BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 16

[Shohei]

Hello All
I have been asked to present this koan - Mayoku Thumps His Staff

Attention! Mayoku arrived at Shokei's place holding his staff.

He walked three times around the meditation seat of Shokei and thumped his staff once. Shokei said, "Right! Right!"

Mayoku afterward went to Nansen's, walked three times around the meditation seat of Nansen and thumped his staff once.

Nansen remarked "Wrong! Wrong!" Mayoku said, "Shokei said 'Right!' Why do you say, 'Wrong'?"

Nansen said, "For Shokei, it is right. For you it is wrong.

What comes from the power of the wind in the end becomes broken and crumbled."

The first time around, this dance with Mayoku and Shokei, Shokei says Right! Mayoku is then set off still dancing though the music stopped and his partner has sat down!

Mayoku's ego caught this wind in its sail, and moves him on to show off his new moves with with Nansen and he gets shut down and with Wrong!

Right and wrong, we are warned to be wary of the trap here.

Who is to say that Right! was positive? May it have been a polite way to acknowledge Mayoku and dismiss the pest in the zendo with two 'kind' words?

After the last Right! from Shokei was uttered it was all over, but Mayoku forgot to let go of the moment. Nansen set him free again, harsh on an ego as it is, this is a compassionate move and reminds us all things are "time sensitive"!

Mayoku reminds me of my kids with a new knock knock joke.
First time its Funny! and we all have a laugh.
second time we smile...
the thirtieth time (not irritated at all of course ) we set them straight.
Not right or wrong just all ready gone!

We have all been here (and may still be!!) can you share a time you "had it" only to realize it was long gone and how did you come realize it?

How do you handle a staff thumping visitor in your life?


Gassho
Shohei

https://youtu.be/qCxXnD2bVaw

[Hans]

Hello Shohei,

thank you for your questions.

I imagine that my way of handling your average staff thumping visitor is very different from how I'd do things in a teacher and/or student position. Since things always keep turning and developing, I'd try to be polite without being judgemental , most of the time....however in order to non-maliciously teach someone a lesson, or in order to tickle someone into giving me a lesson somehow, I'd be prepared to be much more rude in order to get the ball out of the comfort zone and into the juicy flesh of things.

Keeping a static fantasy of things and persons as my reference point seems easier than to authentically engage with them every time anew....the freshness of beginner's mind comes to mind....and I remember having been very disappointed with a friend of mine not too long ago...only to find that the real disappointment lay in my holding on to ideas in my head about who that person was, instead og just fully engaging with the moment at hand. I thought I had had "it", but actually I had only created a convenient short cut leading not even nowhere.

Thank you for this Koan, Shohei.


Gassho,

Hans Christian Stucken

[Shugen]

Am I saying yes because I mean yes or because I don't want to deal with the outcome if I say no? Am I saying no because it's the "right" answer or because "I" don't want to?

Sometimes all you can do with a "cane thumping visitor" is listen - not agree or disagree. "I understand."



Shugen

[Tb]

Hi.

How do you handle a staff thumping visitor in your life?

Gently.

Mtfbwy
Fugen

[Heisoku]

How do you handle a staff thumping visitor in your life?

My mother-in-law gets up and puts a broom behind the door (a Brazilian old wives tale to get ride of unwelcome guests, that I have seen work once, only once!), whereas I have responded by:
- telling them what they want to hear;
- being casual and facetious,
- ignoring them,
or by responding by actually listening to what they are trying to say and perhaps help them clarify whatever it is they are trying to express to facilitate some coherent discussion.
Depends on how they thump the staff. If they have their mind open and are ready to listen too!

[Mp]

How do you handle a staff thumping visitor in your life?

Hmmm, good question! I know for myself that I can take things to personal even when it is not, so I try to be open and accepting of the thump (not always that easy) and look at if after ... did I deserve the thump, or was the thumper just thump happy? If it is the former, I do my best to learn from it, but if it is the latter, I try just let it go.

Gassho
Michael

[Amelia]

Hi.



Gently.

Mtfbwy
Fugen

[Jiken]

If you think you can have it you can lose it. As far as the thumping guy I just let him thump a while. They usually get tired or answer their own question

Gassho,

Daido

[Shokai]

I usually listen

[RichardH]

I'm interpreting the staff thumper as the knock knock joker who doesn't know when to quit. First of all I am frequently a staff thumper.... and being a staff thumper is like running in a little itchy scratchy circle.. so I aught to be patient and gentle with others. I am sometimes.. all ears, with no agenda, skillful, and helpful. But most of the time I am absorbed in my own agenda ( what I feel like doing right now) and sell everything that is not that short. Then another staff thumper is met with grumpy impatience.


Gassho, kojip

[Kaishin]

We have all been here (and may still be!!) can you share a time you "had it" only to realize it was long gone and how did you come realize it?

How do you handle a staff thumping visitor in your life?

This happens on a daily basis... although in most cases I am BOTH the staff wielder and the guy being circumnavigated.

[Omoi Otoshi]

Gently.

You teach in subtle ways my friend!
Gently.
Thank you,

Pontus

[Omoi Otoshi]

And I'm a staff thumping visitor in my life. I deal with myself gently.

Gassho,
Pontus

[AlanLa]

"Staff thumper" - funny!

Mayoku reminds me of the old adage that if you give someone a hammer everything becomes a nail. That's totally unfair to him, of course, but it did remind me of how we can all be staff thumpers just like him. When I finally discover that I am a staff thumper (I am going to type that term as often as I can, lol), it is usually because I realize I have made a fool of myself.

As a youth, I did not suffer fools at all, and I would consider a "fool" to be an extreme version of a staff thumper. As a more mature adult, I am much more patient than I used to be, but it is still a struggle. I run into the more moderate version of a staff thumper all the time, the person that figured out one way to answer a question so they just keep using that same way only to get it wrong because the world is more complicated than any one way. I try to treat these staff thumpers as teachers of patience. But to be honest, that's usually upon reflection after the initial staff thumping. My initial reaction is to challenge and correct. In other words, I say "wrong" just like Nansen, a lot.

[Heisoku]

Met a 'staff thumper' today going on about how they spend a lot of time organising things for people and actually driving them around, and then my son says, 'OK now dad'.