Dear All,
This is one of the shorter cases, yet boundless in richness, not to be taken lightly.
The CASE question asks what are all the Buddha's Teachings that he offered during his whole lifetime. Of course, they come in many flavors, sometimes seemingly very different in what they seem to preach to different people.
Yunmen responds, "An appropriate statement." Another version is "A preaching in accordance."
Appropriate and in accordance with what? To whom? Is every word of the Buddha always appropriate? Master Dogen might have said, "Appropriate to WHAT! That's WHAT!! According with the WHO'S WHO!!" (He liked to turned question words into declarations to convey what is hard to say, making questions into exclamations!)
The COMMENTARY criticizes folks who say the meaning is that "Buddha said what was appropriate to the particular person and situation, to fit their needs and understanding, " or "All these seemingly different Teachings are really saying the same One Thing in various guises." I don't think that either of those statements are really wrong, but they are too simple and intellectual.
I would respond that everything in reality is Appropriate to reality, even the very inappropriate things. They are perfectly Appropriate as inappropriate things. In fact, all this crazy, mixed-up world is always inappropriate ... so everything that the Buddha ever uttered is inappropriate. How can any statement in words truly convey this Truth, so any statement must always be inappropriate, even if spoken by Buddha. Thus, when Buddhas seek to convey this Appropriate-inappropriate with their always inappropriate words, their every word is Appropriate!
In the VERSE, to "wedge a handle into a hammerhead with no hole" is something like understanding how to Appropriately express this inappropriate-Appropriate. There is something about reality that is flawless, unbroken, like that hammerhead, and we learn to swing it as a tool even in this always flawed and often broken world.
The reference to the Jambu Tree is about someone laughing at all this at a sacred spot down on Earth, something like saying "On Top of the Dome of St. Peter's Cathedral, he laughs and laughs." The part about getting the black dragon horn and the old man (Shao Yang is another name for Yunmen) is something like saying, "He got what cannot be got." Why do we assume that the dragon lost anything, or that anything could ever be lost, when Yunmen got it. For example, if I am a child who is learning "What is 2+2," and I say "I got it!" ... does that mean that something has been lost from "2+2" or the "2+2" is suddenly missing or it went away somewhere because "I've got it" or that other people can't get it because I am the only one who's "got it?" The dragon's horn is got like that.
QUESTION: What are the Buddha's Teachings of a whole lifetime?
Here is our song this time. She says, "You don't mean nothin to me." But is not "not meaning nothing" actually something? And in that "not nothing" is there even "a you to a me"?? In this world of day and night, win and lose, you vs. me, it is kind of like Bodhidharma's "I don't know" or getting the horn which cannot be got.
.
Gassho, J
stlah
This is one of the shorter cases, yet boundless in richness, not to be taken lightly.
The CASE question asks what are all the Buddha's Teachings that he offered during his whole lifetime. Of course, they come in many flavors, sometimes seemingly very different in what they seem to preach to different people.
Yunmen responds, "An appropriate statement." Another version is "A preaching in accordance."
Appropriate and in accordance with what? To whom? Is every word of the Buddha always appropriate? Master Dogen might have said, "Appropriate to WHAT! That's WHAT!! According with the WHO'S WHO!!" (He liked to turned question words into declarations to convey what is hard to say, making questions into exclamations!)
The COMMENTARY criticizes folks who say the meaning is that "Buddha said what was appropriate to the particular person and situation, to fit their needs and understanding, " or "All these seemingly different Teachings are really saying the same One Thing in various guises." I don't think that either of those statements are really wrong, but they are too simple and intellectual.
I would respond that everything in reality is Appropriate to reality, even the very inappropriate things. They are perfectly Appropriate as inappropriate things. In fact, all this crazy, mixed-up world is always inappropriate ... so everything that the Buddha ever uttered is inappropriate. How can any statement in words truly convey this Truth, so any statement must always be inappropriate, even if spoken by Buddha. Thus, when Buddhas seek to convey this Appropriate-inappropriate with their always inappropriate words, their every word is Appropriate!
In the VERSE, to "wedge a handle into a hammerhead with no hole" is something like understanding how to Appropriately express this inappropriate-Appropriate. There is something about reality that is flawless, unbroken, like that hammerhead, and we learn to swing it as a tool even in this always flawed and often broken world.
The reference to the Jambu Tree is about someone laughing at all this at a sacred spot down on Earth, something like saying "On Top of the Dome of St. Peter's Cathedral, he laughs and laughs." The part about getting the black dragon horn and the old man (Shao Yang is another name for Yunmen) is something like saying, "He got what cannot be got." Why do we assume that the dragon lost anything, or that anything could ever be lost, when Yunmen got it. For example, if I am a child who is learning "What is 2+2," and I say "I got it!" ... does that mean that something has been lost from "2+2" or the "2+2" is suddenly missing or it went away somewhere because "I've got it" or that other people can't get it because I am the only one who's "got it?" The dragon's horn is got like that.
QUESTION: What are the Buddha's Teachings of a whole lifetime?
Here is our song this time. She says, "You don't mean nothin to me." But is not "not meaning nothing" actually something? And in that "not nothing" is there even "a you to a me"?? In this world of day and night, win and lose, you vs. me, it is kind of like Bodhidharma's "I don't know" or getting the horn which cannot be got.
.
Gassho, J
stlah
Comment