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Zen Koan: The Ideal and the Actual [1]
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Date: 2023-09-03
We have looked at starter koans, to let go of Self. And the Buddha’s second koan, Skill in Means. At the top end come the Buddhist Precepts, which we will get to. In between, we have Endless Training, Tozan’s Five Ranks, and the Ten Ox Herding Pictures, above. The first nine fit within what we have been studying, but with more detail, which we can also talk about some time. The last is called Returning to the World with Bliss-Bestowing Hands. It combines Skill in Means with this realization.
Before I had studied Ch’an for thirty years, I saw mountains as mountains, and rivers as rivers. When I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to the point where I saw that mountains are not mountains, and rivers are not rivers. But now that I have got its very substance, I am at rest. For it’s just that I see mountains once again as mountains, and rivers once again as rivers.
Tang Dynasty Chinese Chan master Qingyuan Xingsi [Japanese Seigen Gyoshi] 青原行思, the Second Patriarch of Zen in China, and the 34th from Shakyamuni Buddha
The Chinese title says, “34th Patriarch Qingyuan Xingsi Chanshi” [Seigen Gyoshi Zenji]
We begin from the actual, as misunderstood. Then we approach the ideal, in which there is no Self, no delusion, no attachment. From there we can come back to the actual and we can understand and share its blessings.
The Patriarch’s wisdom is commonly condensed to
In the beginning mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers. Then mountains are not mountains and rivers are not rivers. In the end, mountains are again mountains and rivers are again rivers.
However, in Sanskuikyo/Mountain-Water Sutra, Dogen Zenji makes it clear that the mountains in question were never physical mountains, as seen by the discriminatory mind.
The ‘mountains and water’ of which I am speaking at the present moment are a manifestation of the words and ways of former Buddhas. Both terms, residing in their place within the Dharma, have completely fulfilled their function for these Buddhas. Because these words signify conditions that actively exist in the time periods before these Buddhas disappeared into the realm of spiritual Emptiness, they refer to something that exists here and now, and because they signify the Self before any sign of these Buddhas’ existence has appeared, they transcend anything that manifests before our very eyes. The various spiritual merits of the mountains are so vast and far reaching that the merits from our practice of ‘riding the clouds’ will certainly be attained because of the mountains. The wondrous effects from our ‘going on with the wind to our back’, beyond doubt, will liberate us, thanks to the mountains. Whoever harbors doubts about the moving on of mountains is one who does not yet recognize his own moving on. It is not that they themselves do not move on, it is that they do not yet recognize their own moving on and have not clarified what it is. To recognize your own moving on will certainly be no different from recognizing the moving on of the verdant mountains.
Similarly for walking on water.
I trust that at this point you are confused. Good. Then we can proceed.
A trainee sitting in meditation is a mountain. A trainee walking through the world without attachment is said to be walking on water.
Within all light is darkness
But explained it cannot be by darkness that one-sided is alone.
In darkness there is light
But, here again, by light one-sided it is not explained.
Light goes with darkness
As the sequence does of steps in walking;
Sandokai, a poem by the Chinese Zen Patriarch Shitou Xiqian (Sekito Kisen, 700–790)
This is the fundamental Yin-Yang koan of Daoism, which has many adaptations.
The poem continues
Lo! With the ideal comes the actual,
Like a box all with its lid.
Lo! With the ideal comes the actual,
Like two arrows in mid-air that meet.
Or in more recent times, bullets. There are examples from the American Civil War and elsewhere.
Bullets HITTING Bullets in Slow Motion - THE IMPOSSIBLE SHOT - Smarter Every Day 287
Completely understand herein
The basic Truth within these words;
Lo! Hear! Set up not your own standards.
If, from your experience of the senses, basic Truth you do not know,
How can you ever find the path that certain is, no matter how far distant you may walk?
What is it in the experience of the senses that reveals this basic Truth? Not the experiences as filtered through desire, aversion, and confusion, but their transient evanescence, with nothing to cling to. It is not, as Huineng explained, the wind or the flag that is moving, but your mind.
Do not think that this is easy or difficult. It is meant to be impossible until it is obvious. As always, study in detail.
Further Reading
There are many translations of these Zen texts, and of course many commentaries. I use the Shasta Abbey versions, which I was trained on.
Shobogenzo, The Treasure House of the Eye of the True Teaching, A Trainee’s Translation of Great Master Dogen’s Spiritual Masterpiece, Rev. Hubert Nearman, O.B.C., translator
Sansuikyo, On the Spiritual Discourses of the Mountains and the Water, Shobogenzo section 13
When Mountains are Mountains and Rivers are Rivers, by Rev. Daizui MacPhillamy, O.B.C.
My own master, Reverend Master Jiyu-Kennett, put it this way, “In the beginning, all is different; later on, all is one, and then again, all is one and all is different.” These sayings refer to the course of our Buddhist training over long periods of time. [All is different] is how we function in the world; it’s how we cross the street without
being hit by a bus.
First There Is a Mountain (Then There Is No Mountain), by Donald S. Lopez Jr.
Sandokai
Shasta Abbey Full Morning Service Part 1: Morning Office: Sandokai, The Most Excellent Mirror-Samadhi, Patriarchal line
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