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| Venerable Master |
A monk goes to a Chan Master. She shows the Master a proclamation of how to live and says it is good. Then looks at the Master and asks for an opinion.
"Don't you think this proclamation is good?" she says.
The Master shakes his head from side to side.
The monk presses, “What do you think?”
The Master draws his single-bladed sword and brushes away the request.
The monk looks with disapproval and says, “I think we need this! I think it is good. I think it is what we need. You need it. And I need it.”
The Master says, “The way you talk, are you right or am I?
Upset, the monk repeats, “I think I am right.”
The Master asks, “What is right?”
The monk feels frustrated and asks again for the Master’s opinion.
The Master asks, “What is wrong?”
The monk repeats again. “Don’t you think we need this? I think we need this! It's good for us.”
The Master raises his sword and takes the pose of striking and shouts, "Argh!"
The monk says, “I see only a nasty, coarse Master.”
The Master lowers the sword.
The monk asks, “What are you doing? I want an opinion.”
The Master raises the sword.
The monk says, “What are you doing? No one can understand this raising a sword and lowering it. People can’t understand this.”
The Master says, “For now, let’s not talk about what I am doing. Or what is right and wrong, good or bad. But tell me when did you see me as right and when did you see me as wrong? When did you see me as nasty?”
The monk takes a firm stand and with vindication says, “Just now. Right here, right now.”
“Ah.” says the Master. “You do not see yourself ‘right here and now’ but come here to look for an opinion...to look for agreement and end up seeing a nasty Master --- what are you doing?”
Commentary and Questions.
Was the Master taking a pose to cut off material desire and attachment? What keeps the monk from knowing herself right here and now?
Stumbling to One Side
Are we always looking to just one side? Are we able to swallow the whole ball of fire as it is without the cutting of it in two or saying it is one? Can we meet the whole ball without cooling it off or turning away from it?
We lean to one side or the other rather than row, row, row the boat merrily along.
Excoriate & Praise/ Commend & Castigate
To discuss the merits & faults is clearly a pitfall. What must we do? Not permitting penetration or passage of the sentiment and knowledge of the external world, the wooden man gets up to sing and the stone woman gets up to dance. Impervious, right here and now.
Letting go of Coarse & Fine
Dropping off dropping the discussing of the merits & faults is fortune.
