Mumonkan (The Gateless Barrier) #22, "Kasyapa and a Flag Pole"
8:27PM Oct 10, 2024
Speakers:
Dhara Kowal
Keywords:
Kashyapa's smile
Ananda's realization
Golden Kesa
Dharma transmission
flagpole instruction
true nature
monastic discipline
Buddhist teachings
Zen practice
call and response
family skeleton
yin and yang
seasonal flow
unbroken lineage
Dharma succession
This is the sixth day of this September, September 20, 24/7 day Sachin and today we'll take a look at a koan case, 22 of the mumonkan kashipa and a flagpole. And here's the case. It's a pretty short one. Ananda once asked kashapa, the World Honored One transmitted to you, the golden Kesa. Did he transmit anything else? Kashpa called out Ananda. Yes, sir answered Ananda. Kashapa said, Now knock down the flagpole at the gate, and that's the end of the case. So this koan involves an exchange between kashapa and Ananda, two ancestors who are in our ancestral line. And before we get into the case, I want to say a few words about each of them. And I'll start with kashpa, which is short for mahakashyapa. He was Shakyamuni Buddha's Dharma successor. And for some background information, I'm using Robert Aiken roshi's commentary on the mumung Khan the gateless barrier, which in total has 48 koans compiled by Chinese master woman. I The koans have been passed down from generation to generation as a method of practice, and they date back to 13th century China. Some have very historically and or culturally specific references within them, and some seem totally outlandish, like a flying dragon or fish, a monk cutting off his arm, a cat being cut in half.
They're designed to take us beyond conceptual thought beyond duality, and that's why working on a koan can become really frustrating.
But for my own experience getting stuck or getting lost, it's actually vital to becoming more intimate with it. I
it so that feeling of stuckness is part of a process, a necessary part.
And about kashpa Aiken starts off by mentioning that he was a Brahmin of India, living in the fifth century. Brahmins are regarded as the highest social class in Indian society. So when he became a monastic kashapa had given up a life of privilege, and eventually he would become one of the Buddha. As most devoted disciples. Eagan also says that kashpa was renowned for his understanding of the Vinaya, which is the moral teachings that the monastic order followed. It included rules for celibacy and modesty, clothing, what to wear, when and how, eating, bathing and also things like not lying, not gossiping, not Doing anything that would create disharmony within the Sangha and
Aitken says, After the Buddha's death, kashyappa convened a great council of 500 elders to codify the Buddhist teaching. Kashpa was elected chairman of the Council and served as interlocutor in discussions of the Vinaya and the Dharma. And for this reason, kashava is in large measure responsible for the preservation of the Buddhist teachings along with codes for monastic discipline. There is another case in the mumonkan That's about the occasion upon which the Buddha chose kashapa as his successor, and that's case number six, the Buddha holds up a flower. And that case reads, once, when the World Honored One in ancient times was upon Vulture Peak, he held up a flower before the assembly of monks. At this all were silent. The venerable kashippa alone broke into a smile. The World Honored. One said, I have the all pervading eye of the true dharma, the secret heart of incomparable Nirvana, the true aspect of Formless form. It does not rely on letters and is transmitted outside the scriptures. I now hand it on to mahaka.
So in that moment, while everyone else in the assembly was silent, kashapa alone looked at the flower and smiled.
There are, you know, different kinds of silences, different interpretations of being silent. So we can only speculate why the monks responded the way they did. Maybe they were tongue tied, or maybe they were just being attentive and waiting to hear what the Buddha had to say about the flower. We don't know. But then there was kashop is smile. What did the smile mean? There? There are different meanings for flashing a smile. There are different kinds of smiles, just as there are different kinds of silences in that moment of seeing the flower and smiling, it set them apart from all the other monks.
A transmission. Outside the scriptures.
So that's a little background on kashapa. Let's now turn to Ananda.
Ananda was also a disciple of the Buddha, and as his personal attendant, but you had a close relationship. Akin says that Ananda was a younger cousin, possibly nephew, of Shakyamuni Buddha. It is said that he was born on the very night that Shakyamuni Buddha experienced his great realization. He served the Buddha as his attendant for the last 20 years of his life,
later, at the great council of elders, Ananda was selected to recite the Buddha's taishos As he remembered them, for he had perfect recall. He could even set forth those which were given when he was a young child, too young to attend them.
So Ananda was very intelligent,
the modern equivalent of being very adept in retaining book knowledge. He was a walking textbook of Buddhism. So in addition to kashapa, we owe Ananda immense gratitude for his role as well in ensuring the preservation of the Buddhist teachings and
and yet, having such mental aptitude is a quality that is not typically associated with Zen practice. I remember when I first started practice and came to the center and started working with bodhidharmashi. He warned me about my background as an academic scholar, someone who spent a lot of her time analyzing and theorizing. He warned me that could be a potential hindrance to practice, and at the time, I was at the start of my career as a college professor, having just earned a PhD in rhetoric, of all things,
that word rhetoric is often misunderstood. It's often interpreted to mean lies, deception, bullshit. That's what my PhD is in. But actually, as an academic subject, it's actually one of the oldest in our education system, in Western culture, uh, it dates back to ancient Greece in the to the time of Plato and Aristotle, and it was one of three subjects called The Trivium of the liberal arts, grammar, logic, rhetoric and all of them involved thoughts and words. So I remember thinking at the time my prospects were not looking good, and perhaps that's. Why I have a special fondness for Ananda, who, by the way, was also influential in convincing the Buddha to allow women to join the monastic order. And that was an incredibly radical move at that juncture in time. It was a strictly patriarchal society,
and no doubt many of us can relate to Ananda, who was said to have struggled a great deal with his practice. Perhaps he too was caught up in thoughts and words, memorization of texts, but he still persisted faithfully and tirelessly.
After the Buddha's death, even though Ananda was his long time attendant at that point, he was not qualified to attend the assembly of enlightened disciples of the Buddha that was being organized by kashapa. The purpose of that assembly was to ensure that the Buddha's teaching and the Sangha continued to thrive in the wake of the Buddha's passing. This must have been extremely painful for Ananda.
Not only did he have this close relationship with the Buddha, so he must have been grieving his this immense loss, but also being told he wasn't eligible to attend this meeting.
But this only strengthened ananda's resolve.
He didn't lose heart. He didn't lose faith. He kept at it. And the story goes that it was not long after learning that he was not invited to the meeting because his practice had not yet sufficiently ripened. It was not long after that that he had a deep realization and it happened just in time for the start of the meeting, which he did end up attending. And as Aiken said, he played an important role because of his ability to recall the Buddhist words.
So now let's take a look at the case for kashapa and a flagpole. Ananda once asked kashapa, the World Honored One transmitted to you the golden Kesa. Did he transmit anything else the World Honored? One, of course, is a title that refers to the Buddha himself, but it's also a title that refers to our true nature, the one who sees the world as not separate, the one who sees the entire universe within oneself and.
Is this what Ananda was asking about when he said to kashpa, did the Buddha transmit to you anything else, aside from the Kesa? And in the the Zen tradition, the Kesa is one of the trappings of monastics. It's a patch work robe designed to represent the very robe that the Buddha had worn
when the Buddha chose kashapa as his successor, he received a Golden Kesa. So this was a tangible material expression of Dharma transmission and
dharma transmission, also sometimes called Dharma succession, is a long standing tradition of transferring the mind, seal of enlightenment, from teacher to teacher, and it's a custom That's based on the ideal that there's an unbroken lineage since the time of the Buddha, an unbroken lineage of teachers. But it truly is an ideal. It's not a reality in the sense that the historical record suggests that there are a number of gaps and inconsistencies throughout the history of Buddhism, but In general, there are two aspects to dharma transmission, first realization, the direct experience of one's True Self, which is direct first hand, not something someone can give to you because you're already it. And then the second component is the formal ceremonial verification.
So again, Ananda says to kashpa, you received the Golden Kesa from the Buddha. The Kesa being this outward symbolic expression of mind to mind transmission. But it's not a substitute for experience itself, which cannot be transmitted. Ananda was well versed in this teaching, he would have at least understood it on a conceptual level, but he still asked, Is there anything else you received? Did he give you anything else I
is as if a teacher has anything to give and a student has anything to receive, as if we're lacking anything i
And in response, kashipa called out Ananda, yes, sir, answered Ananda, upon which kashpa said, Now knock down the flagpole at the gate.
So what just happened there? I.
If, if Ananda was caught up in thoughts of attainment, of getting something at the time, kashippa might have given him some instruction, telling him to drop it, let it go, return to your practice. But instead, in response to ananda's question about transmitting anything else, kashapa simply calls out His name.
Ananda, yes sir.
One calls the other answers, no gaps,
nothing but those words, those names, the entire universe, right there. Ananda, yes sir,
whole and complete. And in that moment, the door flung open. Ananda's mind must have been wide open in that moment, not holding on to anything and
who calls, who answers? What's transmitted? I
and the case ends with kashipa saying, Now knock down the flagpole at the gate.
I So to put this in context, at Zen temples, there's a tradition of displaying Dharma flags, just as we do at Arnold park. There are a number of different flags that are hung depending on what's happening at the center, and it's assigned Zendo duty to have the responsibility of putting up the appropriate flap. For example, there's one that signifies the teacher will be giving Dok song at the sitting, and it has the teacher's hand bell depicted on it back when sachins were held at Arnold Park prior to the construction of Chapin mill, a flag was hung with an image of Manjushri on it for the length of sashin Manjushri is the bodhisattva of wisdom, who wields a sword, a delusion cutting sword. And
then there's the one we use for introductory workshops, which has an ENSO on it, a calligraphic circle.
And as Roshi often says, a circle not a Buddha figure, but a circle is the ultimate symbol of our true nature. There's no beginning, no end, nothing lacking, just a perfect hole and.
And this is what Ananda realized when kashapa called his name. And it's what kashapa and Shakyamuni Buddha realized before him. And
so for this koan, you can imagine that there was an actual flag pole in front of the temple gate with a flag displaying some kind of Dharma symbol on it, a flag That would routinely be changed or removed once an event had ended. So if it's a flag symbolizing, say, a Taisha was being given, or there was going to be a Dharma dialog, it would be removed after it came to a close. We don't know what kind of flag it was, but whatever kind of Dharma flag it was, kashippa said to Ananda, knock it down and to be clear, he didn't say lower the flag or remove the flag, but knock down the entire flagpole, wipe it out, topple it down to the ground and
and what did he mean by that
there's so much imagery in koans, and It's the students job to get underneath the symbolism.
So for this, koan, yeah, what's what's going on? What is kashapa Saying to ananda in the aftermath of his realization.
Next is Moon's commentary, which is not as important as the case and the verse. So I'm going to skip over the commentary and go right to the verse,
the calling is good, but even better, the answering. How many are there who have opened their true eye, the elder brother calling, the younger brother answering the family skeleton. This is a spring that does not belong to yin and yang. You
calling and answering are a pair. So how could the answering be better than the calling? I
answering and calling are a pair, just like up and down, left and right, student and teacher.
Can one exist without the other.
So mumone may be using irony here. I.
This. Koan reminded me that in in music, there's a technique known as call and response, and it flows like the fluid give and take of a conversation.
One phrase of music serves as the call, and it's immediately succeeded by another phrase, the answer. And together, they form this whole such that they're they're inseparable from a composition standpoint, I
mumon asks, How many are there that have opened their True eye? True eye is another word for true nature, our true self, that is no self, original mind.
There are lots of words for it,
but the words miss the mark.
And then he says the elder brother calling the younger brother answering the family skeleton. In contemporary terms, we could say the skeleton in the closet and
a skeleton is a secret. It's something that's a source of disgrace or shame to the family. It's a private matter, and that's kept out of public view.
Elder Brother kashaba Calling, younger brother Ananda answering what's the family shame there,
and what? What family are we talking about in the first place, aside from the strict meaning of family, as in parents and children or siblings, cousins. There are many other kinds of family. The Sangha is a family here in sasheen. We're a family, supporting one another, supporting the house you
we can also see the entire universe as one great family of beings and things of all kinds of
What's the family shame?
What is there to hide? I
what's not in front of you in open plain sight. What.
And then the last line of the verse is, this is a spring that does not belong to yin and yang. Spring being a season that symbolizes the energy of life and rebirth, renewal.
Grasses growing, flower buds opening, increasingly longer and brighter days. But spring is just one season. Other times of the year, including right now, days are growing shorter and darker. Leaves are changing, color, drying up. Plants are withering.
We have these these words, these names for the seasons, spring, summer, fall, winter, as if each is their own thing, as if each is a singular, discrete event, but actually one flows into the other in an unending cycle. There's just flow round and round. Where does one season start and the other one begin? The date on the calendar is arbitrary, and
can we say that spring, let alone any season, belongs to yin and yang? Now Yin and Yang is a symbol, just like a flag is a symbol, and usually yin and yang, if you've never seen it, it takes the form of a circle split in half. One half is black, the other half is white, and there's a smaller circle of the opposing color in each half. And again, the two sides separated by a curved line. So according to Chinese cosmology, this symbol represents the interconnection of polarities. And in simple terms, Yin is associated with negative, passive, dark and female, while young is positive, active, light and male,
we can't reduce them to being merely opposites, though
that would be twoness. You can't perceive one half without the other,
and they are interconnected within light, there is Darkness, and within darkness, there is light.
Can't can't understand one without the other.
We need to go beyond twoness, beyond duality and. Just as you can't substitute words or symbols of any kind, be it a flag a season or something else, can't substitute any of that for experience?
Experiencing the entire universe, the entire family of beings and things, not a separate but within oneself and
