(no subject)
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Teachings of Zen Master Shiqi Xinyue "Stone River"
1. The Ready-Made Case (To Mr. Yuan)
The ready-made public case--how could it depend on verbal explanations? If you hesitate and entrust yourself to your private biases, when a target is born, it attracts arrows. If you travel in a dream through bounded realms, you will not avoid obliviously wasting your time and wandering around aimlessly. You will abandon your family and lose your livlihood.
Suddenly you feel sorry and have a moment of insight. But succeeding in turning yourself around is not a sudden accomplishment. The knife pares away, the water washes clean. [Despite your gradual practice, to you] mind seems hidden, vague: you seem to remember, you seem to forget. This defeat is even more serious.
Mr. Yuan, you have dragged your dream south with you. You want to find a phrase that will assist you in developing insight. So I take the hammer of the polar mountain to beat on the drum of empty space. But I'm afraid I am still unable to call you [from your dream].
Because you are asleep, without being fully aware of [what's going on], you cannot get yourself going. One day when you are going through the clouds crossing a stream, as you lose your footing on level ground, the eye will open by itself. Only then can you probe the tiger's lair on South Mountain, and pass through the dragon gate.
First get a firm hold on [the dragon's] throat, and do not let it turn to the side: only then can you pluck out the claws and teeth and play with the horns. Otherwise, as soon as you meet the [dragon's] mouth, you'll lose your life totally. In that case, though [grappling with the dragon of reality] is called a good cause, it brings about a bad result.
* "Public case"; The Zen koan: stories and scenes and sayings epitomizing the message of Zen, used as meditation topics. Reality itself at all levels provides a "ready-made case"
** "The tiger's lair" where enlightened teachers dwell
*** "The dragon gate" where "fish" (ordinary people) are transformed into "dragons" (enlightened people)
Teachings of Zen Master Shiqi Xinyue "Stone River"
1. The Ready-Made Case (To Mr. Yuan)
The ready-made public case--how could it depend on verbal explanations? If you hesitate and entrust yourself to your private biases, when a target is born, it attracts arrows. If you travel in a dream through bounded realms, you will not avoid obliviously wasting your time and wandering around aimlessly. You will abandon your family and lose your livlihood.
Suddenly you feel sorry and have a moment of insight. But succeeding in turning yourself around is not a sudden accomplishment. The knife pares away, the water washes clean. [Despite your gradual practice, to you] mind seems hidden, vague: you seem to remember, you seem to forget. This defeat is even more serious.
Mr. Yuan, you have dragged your dream south with you. You want to find a phrase that will assist you in developing insight. So I take the hammer of the polar mountain to beat on the drum of empty space. But I'm afraid I am still unable to call you [from your dream].
Because you are asleep, without being fully aware of [what's going on], you cannot get yourself going. One day when you are going through the clouds crossing a stream, as you lose your footing on level ground, the eye will open by itself. Only then can you probe the tiger's lair on South Mountain, and pass through the dragon gate.
First get a firm hold on [the dragon's] throat, and do not let it turn to the side: only then can you pluck out the claws and teeth and play with the horns. Otherwise, as soon as you meet the [dragon's] mouth, you'll lose your life totally. In that case, though [grappling with the dragon of reality] is called a good cause, it brings about a bad result.
* "Public case"; The Zen koan: stories and scenes and sayings epitomizing the message of Zen, used as meditation topics. Reality itself at all levels provides a "ready-made case"
** "The tiger's lair" where enlightened teachers dwell
*** "The dragon gate" where "fish" (ordinary people) are transformed into "dragons" (enlightened people)