DHARMA SPRING

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  Someone asked Yangshan, "What is the difference between heaven and hell?"
   Yangshan drew a line on the ground.

-from Zen's Chinese Heritage by Andy Ferguson

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Yangshan said to the assembly:

"Officially, not even a needle can enter; unofficially, you can drive a truck through."

-from The Open Source's Miscellaneous Koan Collection

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  When Yangshan was residing at Dongping, a letter and a mirror arrived from Guishan. Yangshan ascended the high seat and received the letter. Then, holding up the mirror, he addressed the assembly.
  "Monks, this mirror comes from Guishan. Tell me, is it Guishan's mirror or is it mine? If you say it's mine, still it was sent by Guishan. If you say it's Guishan's, still it's here in my hands. If you can say something, I'll save the mirror; if you can't, I'll smash it."
  He repeated this three times, but no one in the assembly responded. Yangshan then smashed the mirror.
   Later, Wuzu Shijie answered in place of the assembly: "I would have said, 'Teacher, please, try to explain your meaning a bit more clearly,' then snatched away the mirror and shattered it myself."

-from Entangling Vines, Thomas Yuho Kirchner (trans)

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  Guishan asked Yangshan, “Where have you come from?”
  Yangshan replied, “I’ve come from the fields.”
  “How many people are in the fields?”
  Yangshan planted his hoe in the ground and stood with his hands clasped.
  Guishan said, “Lots of people are cutting water mallows on South Mountain.”
  Yangshan picked up his hoe and left.

Book of Serenity, Case 15

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  One day Guishan was picking tea with Yangshan. Guishan said, "All day long I've heard your voice but haven't seen your form."
  Yangshan shook the tea bush. Guishan commented, "You know how it works but you don't know what it is."
  "You know what it is but you don't know how it works," Yangshan responded.
  "I spare you thirty blows of my staff," said Guishan.

-from Entangling Vines, Thomas Yuho Kirchner (trans)

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  A student asked Nanquan, “Is there a teaching that the wise throughout the ages haven’t conveyed?”
  Nanquan said, “There is.”
  The student asked, “How would you express it?”
  Nanquan said, “It is not mind, it is not Buddha, it is not things.”

The Gateless Gateway, Case 27

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  Luzu asked Nanquan, “People don’t recognize the wish-fulfilling gem. I picked it up myself in the Tathagata treasury. What is this treasury?”
  Nanquan said, “It’s me engaged in conversation with you like this.”
  “How about when there’s no conversation?”
  “That’s it, too.”
  “What is the jewel?”
  “Reverend Luzu!”
  “Yes?”
  “Go on, you don’t understand my words.”

Case 93, The Book of Serenity

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  A student asked Nanquan, "As you formally sit in your quarters (for Work in the Room/dokusan), how do you guide people?"
  Nanquan replied, "Last night at midnight I lost the ox; this morning as dawn arrived I lost the fire."

from Entangling Vines, Thomas Yuho Kirchner, trans

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  A student asked Nanquan, “The buddhas of the past, present, and future don’t know it; cats and oxen do know it. Why is it that the buddhas of the past, present, and future don’t know it?”
  Nanquan said, “They still knew something before entering the Deer Park*.“
  “Why is it that cats and oxen do know it?“
  “How could you possibly doubt that they would?“ answered Nanquan.

-from Entangling Vines, Thomas Yuho Kirchner, trans


*The Deer Park is where the Buddha, after his awakening under the Bodhi Tree, gave his first sermon and gained his first disciples.

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  Zhaozhou Congshen asked Nanquan Puyuan, "What is the Way?"
  Nanquan said, "Ordinary mind is the Way."
  Zhaozhou asked, "Can we deliberately strive toward this?"
  Nanquan said, "To strive toward it is to turn away."
  Zhaozhou said, "Without striving, how can we know the Way?"
  Nanquan said, "The Way has nothing to do with knowing or not-knowing. 'Knowing' is delusion, 'not-knowing' is apathy. If you really attain the Way-without-doubt, it is vast and boundless like open space. How can you speak of affirmation and negation?"
  At these words Zhaozhou was deeply enlightened.

from Entangling Vines, Thomas Yuho Kirchner, trans

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