Soto tradition in Japan, in the evening of December 9, following the seven-day Rohatsu sesshin, Huike\u2019s picture is put on the altar, as this is the day that it is believed that Huike cut off his arm. Then the monks again sit all through the night. In the morning of December 10, sutras are recited to requite Huike\u2019s compassionate blessings. That which Huike had given up, is honored still.<\/p>\n And although Bodhidharma (and by extension, Wansong) and all the ancestors, held nothing back in expressing the noble wisdom,\u00a0even eyebrows or arms, Bodhidharma and Huike had barely gotten acquainted, so the old barbarian did not approve. <\/span><\/p>\n Standing all night in waist deep snow and cutting off an arm, after all, is not necessarily seeing nature, doing buddha. So<\/span><\/p>\n don\u2019t wait for the person standing in the snow<\/span> Friend, the weather is turning cold, and, oh dear, you are trembling. Best turn toward the fire and get some warmth.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n First, a Brief Update As I hope you have heard, The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans, translated with commentary by me, is due out on February 2. To preorder with a 30% discount and see reviews by Steven Heine, John Tarrant, Meido Moore,\u00a0Bodhin Kjolhede, and\u00a0Henry Shukman\u00a0click here. You can also browse inside […]<\/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":[322,319,327,140,137,313,316,325],"class_list":["post-7291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bodhidharma","tag-linquan","tag-online-zen","tag-rinzai","tag-soto","tag-tongxuan","tag-wansong","tag-zen-caodong"],"yoast_head":"\nQuestion 80: Disclosing Zen Insight<\/h3>\n
Linquan\u2019s Verse<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\nNot willing to completely approve
\nStanding in the snow, holding up a flower
\nIn the past they had barely met
\nStill he didn\u2019t spare his eyebrows and announced the noble wisdom
\nWarm weather turns cold, trembling, warm yourself facing the fire<\/p>\nCommentary<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\nNot established words texts
\nPoint directly human heart
\nSee nature realize buddha<\/p>\n
\nNot founded upon words and letters;
\nBy pointing directly to [one\u2019s] mind
\nIt lets one see into [one\u2019s own true] nature and [thus] attain Buddhahood.<\/p>\n
\n\u4e0d\u7acb\u6587\u5b57<\/span>
\n\u76f4\u6307\u4eba\u5fc3
\n\u898b\u6027\u6210\u4f5b<\/p>\n
\nto cut off their arm help them now
\n-Ikkyu<\/p>\n
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D\u014dsh\u014d Port began practicing Zen in 1977 and now co-teaches with his wife, Tetsugan Zummach \u014csh\u014d, with the\u00a0Vine 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\u00a0The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is due out in February, 2021 (Shambhala). He is also the author\u00a0of\u00a0Keep Me In Your Heart a While: The Haunting Zen of Dainin.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"