KOAN: Beiko's No Enlightenment

Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly with Roshi Jeff Albrizze (PasaDharma.org), Book of Equanimity, Case 62; ZCLA (ZenCenter.com); Alan Watts(KPFK.org/Pacifica Radio)

Zen is a Mahayana school that developed in China during the 6th century as Chán (jhana). Zen spread south to Vietnam, northeast to Korea, and east to Japan (desktopc.com).

Kipp Ryodo Hawley (left), Lorraine Gesho Kumpf, John Heart Mirror Trotter, Mark Shogen Bloodgood, George Mukei Horner, ZCLA at special open house service (Wisdom Quarterly)

  

PREFACE TO THE ASSEMBLY

(photographybydavidmcmeekin/flickr.com)

The primary meaning of Bodhidharma's principle muddled Emperor Wu's head.

The non-dual [Mahayana Buddhism adopted the Brahminical, Vedic, Hindu concept of Advaita rather than keeping to what the historical Buddha taught] Dharma gate of Vimalakirti made Manjushri's speech go wrong.

Is there anything here of enlightenment to enter and use?

MAIN CASE

Attention!

Master Beiko sent a monk to ask Kyozan, "Do people these days have to attain enlightenment?"

Kyozan replied, "It's not that there's no enlightenment,

But how can one not fall down into the second level?"*

The monk related this to Beiko, who wholeheartedly approved it.

• *How can one not remain stuck in "the second level," that is, in one's foundational serenity (zen) practice rather than ascending to final liberating-insight (vipassana)?
• AUDIO: Alan Watts explains Zen, koans, "Haiku" (Pacifica)

APPRECIATORY VERSE

Kwannon in the garden (WQ)

The second level divides enlightenment and rends delusion.

Better to promptly let go and discard traps and snares.

Merit, if not yet extinguished, becomes an extra appendage.

It is as difficult to know wisdom as to bite one's navel.

The waning moon's icy disk; autumn dew weeps.

Benumbed birds, jeweled trees, dawn's breeze chills.

Bringing it out, great Kyozan discerns true and false.

Completely without flaw, the splendid jewel is priceless.

 

Outside the "Gateless Gate" of the uber urban Zen Center, Los Angeles (WQ)

KOAN: Shuzan's Three Phrases

Wisdom Quarterly, Roshi Jeff Albrizze (pasadharma.org), Book of Equanimity, Case 76

PREFACE TO THE ASSEMBLY

One phrase clarifies three phrases.

Three phrases clarify one phrase.

Three and one do not interact.

Clear and obvious is the path of the utmost.

Tell me: Which phrase is first?

MAIN CASE

Attention!

Shuzan addressed the assembly: "When you are awakened by the first phrase,  

You become a teacher of buddhas and ancestors.

When you are awakened by the second phrase, you become a teacher of humans and devas [advanced beings from space].

When you are awakened by the third phrase, you can't even save yourself."

A monk asked, "Osho, by which phrase were you awakened?"

Shuzan replied, "After the Moon sets in the third watch, one penetrates through the city."     

 

APPRECIATORY VERSE

Withered skulls of buddhas and ancestors skewered on one stick.

The water clock's drop after drop moves the pointer minutely.

Essential activity of devas and humans.

Firing a thousand pounds by catapult.

Thunderheads glistening and glowing swiftly shoot down lightning.

You, over here! See the transformations. 

When meeting the humble, be noble. 

When meeting the noble, be humble.

Leaving the finding of the jewel to Mosho, the ultimate Way stretches endlessly. 

Letting the butcher's knife sort freely in the dead ox, there's implicit trust each moment.

MEANING?

A koan (Zen riddle, puzzle, aphorism -- a question or statement meant to provoke "great doubt") is a means of stopping discursive thought, not of instigating it. For when the mind stills, it may be possible to know-and-see. So long as it is moving (vibrating like Patanjali's vrittis), there are distortions. The way to know, the way to see is to sit (zazen), and to walk (kinhin), and to wash dishes and so on (zen). A koan study group and meditation is available every Thursday night, FREE, in Pasadena, California at PasaDharma.org.

The Chinese Buddhist Canon (lectures)

Wisdom Quarterly; ICBS, University of the West (uwest.edu)

Associate Prof. Jiang Wu from the Dept. of East Asian Studies, University of Arizona is the author of Enlightenment in Dispute: The Reinvention of Chan Buddhism in Seventeenth-Century China.

 

"Truly a work of merit for the history of religious and intellectual thought, practice, and sociopolitics..."

"Jiang Wu's Enlightenment in Dispute succeeds in its bold claim that the revival of Chan Buddhism deserves to be seen as playing a significant role in 17th-century Chinese history.

 

"Among Wu's many important findings are his specific tracing of Chan in late Ming thought and factionalism, the significance of Chan 'textual spirituality' in the intellectual questing of the time, the surprising use of the law in the adjudication of disputed Dharma transmissions, the intersections of Chan with Ming loyalist sentiments and actions, and the central part played by Yongzheng (first as prince and then as emperor) in defining Chan doctrinal legitimacy and ultimately his own enlightenment.

 

"The book is a valuable addition to our studies of China's turbulent and formative 'long seventeenth century.'" --Jonathan Spence, author of The Search for Modern China and Return to Dragon Mountain