Blue Cliff Record

please.

Anyways, in the classic koan collections called the Gateless Gate or the Blue Cliff Record, 10% of all of the koans are Joshu's koans.

And he's my favorite.

One time a monk asked Joshu, will you show me practice? And Joshu said, go wash your bowls.

Okay.

Well, go through the Mumonkan, then the Hekiganroku.

Uh-huh

Then the, um, the Renziroku.

So that breakthrough is not something that can happen through words alone.

but not in any sense something that someone says to you even if he himself is a zen master he can't make the realization for you we might say so why write the book right well the book can only point the way it can only gesture in a general direction but we can't even get a sense of which direction is being pointed at unless we do a bit of interpretation especially because so many of the references are so far removed from our own cultural and religious lexicon and so certainly don't take my interpretation as gospel the the zen practitioners themselves have done centuries of debate and commentaries on these cases so if you become interested In these koans or lineage texts from this episode, there's plenty there for you to read, like the Blue Cliff Record, for example, by Yuan Wu, where they compile so much commentary cases, poetic verses about the cases.

So my purpose here is just to give you a surface-level reading of what's going on.

So for example, the barbarian with the red beard, what is that reference at the end? Well, Bodhidharma, the first patriarch of Zen who came to China from India, is called a barbarian here because he's a foreigner.

And as the boy fled in pain, Gutai called him back, and when the boy turned, Gutai raised his own finger again, at which point the boy was instantly enlightened.

This is a case that appears in the Blue Cliff Record and

in the Mumen Khan.

And then there's the banner.

So that breakthrough is not something that can happen through words alone.

but not in any sense something that someone says to you even if he's himself as a zen master he can't make the realization for you we might say so why write the book right well the book can only point the way it can only gesture in a general direction but we can't even get a sense of which direction is being pointed at unless we do a bit of interpretation especially because so many of the references are so far removed from our own cultural and religious lexicon and so certainly don't take my interpretation as gospel the the zen practitioners themselves have done centuries of debate and commentaries on these cases so if you become interested In these koans or lineage texts from this episode, there's plenty there for you to read, like the Blue Cliff Record, for example, by Yuan Wu, where they compile so much commentary, cases, poetic verses about the cases.

So my purpose here is just to give you a surface-level reading of what's going on.

So for example, the barbarian with the red beard, what is that reference at the end? Well, Bodhidharma, the first patriarch of Zen who came to China from India, is called a barbarian here because he's a foreigner.

The following Dharma talk was given at Boundless Way Zen Temple in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Case number nine in the Blue Cliff Record.

Someone asked, Jojo, what is Jojo? And he answered, North Gate, South Gate, East Gate.

Westgate.

So here is how this, the, um, fascicle I'm talking about opens.

It opens with a koan, and the koan is in the Blue Cliff Record, but this is how it opens.

And I sort of had wished I had a PowerPoint so it could be behind us all the time, but here it is.

[coughs] "Dongshan, Great Master Wuben, was once asked by a monk, 'When cold or heat comes, how can we avoid it?' The Master said, 'Why don't you go where there is no cold or heat?'" [audience chuckles] "The monk said, 'What do you mean by where there is no cold or heat?' The Master said, 'When it is cold, cold finishes the monk.

Uh, the monk asked Dongshan, "How do I avoid cold and heat?" And Dongshan said, "Go where there is no cold and heat." And the monk said, "Where is there no cold and heat?" And Dongshan said, "Go where the cold kills you.

Go where the heat kills you." Okay.

So in order to enter, it helps to know that the Blue Cliff Record includes this case as number forty-three, and we just heard, uh, Professor Heine's great description of Dogen Zenji copying the Blue Cliff Record just before he came back, and luckily he had the gods to come and help him.

I, I long for that kind of help myself.

But in terms of communication, people, people use this, uh, this term the way.

So today I'm gonna pick up, uh, the book, uh, "The Blue Cliff Record," the Hekigan Roku.

And this is, um, Secrets of the Blue Cliff Record with, uh, Tenkei and Hakuin's, um, uh, comments on it.

And, um, this is Case 2: The Supreme Way is Without Difficulty.

And, uh, you will notice if you have this book and you start to, to read it, there's some differences in the translation.

Yeah.

So I think you, you're using another Thomas Cleary.

This is the Secrets of the Blue Cliff Record one.