u/CeleryCareful7065

From The Blue Cliff Record

Case 1 — Bodhidharma’s “No Merit”

Emperor Wu of Liang asked the great teacher Bodhidharma, “What is the highest meaning of the holy truths?”
Bodhidharma said, “Empty, without holiness.”
The Emperor said, “Who is facing me?”
Bodhidharma replied, “I don’t know.”
The Emperor did not understand.
After this Bodhidharma crossed the Yangtze River and came to the kingdom of Wei.
Later the Emperor brought this up to Master Zhigong and asked him about it.
Zhigong said, “Does Your Majesty know who this man is?”
The Emperor said, “I don’t know.”
Zhigong said, “He is the Mahasattva Avalokitesvara, transmitting the Buddha Mind Seal.”
The Emperor felt regretful, so he wanted to send an emissary to invite Bodhidharma to return.
Zhigong told him, “Your Majesty should not say that you will send someone to fetch him back. Even if everyone in the whole country were to go after him, he would not return.”

Xuedou’s Verse

The holy truths are empty;
(The point is long gone. Ha!)
How to discern the point?
(Slipped past. What is hard to discern?)
“Who is answering me?”
(A second try isn’t worth half a cent. You too go on like this?)
Again he said, “Don’t know.”
(A third one, a fourth one, hits the mark. Tsk!)
Henceforth he secretly crossed the river;
(Unable to lead another by the nose, now it’s he who is being led by the nose. Heavens! He sure isn’t a great man.)
How could he avoid the growth of brambles?
(The brambles are already several yards deep right here.)
Though everyone in the land pursues him, he won’t return;
(A double case. Why pursue him? Where is he? Where is the spirit of a great person?)
Forever and aye, vain remembrance.
(Wringing the hands, beating the breast, making a plea to the sky.)
Stop remembering!
(What are you saying? This is living in a ghost cave.)
What limit is there to the pure wind circling the earth?
(After all, even the great Xuedou tumbles into the weeds.)
Then Master Xuedou looked around to the right and left and said, “Is there any patriarch here?”
(So you want to retract your statement? You still act like this?) He answered himself, “There is.”
(He puts himself to so much trouble.)
“Call him to wash this old monk’s feet.”
(Give him another beating and drive him out—it would be no more than he deserves. Acting like this, still he’s gotten somewhere.)

Celery

Emperor Wu studied the Path, served the Buddha, built temples, ordained monks, and was known as the Buddha Heart Emperor. No merit whatsoever. Sand castles built during low tide.

This subreddit has a real responsibility to the world. People who want to learn about the Path come here as their first stop and I’m not convinced it does an adequate job. We have members who are obsessed with sexual abuse and others who pray to words. The wordless transmission has been bastardized and made cheap, as though Zen could be intellectually mastered. The blind leading the dumb in a near literal sense.

I’ve been accused of attempting to teach. I am no more than an OSHA inspector sanctioning a job site for dangerous conditions. Understand the seriousness of the situation - you don’t just deal with one lifetime, you deal with infinite life cycles.

Why did Bodhidharma come from the west? The “answer” is he came to shift Chinese Buddhism away from heavy reliance on formal rituals, text study, and building temples and towards direct inner enlightenment. And now what does this sub seek to achieve? 2 steps forward, 3 million steps back.

Leave your logic at the door. You are bringing a knife to a gun fight. Zen transcends it. I do not advocate anti-intellectualism. I advocate Zen. If you believe that the koans are something to be studied and mastered, you are a fool. If you believe that there is no need to study the direct transmissions, you are a fool. The first step is to let go of your preconceived notions, to understand that there is no understanding.

The first transmission wasn’t a lengthy book report, nor was it a fantastic speech.

🌸

Blue Cliff Record
Case 7 — Huichao Asks About Buddha

Pointer

If you establish a single atom, the nation flourishes.
If you do not establish a single atom, the nation perishes.
Cut off the pathways of thought;
Then even the thousand sages cannot approach.
Let us see how this ancient handled the matter.

Case

A monk, Huichao, asked Fayan,
"What is Buddha?"

Fayan said,
"You are Huichao."

Commentary

Fayan did not explain Buddha through doctrine or philosophy.
Nor did he point to something outside the questioner.
With a single sentence—"You are Huichao"—he cut off all searching.

If you try to understand this through reasoning, you miss it.
If you take it as a statement of identity, you miss it.
If you think it means ordinary selfhood is Buddha, you also miss it.

At the instant Huichao asked, where was Buddha lacking?
At the instant Fayan answered, what was added?

If you can see through this directly, there is no Buddha outside yourself,
and no self to be grasped.

Commentary from Yuanwu (redacted)

It’s like Superintendent Ce; he had been staying in Fayan’s congregation but had never asked for personal instruction. One day Fayan asked him, “Why haven’t you come for an interview?”

Ce replied, “Didn’t you know I had an initiatory experience at Qinglin’s place?”

Fayan said, “Tell me about it.”

Ce said, “I asked, ‘What is the Buddha?’ Qinglin said, ‘The fire god comes looking for fire.’”

Fayan said, “Good words, but I’m afraid you misunderstood. Can you say something more?”

Ce said, “The fire god is in the province of fire; he is seeking fire with fire. Likewise, I am a Buddha, yet I went on searching for a Buddha.”

Fayan said, “Sure enough, you have misunderstood.”

Ce left in a huff and went away.

Fayan said, “This man can be saved if he comes back; if he doesn’t return, he can’t be saved.”

On the road, Ce thought to himself, “He is the teacher of five hundred people; how could he deceive me?”

So he turned back and again called on Fayan, who told him, “Just ask me and I’ll answer you.”

So Ce asked, “What is the Buddha?”

Fayan said, “The fire god comes looking for fire.”

At these words Ce was greatly enlightened.

Celery

There is a Chinese parable that is mentioned a few times in “The Blue Cliff Record” that is never fully explained. There was once a farmer who saw a rabbit run into a tree stump. The farmer got a free meal and decided he would stop farming and take a post at a tree stump. His crops withered and died, no rabbit ever hit the stump again, and the poor fool became the laughing stock of the town.

Superintendent Ce had sat waiting by a stump. Fayan had more compassion than most.

I’m convinced the greatest threat to Zen are those who worship intellectualization, vain attempts to learn and - gasp - teach. They’ve placed words at the holy alter of existence, mistaking the map for the territory. They are to be considered armed and dangerous.

Zen is the wordless transmission. Devour every koan in existence, every translation possible, and it won’t be enough. Zen is quick sand. The more you struggle….

Gone.

From the Gateless Gate, first case (most famous? (Who cares?)):

Zhaozhou’s Dog

A monk asked Zhaozhou, “Does a dog have Buddha-nature or not?”
Zhaozhou said, “Mu.”

— Wumen’s Commentary —

For the practice of Zen, you must pass through the barrier set up by the patriarchs.

To attain this wondrous realization, you must cut off the way of thinking.

If you do not pass through this barrier, and if you do not cut off your thinking, you will be like a ghost clinging to grass and trees.

Now, what is the barrier?

It is simply this one word: Mu.

This is the gate to the entire tradition of Zen.

Therefore it is called the Gateless Gate.

If you pass through it, you will not only see Zhaozhou face-to-face—you will walk hand in hand with the successive patriarchs.

You will see with the same eyes as they did and hear with the same ears.

Isn’t that wonderful?

Wouldn’t you like to pass through this barrier?

Then gather your whole body, with its three hundred and sixty bones and eighty-four thousand pores, and concentrate completely on this word Mu.
Day and night, keep working on it.
Do not understand Mu as nothingness.
Do not understand it as existence or nonexistence.
It is like swallowing a red-hot iron ball that you cannot spit out.

Even if you have studied the highest teachings of Buddhism, do not try to explain Mu intellectually.
Keep working on it, and suddenly body and mind will drop away.

Then heaven and earth will be shaken.
It will be as though you have snatched the sword from the hand of the great warrior General Kuan.
If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha.
If you meet the patriarchs, kill the patriarchs.
At the edge of life and death, you are completely free.
Among the six realms and four forms of birth, you will wander in perfect freedom.
How do you work on Mu?
Exhaust all your energy into this question.
If you do not give up, the moment will come when the lamp of consciousness suddenly goes out.
Wonderful!
It is like a dream, yet you are awake.
It is like a flash of lightning.

— Wumen’s Verse —

The dog! Buddha-nature!
The whole thing is revealed!
A moment of yes or no
And you lose your body and your life.

— Celery —

Bodhidharma became so frustrated from falling asleep while meditating that he cut off his eye lids. Have some green tea! If I live 20,000 lives, I’d still never forgive him for the transmission. An arm is not worth the price of admission (most of us have two, after all.) If he had any sense, he would have cut off his tongue instead.

YouTuber ReligionForBreakfast made a video called “What is Zen Buddhism,” and alleged that the saying “If you see the Buddha, kill the Buddha” means that when people go onto the path of enlightenment, they tend to be drawn toward charismatic teachers that have the “key” to understanding. The students may become attached to these teaching and believe understanding them intellectually will lead to awakening, only to discover that enlightenment comes from within. Therefore, he concludes, the “killing” is letting go of attachments and preconceptions.

He seems like a nice enough fellow, but his error borders the unforgivable. One should be wary when playing with nuclear weapons.

For centuries, novices have read the Mu koan and interpreted it literally, spending hours upon countless hour “meditating” upon the koan in order to “attain” understanding. The joke flies overhead like an arrow. Direct hit! Fatal.

Does this delicious Crunchwrap Supreme in my hands have Buddha-nature or not? You may say “Mu, Celery, it could not. Only living beings can posses Buddha-nature. How could this delicious food possess it?”

Reasonable enough. But why did Zhaozhou’s dog not possess it?

Meditate on the Crunchwrap Supreme for 20,000 lives, and you’ll still come up empty. Unless, of course, you take a bite.

From the Gateless Gate:

Case 29 — The Great Pervasive Excellent Wisdom
The Buddha of Great Pervasive Excellent Wisdom sat in meditation for ten kalpas, yet the Dharma of the Buddha did not manifest before him, and he could not attain Buddhahood.

A monk asked Zhaozhou, “Since the Buddha of Great Pervasive Excellent Wisdom sat in meditation for ten kalpas and could not attain Buddhahood, why was this?”
Zhaozhou said, “Your question is exactly right.”
The monk asked, “Since he sat in meditation for ten kalpas, why could he not attain Buddhahood?”
Zhaozhou said, “Because he did not become a Buddha.”

Wumen’s Comment:
It is said that even the best horse runs at the sound of the whip. Once the whip is raised, even a horse made of clay or wood should understand.
If you can see directly into this matter, there is no need to ask Zhaozhou.

Verse:
It is better to take up the ordinary mind
Than to seek the Buddha.
Ten kalpas of sitting in meditation—
Still, no Buddha.

Celery:
When I began to study Zen 7 years ago, I sought to attain more tranquility and to handle life’s challengers better. I had dealt with many difficulties and I sought a way to make the journey smoother - to strengthen myself in body and mind in order to become a better person.

How foolish I was. Sex for virginity.

I think I’ve said more than enough, but I’ll throw caution to the wind. Some will say that attaining enlightenment does make you a better person, but I’d say they’ve mistaken the forest for the trees. Others would say that the journey towards enlightenment itself makes one a better person. Closer to the mark, but still off by a mile.

Still others would say that there is nothing to improve - no self - and that seeking enlightenment as something to achieve is the same problem as seeking possessions or fame for happiness. You can never have enough possessions, can never have enough… enlightenment? The deep spiritual hole within “us” cannot be satisfied if you seek to fill it with x. Catch 22. And even if “you” attain enlightenment, this does not make you good or bad. It is just awakening. Don’t call a tea pot a bar of gold, a bar of gold a tea pot.

The third group is, without doubt, the worst. Mistaking the menu for the four course meal, they devour paper instead of food. Totally exposed.

I’ll start! Armor tail on Farigiraf works on the giraffe AND the ally.

How about you?

Case 3. Judi Holds Up a Finger (From Wumen’s Gate, Cleary Translation)
Whenever he was questioned, Master Judi would just hold up a finger.
Later one of the boys [in the congregation] was asked by an outsider, “What is the essential teaching of your master?” The boy also held up a finger.
When Judi heard about this, he took a knife and cut off the boy’s finger. As the boy ran out howling in pain, Judi called him back. When the boy looked back, Judi just held up a finger. The boy was abruptly enlightened.
When Judi was about to die, he told the congregation, “I got Tianlong’s one-finger Zen and used it my whole life without exhausting it.” As his words ended, he died.

Wumen said,
Where Judi and the boy were enlightened was not on the finger. If you can see into this, then Tianlong, Judi, the boy, and you yourself are all strung through on the same string.

Verse
Judi made a fool out of old Tianlong.
Holding up the sharp blade alone to test a little boy,
The great spirit lifts his hand without much ado
And splits apart the million layers of Flower Mountain.

Celery
The boy was too clever, while Judi was too lenient - I would have taken the boy’s entire arm. Sometimes, a 16-foot tall golden Buddha is a blade of grass, sometimes a blade of grass is a 16-foot tall golden Buddha. But I’ve found myself in the weeds, yet again.

Tell me - did Judi lift the boy’s finger back at him, or was it Judi’s?

Back into the weeds I go.

I get a bunch of gifts most weekdays and need more friends to exchange gifts with. Add me: 907339370621

I get a bunch of gifts most weekdays and need more friends to exchange gifts with. Add me: 907339370621

I need more Pokeballs! I lost out on a Groudon this morning because I had no pokeballs!!! 😭😭😭