In a few weeks, our "Now Words" Book Club will begin "What Is Zen?" by NORMAN FISCHER and SUSAN MOON ...
https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...and-SUSAN-MOON
,,, but before that, we will spend a few weeks with some more Koans from the wonderful commentary Shishin Wick Roshi on the Book of Equanimity Koan Collection (Partly available from p. 238 here).
https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=...sembly&f=false
This week, Koan 76 - Shuzan's Three Stages.
This is a tricky Koan. The Main Case seems to be very much related to the perspectives we encountered in Okamura Roshi's book in discussion of the Heart Sutra and the Identity of Relative and Absolute, about experiencing the world in various ways of the relative/phenomana and absolute/emptiness (and also both at once as one).
I have to tell you, I am not so sure of Shishin's way of explaining it this time. According to Shishin's commentary, the first phase is to encounter one's true self beyond divisions. In the second phase, however, let the true self go. The third phase is to let even that go, i.e., to let go of even letting go.
However, I have to say that, this time, more than Shishin Wick's comments, I resonate with comments on this Koan by another Teacher, Yamada Koun. The two explanations seem a little different [are they?] I quote Yamada Roshi as follows with an interesting mathematical description:
This seems very close to the famous Zen saying:What is the [first phrase]? In terms of [a] fraction it means everything in the phenomenal world [all the separate things], it is the numerator. It could be this stick here (Roshi holds up his stick). ... The [second phrase, the denominator] negates this stick and says, “this stick is not a stick.” The [first phrase] speaks about the phenomenal stick. But viewing things from the essential [absolute/emptiness] standpoint you say, “this stick is not a stick. The [third phrase] is saying, “thus it is called a stick [again].” ... [Thus] Finally there is the whole, the faction itself, which is known as the [third phrase]. ... This matter is described in the section known as the syllogism in the Diamond Sutra. For example: Sentient beings are not sentient beings, therefore they are called sentient beings. Buddha is not Buddha, therefore it is called Buddha. A stick is not a stick, therefore it is called a stick.
First there are individual phenomena, then emptiness, then all is not apart and the phenomena are shining here in all their glory yet not here too."Before a man studies Zen, to him mountains are mountains and waters are waters; after he gets an insight into the truth of Zen through the instruction of a good master, mountains to him are not mountains and waters are not waters; but after this when he really attains to the abode of rest, mountains are once more mountains and waters are waters."
I feel that the three do not need to be in order 1-2-3, and I think you can jump in anywhere, or switch the order, and also that all are one. As Yamada Roshi explains, this is the meaning of the "Preface" where it says "tell me, which phrase is first?" ...
The Koan also sounds like one is going down in rank, at first a teacher of Buddhas and Ancestors, then of men and gods, then one cannot even save oneself. However, one comes down from a glorified Buddha, to the wonder of the most ordinary and worldly (gods and men are below Buddhas and Ancestors, yet they are the same, and maybe higher too), and finally there is not even a separate "I" in need of saving. In other words, the meaning "can't even save yourself" is actually a good thing because one realizes from the enlightened view that there is no one in need of saving!To say “three phrases make one phrase clear” means that, although it might seem that there are three phrases, in the end they are there to make one phrase clear. You can say that one is three or three is one, but three and one are definitely not the same. ... Although each phrase of the three is separate, in the final analysis they are one. ...
At the end, Shuzan advises us to even leap beyond all that, perhaps meaning that one should actually experience this, not get caught in the mere idea of "3 phrases" and all this theory and mathematical models one is talking about. One actually needs to live this. I take that as the meaning of "after the third watch" and the vanishing of the moon to mean "the darkness which makes all things one" (as we saw in the Sandokai) gives one now total freedom to move through all the phenomena of the city (the busy, chaotic world).
The appreciatory verse seems to be symbols of separate things united as one (skulls of Buddhas and Ancestors on one skewer, one clock moving by individual ticks, one catapult shooting a great load. These are poetic symbols for the three phrases, but maybe out of order again. At the end, low is again high and high is low in rank. Yamada Roshi says ...
The image of the water clock is an image of movement and change in time somehow combined with a certain stillness.To say “the skulls of the buddhas and ancestors are penetrated with one single skewer” is to express how all concepts have fallen away. So only the “skulls” are remaining, with no flesh or sinews ... If you ask me, this Verse takes the reverse order. In the former part it was the third phrase, and now it is the first phrase in which the outside of the fraction is surrounded by a circle. It is the thing itself, before there is a division into numerator and denominator. This is what is being described in the first line. That means it’s slightly different from before. If you attain this first phrase, “The skulls of the buddhas and ancestors are penetrated with one single skewer.” ...
Neither Yamada Roshi nor Shishin (nor me) seem entirely sure about the catapults and lighting, so I will leave that to your interpretation. (Even Zen teachers scratch their heads sometimes).
The reference to a jewel or pearl is a story from China:
The butcher's knife:Once Emperor Yellow, going on an outing to the north, lost his pearl. He had a wise man search for it, but he could not find it. Next, he sent a clairvoyant man, but he could not find it either. At last he sent a blind man, and he found the pearl.
[Yamada Roshi Comments:] It will not do to search for it intellectually. You have to empty your head. Just like the blind man was the one to find the pearl, it is only when you empty your mind that you can meet up with your true self.
So, what do you think? Does this tough Koan make sense to you? Do you think Shinshi or Yamada (or both or neither) have it? Do you have some other interpretations for any of it?A master chef used his knife to serve up dishes. He was a true master of the kitchen knife. His knife seemed to dance over what he was cutting. The reason was because the knife was so sharp and thin. It could cut the meat with no resistance, as if it were dancing. As long as something is forced, it’s no good, the master chef explained. This story is cited here to express this free activity. The words “there is nothing but the true heart” are pointing to Shuzan’s statement in the koan: “The moon is set at midnight; one walks alone through the market place.” This is so free of guile, so free and natural. This verse is referring to this freedom in the lines here.
A tricky one.
Gassho, J
SatTodayLAH
