Crazy Clouds - Bassui's No Words or Sentences

The Reading:

When a lay student asked how Zen, with its koans and records of old masters, can be considered a teaching "outside of scriptures," Bassui cries out, "Layman!"  When the man responded, "Yes?"  Bassui asks, "From which teachings did that yes come?"  

-Crazy Clouds, p57

Discussion:

This is a difficult argument for logical persons to follow.  It can be hard to understand Zen if one insists that logic be followed. Remember that logic follows Being, it does not proceed it.  

Ask your own question

The Reading:

Bassui said,  "When you decide to come here, you do so by yourself.  When you want to ask a question, you do it by yourself.  You do not depend on another nor do use the teachings of the Buddha... Clever worldly statements, the written word, reason and duty, discrimination and understanding, cannot reach this Zen."


Discussion:

Zen students often ask traditional questions.  How does this help them?

Ummon, the Sword

The Reading:


A monk asked, "What is this sword that cuts a hair that falls on it?"  Ummon answered, "A patriarch."

Zen and Zen Classics, Vol.2, R.H. Blyth; p.134

Discussion:

Many Masters have been recorded as giving an answer to this question.  The sword that the monk is referring to is Zen, also known in Chinese Zen as the Sword That Kills, also known in the Japanese tradition as The Sword That Makes Alive Again.  The monk is asking what this sword "is", what the nature of the sword is.  Ummon's answer is one of his more coherent.

This is not to say that a patriarch is any more or any less than a shit stick.  

Crazy Clouds - The past is past

The Reading:

The past is already past-
Don't try to regain it.
The present does not stay-
Don't try to touch it from moment to moment.
The future is not come-
Don't think about it beforehand...
Whatsoever comes to eye leave it be.
There are no commandments to be kept,
There is no filth to be cleansed.

-P'ang Yun; Crazy Clouds; p21

Discussion:

Crazy Clouds is a portrait of the rise of Buddhism.  It chronicles more or less the decent of Zen from what P'ang taught to those who lost sight of the warnings of the elders, from Bankei alone in the wilderness to Hakuin and Nyogen Senzaki and Soen who, each of them, would have turned away from their own teachings if they had been their own decedents.

Look no farther than P'ang Yun.  Not "in the present", not anywhere.  Nothing to follow, no one to lead.

Ummon in the Year of the Donkey

The Reading:


Ummon said, "The real Emptiness does not destroy things;  the real Emptiness is not different from materiality. "  Then a monk asked him, "What is the real Emptiness?"  Ummon said, "Do you hear the sound of a bell?"  "That's the sound of a bell," said the monk.  "Even when you have reached the year of the Donkey, will you still be dreaming?" asked Ummon.

Zen and Zen Classics, Vol.2, R.H. Blyth; p.131

Discussion:

It's like looking at a picture of a glass of water when you are thirsty!  Ummon has just now brought a fresh pitcher to the table.  Drink up!

Crazy Clouds: Meditation as tool

The Reading:

[Bodhidharma's]  successors in China, Korea, Japan, and the West still use the same tool of meditation used by the Buddha under the bodhi tree to reveal the living fact of shunyata, or emptiness.

Introduction, p.2, Crazy Clouds

Discussion:

     We seem to live in a time of where deification of meditation is all the rage.  As I've said before, Buddha wasted his time under the bodhi tree, except for the last bit.  Then he stopped sitting there and went about his business.  

     Meditation is a tool, yes.  It does not reveal anything though.  What is there is still there.  What is not is still not.  Is there any emptiness?  I've looked, I cannot find it.

Ummon gossips on the way to Sokei

The Reading:


Ummon asked a question: "Is there any popular talk on the way to Sokei [where the 6th Patriarch taught].  Then he answered himself, "Two at one time!"

Zen and Zen Classics, Vol.2, R.H. Blyth; p.129

Discussion:

Blyth says these two things are people and Buddha. What a gossip Ummon was!  It was a wonder that he knew anything.

Ummon on the Ancient Eye

The Reading:


Ummon said, "A monk should know the eye of the ancient men.  What was this eye?"  Answering himself he said, "It is a toad dancing up to heaven."

Zen and Zen Classics, Vol.2, R.H. Blyth; p.131

Discussion:

Ummon is rare among rare, like a certain shell from the beach that clutters up the drawer in your kitchen.  Perhaps I will preach the way of "Dancing Toad Zen" one day.  Why not?  Is is as true and wise as any other.

Ummon's Universal Cure

The Reading:


Ummon said to his monks, "The whole universe is the medicine to cure illness, -but who's the sick man?"

Zen and Zen Classics, Vol.2, R.H. Blyth; p.129

Discussion:

That's a big pill!  What is Ummon saying?  It makes no sense!  But what is a cure without a patient?  What does this have to do with us?

If you didn't come here for questions, but instead answers, then you will go away hungry.  Zen is about questions, not about answers.

Take down the flag-pole

The Reading:

Mahakashyapa transmitted this Eye, which looks into the deeps of the Dharma, to his successor, Ananda, and this transmission is recorded to have taken place in the following manner:

   Ananda asked Kashyapa: "What is it that thou hast received from Buddha besides the robe and the bowl?"
   Kashyapa called: "O Ananda."
  Ananda replied: "Yes."
   Thereupon Kashyapa said, "Wilt though take down the flag-pole at the gate?"
   Upon receiving this order, a spiritual illumination came over the mind of Ananda, and the "Seal of Spirit" was handed over by Mahakashyapa to this junior disciple.

Suzuki, Studies in Zen, p.13

Discussion:

Often when people talk about Zen, or ask their Questions, there is a casually dismissive air, as if when Kashyapa asked Ananda to take down the flag pole, he had forgotten the question, or didn't know the answer.  These could both be true, but how is it that you, who ask the Question, knows one way or the other?

Suzuki's "Studies in Zen"

The Reading:

According to Zen scholars, their history is considered to have started from the time when Buddha showed a nosegay of some beautiful golden-colored flowers to a congregation of his disciples on Mount Vulture.  The incident is related in a sutra entitled Dialogue of the Buddha and Mahapitaka Brahmaraja as follows:

"The Brahmaraja came to a congregation of Buddhists on Mount Vulture, and offering a golden-colored lotus-flower to Buddha, prostrated himself on the ground and reverently asked the Master to preach the Dharma for the benefit of sentient beings.  Buddha ascended the seat and brought forth the flowers before the congregation of gods and men.  But none of them could comprehend the meaning of this act on the part of Buddha, except the venerable Mahakashyapa, who softly smiled and nodded.  Then exclaimed Buddha: "I am Nirvana, the Mind, and the mystery of reality and non-reality, and the gate of transcendental truth.  I now hand it over to Mahakashyapa."

D.T. Suzuki, Studies in Zen, 1955, p.12

Discussion:

Suzuki notes in the footnotes that this passage is a false sutra, likely manufactured by an early Zen Master in response to challenges to Zen's historical authority.

Nevertheless, a wordless teaching.  Nevertheless, The Gate of Transcendental Truth.  Not bad for a false sutra.  There was no doubt a toothless old man laughing in his chambers the day this was written.

The Last Letter from a Good Friend

And so Mumonkan is finished and we set aside our good friend Mr. Blyth for a moment with a sad heart.  There is not one in ten thousand like him, and since he set down his pen no one dares to put Zen in the title of their book.

I will not miss Mumon as much, for he never left.

Mr. Blyth begins Mumonkan with a translation of the Memorial to the Throne which appears in that volume.  It says, among other things:

"May all Eight Directions sing the praises of your virtue, and The Four Seas take delight in your effective unmoving activity."

Just so.  Hello and Goodbye.

Nansen says Speak!

The Reading:

Nansen, Kisu, and Mayoku were on their way to pay their respects to Chu Kokushi, when Nansen drew a circle on the ground and said, "If you can speak, we'll go on!"  Kisu sat down in the middle of the circle; Mayoku bowed a woman's bow.  Nansen said, "So we won't go!"  Kisu said, "[What are you saying]?"

pg. 324, Mumonkan, R.H. Blyth

Discussion:

How do Zen Masters know each other?  By this.

Amban's 49th Case

The Reading:

The venerable Mumon made the words of forty eight Cases, and judged the ancient worthies' koans.  He is like a fried-bean-cake seller.  The buyers have their mouths opened and the cakes pushed in until they are full, and they can neither swallow them nor disgorge them.  That's what it's like.  But Amban wants to add another extra cake (to the forty eight) that are on the red-hot fire.  I don't know where Mumon will put his teeth into it.  If he can swallow it, he will emit light and move the earth [as Buddha did].  If he can't, I will fry them all up together again.  Tell me at once!  Tell me at once!

The [Hokke Kyo] sutra says, "Stop!  Stop!  You must not expound it!  My Truth is mysteriously difficult to grasp intellectually."  Amban says, "Where does this "Truth" come from?  What is mysterious?  How is it expounded?"

Have you not heard how Bukan was (told he was) a chatter-box?  This originated in [the Buddha's] talkativeness.  That old chap created a lot of phantoms, and so bound the descendants of a thousand and one ages in entanglements, that they couldn't stick their heads out.  Then Mumon comes along with his fine talk, and you can't shovel them out of it all, you can't cook the cakes whatever you do.  This is fine talk and is pretty well misunderstood, and people ask, "What is the conclusion of all this?"  Amban puts his ten finger-nails together and answers, "Stop!  Stop!  It is not to be expounded!  My Truth is marvelously difficult to grasp intellectually!" and quickly over the two characters for "difficult to think" draws a small circle, and shows it to the people.  The five thousand volumes of the sutras and Yuima's "Not two gates" are all contained in it.

-Amban, the 49th Case

-pg 321, Mumonkan, R.H. Blyth

Discussion:

There is a great deal of talk nowadays about Zen.  On the one hand, many expound about peace, love, harmony, and how these flow from Zen like dirty water from a rusted pipe.  On the other are those who have collected sacred texts and teachings into a pile of refuse so high nobody could ever climb it, let alone study it.  Amban was a Zen Master, and he drew a small circle.  That's all the text there is.  Do you doubt it?  Do you question my pronouncement?  Then you must think yourself a greater fool than me!  Tell me at once!  Tell me at once!