This Koan, "Kyozan Respectfully Declares It," is about a fellow who declared the undeclarable, in a dream of a sacred scene, although is this dream about "being awake" the dream, or is our ordinary waking life the dream, or is it all just a "dream within a dream" in which the sacred is simply ordinary while this "ordinary" and mundane world is truly sacred to wise eyes?
In the Preface, the drunk man foolishly declares himself sober and awake, or are the seemingly "sober" people of the world unknowingly drunk, while in the Appreciatory Verse, Kyozan "speaks the speechless" with a peaceful heart and big brave liver (not because of all that drinking, but because the liver is the organ where bravery originates in Chinese medicine), thus a precious treasure appears like a pearl from a clam, as rare as a mermaid's tear, while in the last part, it is rhetorically asked whether all those words about "no words are needed" were just a shameful waste which embarrass the speaker who showed the dirty laundry of his foolishness in front of the "illustrious eyebrows" (illustrious wise spectators in the dream), or was it in fact a precious gift that is the very opposite of embarrassing, the magic cure for the disease .... and what about the value of my words about his words about the wordless right now?
Question: Whether this is a dream within awakening, or awakening in a dream, or a dream within a dream, can we learn to dream the dream well, choosing our words (and acts and thoughts) carefully?
Gassho, J
STLah
In the Preface, the drunk man foolishly declares himself sober and awake, or are the seemingly "sober" people of the world unknowingly drunk, while in the Appreciatory Verse, Kyozan "speaks the speechless" with a peaceful heart and big brave liver (not because of all that drinking, but because the liver is the organ where bravery originates in Chinese medicine), thus a precious treasure appears like a pearl from a clam, as rare as a mermaid's tear, while in the last part, it is rhetorically asked whether all those words about "no words are needed" were just a shameful waste which embarrass the speaker who showed the dirty laundry of his foolishness in front of the "illustrious eyebrows" (illustrious wise spectators in the dream), or was it in fact a precious gift that is the very opposite of embarrassing, the magic cure for the disease .... and what about the value of my words about his words about the wordless right now?
Question: Whether this is a dream within awakening, or awakening in a dream, or a dream within a dream, can we learn to dream the dream well, choosing our words (and acts and thoughts) carefully?
Gassho, J
STLah
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