Hello Fellow Snowmen,
This week we have another Koan on the identity (a better term than "relationship," which word implies just separately connected things) of the "Absolute" (unbroken Wholeness beyond division) and "Relative" (all the individual, divide beings, things and moments of the world.)
In the POINTER, such is demonstrated as like clouds of white which cover the whole surface of the world, with all its separate stuff. These are not meant to be obscuring clouds, however, but the clear and unbroken Wholeness. So, depending on how one looks at it, the separate stuff of the world is there, each fully its unique self, yet all also is just the unbroken and undivided Wholeness. Likewise, white snow on white flowers ... here is a picture of that ...
.
But it is also this ...
. 408-swatch.jpg
And also this ...
. images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRCRlMyCepbs1bRW7sh5tljJEnt3tTZNfmBjw&s.jpg
Each of the above the same and identical picture, just seen with different eyes.
The lines of the POINTER about its coldness yet fineness as powdered snow is just another reference to its purity yet individuality. It is so pure, so whole, so clear, that even a Buddha cannot see "through" it (how does one see "through" something which is already perfect clarity?) and demons (said to be clever in looking for faults) cannot find a fault there. Even the cleverest philosophers (who are so smart that they can understand 3 things when the teacher only raises one point) can't analyze it.
In the CASE, some commentators note that the "School of Kanadeva" is an alternate name for the Zen School because Kanadeva was the 15th Zen Ancestor in India. So, the question is something like, "What is the central teaching of Zen?" The response makes the same point as above, with the simile of snow in a mirrorlike silver bowl. This is part of a famous similar passage in another famous Zen teaching, the Hôkyôzammai by Soto Zen founder Tozan, which speaks of ""Heaping up snow upon a silver bowl, hiding a (white) egret in the clear moonlight."
The COMMENTARY tells the famous story where Kanadeva met the 14th Ancestor, Master Nagarjuna, and demonstrated this by tossing a thin, fine needle in a bowl of water. The sharp needle was still there, for sure, yet it vanished in the liquid. Other images in the COMMENTARY, such as "each branch of coral upholds (embodies) the moon" and "the clear eyed man fell into a well," express a like feeling.
Kanadeva was also good at debate, and the COMMENTARY and VERSE make the point that he would best folks of the many (96) philosophical schools on intellectual and doctrinal debate (debate losers would have to turn their shirts inside out, have their hands or head cut, or a red flag would be waved or knocked over.) Kanadeva instead made them all his disciples.
ASSIGNMENT:
Please give us a like simile or image for this teaching. For example, I will say "like blood in the tomato soup!" or "ice sculptures in the boiling pot."
What do you offer?
.
Gassho, J
stlah
This week we have another Koan on the identity (a better term than "relationship," which word implies just separately connected things) of the "Absolute" (unbroken Wholeness beyond division) and "Relative" (all the individual, divide beings, things and moments of the world.)
In the POINTER, such is demonstrated as like clouds of white which cover the whole surface of the world, with all its separate stuff. These are not meant to be obscuring clouds, however, but the clear and unbroken Wholeness. So, depending on how one looks at it, the separate stuff of the world is there, each fully its unique self, yet all also is just the unbroken and undivided Wholeness. Likewise, white snow on white flowers ... here is a picture of that ...
.
But it is also this ...
. 408-swatch.jpg
And also this ...
. images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRCRlMyCepbs1bRW7sh5tljJEnt3tTZNfmBjw&s.jpg
Each of the above the same and identical picture, just seen with different eyes.
The lines of the POINTER about its coldness yet fineness as powdered snow is just another reference to its purity yet individuality. It is so pure, so whole, so clear, that even a Buddha cannot see "through" it (how does one see "through" something which is already perfect clarity?) and demons (said to be clever in looking for faults) cannot find a fault there. Even the cleverest philosophers (who are so smart that they can understand 3 things when the teacher only raises one point) can't analyze it.
In the CASE, some commentators note that the "School of Kanadeva" is an alternate name for the Zen School because Kanadeva was the 15th Zen Ancestor in India. So, the question is something like, "What is the central teaching of Zen?" The response makes the same point as above, with the simile of snow in a mirrorlike silver bowl. This is part of a famous similar passage in another famous Zen teaching, the Hôkyôzammai by Soto Zen founder Tozan, which speaks of ""Heaping up snow upon a silver bowl, hiding a (white) egret in the clear moonlight."
The COMMENTARY tells the famous story where Kanadeva met the 14th Ancestor, Master Nagarjuna, and demonstrated this by tossing a thin, fine needle in a bowl of water. The sharp needle was still there, for sure, yet it vanished in the liquid. Other images in the COMMENTARY, such as "each branch of coral upholds (embodies) the moon" and "the clear eyed man fell into a well," express a like feeling.
Kanadeva was also good at debate, and the COMMENTARY and VERSE make the point that he would best folks of the many (96) philosophical schools on intellectual and doctrinal debate (debate losers would have to turn their shirts inside out, have their hands or head cut, or a red flag would be waved or knocked over.) Kanadeva instead made them all his disciples.
ASSIGNMENT:
Please give us a like simile or image for this teaching. For example, I will say "like blood in the tomato soup!" or "ice sculptures in the boiling pot."
What do you offer?.
Gassho, J
stlah
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