The talk you're about to hear is by Zen teacher, Sensei Amala Wrightson.
Today is Tuesday, the eighth of August 2023. And this evening we're going to take up a koan. This is number five in the Mumonkan "Kyogen's Man Up a Tree." And we'll just start by reading the whole thing. It's not very long one, the case the commentary, and the verse - and then we'll have a look at it in more detail.
So this is the case: Kyogen said, "It's like a man up a tree hanging from a branch by his teeth. His hands can't grasp a limb, his feet won't reach one. Under the tree there is another man who asks him the meaning of Bodhidharma's coming from the West. If he doesn't answer, he fails the questioner. If he does answer, he will lose his life. At such a time, what should he do?
Commentary. Though your eloquence flows like a river, it is all to no avail. Even if you can explain the whole body of Buddhist sutras that is also useless. If you can really answer you will revive the dead and kill a living. But if you can't answer you must ask my trainer when he comes. In the verse keogan is just babbling nonsense and spreads poison limitlessly. He stops up the monks mouths and then watches them rise with the black piercing eyes of a devil. There's lots there's lots in this node, see if we can explore it a little bit. First of all, we have QIAGEN. The only protagonist named in this in this case keogan. died in 898 Common Era so in the Tang Dynasty, his Chinese name is Xiang Yun gesehen. But we'll stick with the the Japanese names as they're the ones used in our version of the Mumonkan and we work on keogan studied first under here Cujo will by John in Chinese. And then after he aka Joe died, he became a disciple of one of yaka Joe's disciples, Ihsan Glaceon and Chinese and the story of his awakened awakening is is a very well known one. And it's told in a text called the transmission of the lamp. And we'll look at this just from how it's related by Sigurdur in his choosing classics and Mumonkan and the Hekiganroku.
keogan stood seven feet tall, and was a scholar of great erudition. His learning for a long time stood in the way of his enlightenment, but Eason recognized his innate ability. One day a son asked yogin when you were with your teacher, Yahoo Joe, you were clever enough to give 10 answers to a single question and hundreds of answers to 10 questions, however, suggest that it does not help you in studying Zen. In fact, it stands in the way of your alignment. Now I am going to ask you about what you have learned from your not what you have learned from your reading or from your study of the sutras. Instead, tell me this, what is your real self, the self that existed before you came out of your mother's womb before you knew east from West? At this keogan was stupefied and did not know what to say. He wrecked his brains and offered all sorts of answers, but Eason pushed them aside. At Last keogan said, I beg you please explain it to me. And Eastern Eastern replied, What I say belongs to my own understanding. How can that benefit your mind's eye? keogan went through all of his books and notes that he had made on teisho statehood and authorities for all schools, but he could find no words to use as an answer to E sans question. saying to himself, he said, You cannot fill an empty stomach with paintings of rice cakes. He then burned all his books and papers saying, I will give up the study of Buddhism in this life, I will remain a rice grown monk for the rest of my life and avoid torturing my mind. This is like the sun burning up all the notes is like another great master toxin, who was an expert on the Diamond Sutra, and and flummoxed by a tea lady. He did the same and burned all his notes. He says he will become a rice gruel monk. I'm not absolutely sure, but I think a rice grown monk is is like an ordinary monk who doesn't have much aspiration at sea, it may be getting a daily feed of rice grow. Sometimes the term rice bag is used pejoratively of, of, of monks who are not fully engaging with their their practice. So he's, he's giving up here, he's really, it's not just changing how what he's doing. But there's this real sense that he's, he's getting giving up his investigation because it is. So torturing his mind. And sometimes it is necessary to give up on most cherished ideas, and even even give up the practice at times. Last week, in the in the newsletter, the little paragraph or so that I put in there was about not giving up. And this was really only half right? Or three quarters, right. And generally speaking, one needs to persist. But that's doesn't cover all the cases no, no description, no generalization will ever cover everything. And that's the whole point about practice is we we can't rely on somebody else's interpretation can't rely even on the words of our teacher really, we have to find out for ourselves and for the particular situation. So anyway, Eason lift sadly, which is another indication of, of how difficult this was for him to, to leave his teacher behind, but he felt compelled that he this is what he needed to do. And he he found a graveyard or dis of the graveyard that has sort of fallen into disrepair, which was the way the tomb of a national teacher was choose national teacher to Nanyang I think is his name, so the name so he took it upon himself to look after this, this this grave site, Keep it keep it swept and weeded. And that that became his occupation. Secret as is in his spirit of dejection, he found this humble task best suited to him. And then sacred adds a comment borrowing from a Christian saying, he says, Blizzard other poor and spirit because they are freed from their own deluded egos.
Then we don't get told here how long he will be there. But one day when he was sweeping around the grave is sweeping quite vigorously, and a stone tossed out by by his brown broom struck and hollow bamboo and made us this loud clock sound.
secrecies the sound echo echo through his mind as the sound of a falling nut rings through the empty valleys and hills and midnight. This was the intuitive first name for the first thought moment, ringing through his cleared mind and making a direct pure cognition of the object keogan stood speechless, forgetting himself for a while, then suddenly bursting into loud laughter, he became enlightened. Is first name as though and then of pure experience of nothing added. Nin, literally translates as thought moment, when we chant the Kanzi on the last two Najee lines, this moment arises from mind, this moment itself is mind, the mind in our chant is Ninh in Japanese Ninh information, we say in the Japanese version, it's pretty hard to translate term, but thought moment, mind moment. And it's it's a very short period of time. And so when we are gauging in cognition, we're gauging in a string of names first name, and second in third and so on and so forth.
Returning to his heart keogan, performed the ceremony of purification, offered incense, paid homage to his teacher, a son, and with a deepest sense of gratitude said, Great Master, thank you, your kindness to me is greater even than that of my parents. If you had explained the profound cause to me, when I begged you to give me an answer, I would never have reached what i, where i stand today. So now, looking back, he he realizes the wisdom and the kindness of a sounds refusing to explain things to him, but rather pushing him back on his own resources, so that he could could find out for himself so that he would be compelled to give up all his notions or his ideas. He then spoke a verse on the occasion of his, his awakening and we're going to just read that but from a different translation, we should think a little bit clearer, this is coming from Andy Ferguson's magazines Chinese heritage as mp3
This is This is Ferguson's translation of verse Gilligans verse, one strike and all knowledge is forgotten, no more than mere pretense of practice transformed to uphold the ancient path not sunk in idle devices far and wide Not a trace has left the great purpose lies beyond sound and form in every direction the way realized beyond all speech the ultimate principle he apparently sent wrote this this first out and sent it to his teacher
and he son see you?
He's an approved by saying this disciple has penetrated he was he was
there with his disciple Yong Chun.
kills them in Japanese. And he said this is a good representative Xeon Chan, he's a good representation of mind function. But wait, and I'll personally go and check out his realization. So kills on weaned off and and checked him out. And he says, Master Eason has praised the great meta of your awakening. What do you say as evidence for it? And then keogan repeated his his previous verse, and then kills me and said, This verse could be composed from the things you've studied earlier. If you had a genuine enlightenment, then please say something else to prove it. And then Jung Shan composed another verse on the spot, which is well known, treasured. Verse in Zen. Last year's poverty was not real poverty. This year's poverty is finally genuine poverty. In last year's positive poverty, there was still ground where I could plant my hope, in this year's poverty, not even the whole remains. So then he's given approval by yours in. I granted that you have realized the Zen of the protagonists. But as for the Zen of the ancestors, you haven't seen it even in your dreams, at which point keogan wrote, composed another verse. He said, I have a function. It's seen in the twinkling of an eye. If others don't see it, they still can't call me a novice. It's quite a lot to this, this verse. But certainly he stands his ground with cures in and kills and goes back to report to ISA and says it's wonderful kills in his realize the Zen of the ancestors.
I have a
function it's seen in the twinkling of an eye. If others don't see it, they still can't call me a novice. You settled way he has of standing firm in under the questioning that he's subjected to there. Okay, so that's all the background. For our case here, this now, QIAGEN teaching, and giving this image this powerful image of a man hanging from a branch by his teeth. The organ said, it's like a man up a tree hanging from a branch by his teeth. His hands can't grasp a limb, his feet won't reach one. Under the tree, there is another man who asks him the meaning of Bodhidharma is coming from the west. If he doesn't answer, he fails the questioner if he does answer, he will lose his life at such a time, what should he do?
So first of all, this this image of of this hanging man, grasping onto the branch of the tree with his teeth. Can you imagine try to try to do that? What that would be like, and then can just to make sure we've got got the image. He says, His hands can't grasp a limb, his feet won't reach one. It's got nothing to hold on to. We think of, of Calgon earlier when he was a student with his his screeds of notes that he'd taken conscientiously at all the talks he'd ever been to useless. His feet won't reach light limb either. Nothing to stand on, not even the philosophical principles of Buddhism. Not even they're not even the the highest teachings. And and in the state of extremity, some guy down to the foot of the tree yields up what's the meaning of Bodhidharma coming to the wrist from the waist? And people may know that this this this question was one of the ways that that inquires into Zen would ask about the truth about the teaching. Bodhi Dharma, of course, is the is the founder of Zen, the chat first Chinese ancestor, and he traveled all the way from from southern India most likely, it's not entirely sure we came from spent three years sailing up the coast of India and across to China. long arduous journey. What was the meaning of that? Why did he come? In his old age, we told suffering great hardship.
From sicker to hear what he says about this, this question
the answer to this question is what is the meaning of what he does coming from the west is that there is no meaning. If you can directly grasp this no Munna meaning, then all problems or interest instantly solved. There's no meaning intellectually, explained means emptiness, the emptiness of ego, which is accompanied by emptiness of attachments, devices, purposes and objects. Bodhidharma came from the West, but he came without being attached to a single purpose. But Buddhism, in Buddhism, emptiness is not an holistic emptiness. It is not the bitter emptiness of frustration and despair, which come from a mistaken attachment to constancy in a world which is ever changing. On the contrary, Buddhist emptiness is the ancient way, before the 10,000 married objects of the mind were born. So it is this is this ancient way that that this man hanging from the tree is being asked about. So it's not just a an idle question, we could say it's a quite a life and death question. How how to live, how to die. And we're told and retold here that if he answers if he opens his mouth, obviously he's going to fall to his death. But if he doesn't answer, then he's he's failing to respond to some of these genuine questions about the Dharma
is a comment on this con by the late Robert Aiken and he's, he puts it in terms of our own experience of this in your desperate situation, you remain responsible to your fellow beings. So this this guy is hanging from his branch from his by his teeth. But that doesn't mean that he he's gets out of responding. He has this responsibility. We all of us have responsibility for others. Each of us is accountable to fellow beings
over the weekend, and today listen to a few episodes of a podcast that is on Radio New Zealand. It's it's put together by Suzy Ferguson, and it's called undercurrent and it's about a real in depth look at disinformation and misinformation and conspiracy theories and how they're growing and gaining strength here as well as elsewhere. And one of the programs talks to the family members of people who have got it sucked down the rabbit hole as they say, and expressing really what the family members consider to be a parent opinions, misogynist white supremacist notions and even really, really extreme conspiracy theories. Things that came up here probably first or for most people who hadn't heard of them until the pandemic, such things as that masks are being used to control people that Bill Gates has put a microchip in the in the vaccine and get getting even more weird and out out out there. That it's hard not to laugh with this one reptilian humanoids are among us. So anybody here a reptilian humanoid hands up. Anyway, things like that the Clintons are blood sucking Satanists. There are many, many more. But unfortunately, although we laugh, it's very serious because there's often violence also, in the expressions and, and then in the actions that come out of those expressions, James schwaR was was punched by somebody who believed he was involved in conspiracy to do with the United Nations. So, this, this has come in as a reality in political life that it hasn't been up till now. But anyway, these family members were, they were faced with a kind of Con in terms of how to respond when, when, when the family members that are as being sucked into these things would argue and express these views and one
was saying that he knew that it was pointless to argue that this wasn't possible to change people's opinions through arguing. But then on the other hand, staying silent could so easily be interpreted as agreement. So, he and he struggled with all kinds of feelings coming up around around this disgust fear anger, many different things that were found him found very difficult. One of the other family members felt strongly that she should not cut this person out because they were having these extreme views, but felt that was necessary to keep a line of communication open and to be open by listening to this other these views realizing that there is another human visit human being there, who's having the views, and there may be reasons why they have these views. I guess this was a family member This is more likely to to be a concern in that we were closer to family we often
would be more concerned about cutting off somebody who was who was in a family rather than somebody who just somebody who knew outside of the family that this this sort of thing This raises all these concerns. Are these questions about what is by behind our own reactions are we are we turning these people with extreme views into into other do we have are we playing a role in the process of alienation what what is right speech in such a situation? In his commentary on key organs made up of a tree up a tree the Chinese Chan master your your Guo Gu says some very pertinent things here.
He says the problem is not the words themselves. Words may come in indicate ideas very well, but they may not help anyone. For instance, you may be telling the truth about something. But if a person does not want to hear the truth, your world words will go right out the other ear. Often you cannot get a handle on the appropriateness of speech. Why is that? Because you don't understand the workings of causes and conditions, and cause and effect. Here I'm talking about not being able to perceive the disposition of people and situations, what needs to be done, what needs to be said, and when to be silent. You can't see that because most of the time you operate over your own ideas of things. Similarly, silence can help but it can also hurt. Sometimes the less chattering you have in your head, the fewer fixations you have, the more you are able to connect with others in the world. In these moments, you can be truly one with others without contrived and tensions, there is a natural connectedness and peace. You relate to other people on a whole different level beyond words. It is miraculous, intuitive and genuine. That said, there are situations that require you to say something, if you may remain silent, the outcome may really cause more problems. We think of here, remaining silent in the face of injustice, or bullying, bad behavior, racism, misogyny, we're staying silent allowing these things can be really damaging. It's the same with actions, actions, words and silence may help but also heard, a person can devote him or herself for 1020 30 years to helping those who are suffering and still have a very strong sense of self. So the real question in this case is how to answer how to respond is referring back to to our con. A case is about your inherent freedom. If you are free and unbound by words or actions, silence or speech, then no matter what you say or do, you will be not fooled by Chan Master Xiang yawns blabbering nonsense. We'll we'll come back to this this is one of the lines in the in the verse later on. But in other words, he's saying we won't be fooled if we have inside ourselves, if we can, can not be caught up in our opinions and cherished beliefs. And we may be able to get through the armor of the of the person who who has has extreme views possibly or possibly not.
Little bit further on. This is Gorgos still. The real point is to arrive at a place we you cannot cannot advance or retreat, hold on or let go speak or not speak. This is the way to resolve the most essential question about your love life, how to answer how to respond. This is the means through which you bring your wisdom life back to life and put your delusions to death during emptying out completely. Pre modern Chan masters have described the state of working on a Gorgon or word or koan, in other words, as chewing a hot iron ball with your mouth. Perhaps you may think why in hell would any person want to chew on a hot iron bowl in the first place? Let me substitute an image for you. It is like chewing a hot delicious dumpling your favorite dumpling right out of the boiling water. Since you love this delicious dumpling you're not going to spit it out. Even when it's burning hot yet you can't swallow it either because it would burn your throat. So here you are chewing and blowing and trying to taste it all all at the same time. Very uncomfortable this should be the way to seize the quad Oh of how to respond. How to Answer And how do you respond to life without words and language, silence or gesture? Right here right now? Whatever you may come up with is certainly not the right answer. Wherever you may dig up from your mind is certainly not it. There is no mind to dig nothing is concealed. It is only because your mind seemingly with a life of its own is full of conflicting thoughts, with one moment different from the previous one and the next, that you cannot answer the questions of life. Xianyang it's keogan His advice is to keep on asking how to answer how to respond. In fact, you should ask with all of your mind all of your being, as if holding on to a tree limb by your clenched teeth, with your hands and feet dangling in the air. If someone asks you a question, actually a question that you ask yourself, what is the meaning of body Dharma is coming from the west? Answer. You have to answer. If you don't answer you're not compassionate. If you answer you must die. What do you do? How delightful How wonderful. You must earnestly inquire about this until you come to a point when all of your discriminating thoughts of good and bad words and silence right or wrong, better and worse, success, success or failure completely die. These mental states sigh states are totally irrelevant. All you have to do is generate, cultivate and fuse with this sense of not knowing and wanting to know. What is it? What is it? This is the whole point of the Wado or critical phrase method. Xiang Yun is offered has offered us a delicious savory dumping. You want to eat it but you can't? What do words and silence or actions have to do with this? Just chew on this? How to answer how to respond. This is the compassion of Shang yawns nonsense.
Time is most up we'll just have a have a quick look at the commentary in the verse. Though your eloquence flows like a river, it is all to no avail. Even if you can explain the whole body of the Buddhist sutras that also is useless. If you can really answer you will revive the dead and kill the living. But if you can't answer you must ask Maitreya when he comes. So not even any explanation of all the all the sutras the Dharma treasure is going to be any use. That if you can really answer if you can really respond appropriately, you will revive the dead and kill a living revive the oh our own did places in our own lives and kill a living kill those those aspects of ourselves that are?
He says he says here if you if you can't answer you must ask my trainer when he comes. My tray is the future Buddha and the next world cycle. He is said to be doings as in and the touche to heaven. And to be he will come since 5,000,670 100,000 years after the nirvana of the Shakyamuni Buddha so it's like it's like saying you must ask when hell freezes over is a very very long way off. Lastly, thusly the verse final verse keogan is just babbling nonsense and breeds poisoned limitlessly. He stops the monks mouse and then watches them arrive with a black piercing eyes of a devil This is typical merman who the the click the author of this Mumonkan He He praises by slander so he's he's really really praising clerk Yogen for his so called nonsense because it it it's a kind of poison for our delusions ouch cheers note cherish notions
it kills it kills ignorance
he stops up the monks mouth and then watches them rights stopping up the monks maizing getting getting his students to a point where they haven't got really words on the tongue what the way that we work to overcome our ignorance is to become aware of our ignorance become aware of our delusive thought thinking. And so, we take we take those things which are poisonous in us and hold them up to the light and then they can be transformed into awakening. And this way, he was revives the dead and kills the living
find a way to transform and perhaps in some cases by listening to people who got caught up in these, these, this misinformation and disinformation if they could be really listened to they might be able to shift and one of the things on this podcast is talking to people who did go deeply into this conspiracy theories and then saw what they were and and exited. And so, they have a particular insight into the process
sees in the various that kellgren watches the monks mouths and watch them arrive with a black piercing eyes of a devil in some vision that says 1000 eyes and this is a clue that that this seemingly kind of harsh or heartless approach of not explaining actually is compassionate because the bodhisattva of compassion has 1000 eyes and 1000 hands to save sentient beings and this kind of training this this approach this throwing the student back on his or her own devices is compassionate is actually a vote of confidence in the student that he or she has everything she needs to wake up to her true nature just has to put down everything
even even the grip the teeth on the branch
will finish finish with some words from let Dogan have the last word word on this. This kite koan. He says, Why did the first ancestor come from the west? It was if the tree itself was asking the question. Tree questions tree man questions man Bodhidharma questions Bodhidharma the monk beneath the tree must ask his question as if his life also depended on the answer. This is the spirit we must have. Only if you lose your life before you asked, Can you help others? The real purpose of Calgon was to help others even if he lost his own life. Before you give such an answer, your life is steady. It dormant. But after you answer like keogan Your life becomes vigorous and active. You are truly alive for the first time and know how to speak the true true world's words let's master darlin from shoshi say area right? We'll stop here and recite the Four Vows.
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