By Andrew Palmer
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Form Is No Other Than Emptiness, Emptiness No Other Than Form
A nice hot kettle of stew. He ruins it by dropping a couple of rat turds in. It's no good pushing delicacies at a person with a full belly. Striking aside waves to look for water when the waves are water.
Forms don't hinder emptiness; emptiness is the tissue of form.
Emptiness isn't destruction of form; form is the flesh of emptiness.
Inside the Dharma gates where form and emptiness are not-two
A lame turtle with painted eyebrows stands in the evening breeze.
-from Zen Words for the Heart: Hakuin's Commentary on the Heart Sutra
(Normal Waddell, trans)
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In my most recent talk, Talking to a Rock, I referenced a talk from a few years back in which I shared the story of my journey to practice, and said I would post it here. So here it is, dusted off and freshened up a bit, with tales of affinity for the Way via things occurring in early childhood through to adolescence and on to early adulthood, culminating with my participating in the ceremony of taking refuge, which marked the beginning of my journey with The Open Source and Pacific Zen School.
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Yunyan asked a student what they had been doing.
"I've been talking to a rock."
Yunyan asked, "Who spoke first, you or the rock?"
When the student didn't reply, Yunyan said, "It was nodding to you before you even said a word."
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Nothing will do. What do you do? This is the fundamental koan, the koan that is the common denominator of the thousands of koans.
-also-
Whatever I do it just doesn't do what do I do?
-Shin'ichi Hisamatsu
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After several unsuccessful attempts at receiving advice from Vast Obscure…
Generalissimo Cloud said, "It is a rare and difficult thing to meet with you, O Heaven! Please give me just one word!"
Vast Obscure said, "Ach! The nourishing of the mind! Just stay in the state of non-doing and all things will transform themselves. Drop your body away, vomit out your precise powers of hearing and vision, sink yourself into the forgetting of things, become vastly merged in fluidity and darkness, unleash your mind and release your spirit until you are left like a still and silent desert, like there is no soul in you. All things throng and flourish, but each returns to its root. Each returns to its root, and yet they do not know it! Mixed and blended, in chaos and confusion—as long as they live they are never separated from it! If they knew it, they would then be separated from it! They do not ask its name, they do not spy out its character: thus do all things generate themselves!"
-from Chapter 11: "Being There and Giving Room" in Zhuangzi: The Complete Works (Brook Ziporyn, trans)
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Obstinate and mindless
Block of Stone,
Lying here
On this green moss,
Oblivious of rain and dew,
Immune to frost and snow.
How many times has this garden
Flourished and Decayed!
How often have these flowers and trees
Bloomed and Faded!
Just ask old Mr. Stone -
He remembers it all!
-Zheng Banqiao
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Let go of hundreds of years
and relax completely.
-Shitou Xiqian, from Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage
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Danxia Tianran traveled to meet with Great Ancestor Ma. Upon first seeing one another, Ma had a good look at him and said, "I am not your teacher," advising him to go to Shitou's place. Danxia made the long journey and joined Shitou's community as a layperson, working in the stables and temple kitchen for several years.
One day Shitou announced to the assembly, “Tomorrow we're going to clear away the weeds in front of the Buddha's shrine.” The next day everyone arrived equipped with tools to cut down the weeds. However, Danxia showed up with only a bowl, filled it with water, and washed his head; then he knelt in front of Shitou. Laughing, Shitou shaved Danxia's head for him, in preparation for taking refuge in the Way as a monastic. As Shitou began to confer the precepts, Danxia covered his ears and ran out.
Danxia then journeyed back to Great Ancestor Ma's place. Before meeting with Ma to pay his respects, Danxia went to the monk's hall, climbed onto the large statue of Manjushri, and sat astride its neck. Everyone became quite upset, and some hurried off to tell Ma what was going on, who then came to the monk's hall to see for himself. Seeing Danxia upon the statue, Ma smiled and said, "Ah yes, my son, so natural."
Danxia climbed down from the statue, bowed before Ma, and said, "Thank you, teacher, for giving me my Dharma Name" (Tianran, which means "natural")
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Dragon murmurings in a dried-up tree aren’t used up
-Xuedou
A student asked Xishuang, “What is ‘dragon murmurings in a dried-up tree’?” Xishuang replied, “I still have joy.”
A Student asked Caoshan, “What is ‘dragon murmurings in a dried-up tree’?” Caoshan replied, “The bloodline is not cut off.”
A student asked, "Who can hear this?" Caoshan said, "In the whole world, there is no one who does not hear it." The student asked, "What book is 'dragon murmurings' taken from?" Caoshan said, "I don't know what book it's from, but all who hear it die."
-from Blue Cliff Record, Case 2 (verse and commentary)
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Today I sat before the cliffs
I sat until the mist drew off
a single crystal stream
a towering ridge of jade
a cloud's dawn shadow not yet moving
the moon's night light still adrift
a body free of dust
a mind without a care
-from The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain (Hanshan)
Red Pine (trans)
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The podcast currently has 163 episodes available.