Case 64 never ends, and so we ride to Case 65, Shuzan's New Bride ...
https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=...0Bride&f=false
Ever wonder if reality is just God's Big Joke? A sacred-silly, serious-ridiculous, sometimes LOL sometimes backfiring slap-stick joke?
Most Koans employ a bit of humor, absurdity, turn-things-on-their-headness, all to express some hard to express serious Teaching. In this case. perhaps, the joke of all this is the very point, and the serious-absurdity of life right at the tragi-comic heart!
I recall an old practical joke popular in America when I was a kid (Is it still around? Did it make it to other countries): "No Soap Radio" ...
Some commentators put this Koan in the same family of "What is Buddha?" Koans with answers such as "A Dried Shit-stick" (the most profane as sacred, right through high and low) or "Six Pounds of Flax" (the most ordinary and daily stuff as as most profound and extra-ordinary). In this Koan too, perhaps, things are "upside-down, the rude is sacred" with a Wisdom about life centered right through up or down, right and wrong ...A joke played on an innocent victim, where several people agree beforehand to laugh at a completely pointless joke with the punch line "no soap ... radio". The objective is to see if they can get the victim to laugh along so he won't look like he was too dumb to get it. If he does, then everyone stops laughing and asks the victim what's so funny, and gets a good laugh at his embarassment.
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This joke requires the joke teller to have at least one confederate [someone in on the joke] who already knows the joke and secretly plays along with the teller. The joke teller says something like "The elephant and the hippopotamus were taking a bath. And the elephant said to the hippo, 'Please pass the soap.' The hippo replied, 'No soap, radio.'"
At this point the confederate (who is pretending that this is the first time they have heard the joke), starts laughing hysterically, as if the joke was very funny. The other person who was told the joke is then left wondering why it is funny, and why everyone else "gets it," but they do not. Typically, the recipient of the joke will pretend to get it and laugh along with the others just so they won't look stupid. The joke teller and the confederate then laugh at the recipient for pretending to get it, because the joke is, in fact "ungettable." "No soap, radio" is not a punch line, but a nonsensical statement.
As Shishin Wick relates, in Chinese tradition, having the honored mother-in-law walk pulling the donkey while the bride rides is absurd, upside-down, far from the "graceful" and "natural" that some translations use to describe the situation in the Appreciatory verse. Or is the rude and awkward situation also "Graceful, Natural" in a Buddha Eye? Is there truly "up" and "down" to the upside-down (I am reminded of a physicist's description that the universe really has no "up" or "down", which are relative terms that only have meaning relative to each other. Is Australian truly "down" while Canada is "up", or is that only a map convention ... serious "geo-politics" or just another big joke ...
Beyond that, most folks commentating on the Koan don't seem to have much sense that it means anything! Need it mean something to "mean something"? In the case, the absurd humor is not making a serious point ... but the serious point is the absurd humor!
The double sounds in the Preamble are just sounds that one might hear at times in life. One translator has them as "Tut, tut! Whoop, whoop! Crump, crump! Grumble, grumble! Puff, puff! Zing, zing!" (almost the sound effects in a Chaplin silent movie!) He says ...
Are these silly and daily sounds, or sounds as holy and sacred as some Celestial Chorus and Heavenly Trumpets? Again, depends how one hears with ears upside down.The words vast and vague (man man, kan kan) do not express so much a specific meaning but more a feeling at a certain time. You might consider all these words lined up here as exclamations uttered in various moods. Why are they written here? Because each utterance “returns to the first principle,” they completely express our true self. Whether it’s “Ah!” or “Oh!”, each completely manifests the essence.
Apart from that, the commentators seem at a loss to find much beyond the joke itself.
Chaplain's Donkey from 5:00 here ... (I guess not so funny for that poor donkey!) ... Does the donkey go up and the world down?
The story at the end about the grimace is perhaps about someone who just pretends they understand the meaning of this "no soap radio", and looks foolish and shallow for doing so.
So, let me ask you, "What is Buddha?" ..................... NO SOAP RADIO! of course,
Gassho, J
SatToday
Is the joking the party or is the party the joking ... is the family the laughter or is the laughter the family? ... Is New Jersey Up or Down?
