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Zen koan
blu3ree
Veteran
http://www.ashidakim.com/zenkoans/4obedience.html
4. Obedience
The master Bankei's talks were attended not only by Zen students but by persons of all ranks and sects. He never quoted sutras not indulged in scholastic dissertations. Instead, his words were spoken directly from his heart to the hearts of his listeners.
His large audience angered a priest of the Nichiren sect because the adherents had left to hear about Zen. The self-centered Nichiren priest came to the temple, determined to have a debate with Bankei.
"Hey, Zen teacher!" he called out. "Wait a minute. Whoever respects you will obey what you say, but a man like myself does not respect you. Can you make me obey you?"
"Come up beside me and I will show you," said Bankei.
Proudly the priest pushed his way through the crowd to the teacher.
Bankei smiled. "Come over to my left side."
The priest obeyed.
"No," said Bankei, "we may talk better if you are on the right side. Step over here."
The priest proudly stepped over to the right.
"You see," observed Bankei, "you are obeying me and I think you are a very gentle person. Now sit down and listen."
I found this rather humorous!
4. Obedience
The master Bankei's talks were attended not only by Zen students but by persons of all ranks and sects. He never quoted sutras not indulged in scholastic dissertations. Instead, his words were spoken directly from his heart to the hearts of his listeners.
His large audience angered a priest of the Nichiren sect because the adherents had left to hear about Zen. The self-centered Nichiren priest came to the temple, determined to have a debate with Bankei.
"Hey, Zen teacher!" he called out. "Wait a minute. Whoever respects you will obey what you say, but a man like myself does not respect you. Can you make me obey you?"
"Come up beside me and I will show you," said Bankei.
Proudly the priest pushed his way through the crowd to the teacher.
Bankei smiled. "Come over to my left side."
The priest obeyed.
"No," said Bankei, "we may talk better if you are on the right side. Step over here."
The priest proudly stepped over to the right.
"You see," observed Bankei, "you are obeying me and I think you are a very gentle person. Now sit down and listen."
I found this rather humorous!
1
Comments
When Bankei held his seclusion-weeks of meditation, pupils from many parts of Japan came to attend. During one of these gatherings a pupil was caught stealing. The matter was reported to Bankei with the request that the culprit be expelled. Bankei ignored the case.
Later the pupil was caught in a similar act, and again bankei disregarded the matter. this angered the other pupils, who drew up a petition asking for the dismissal of the thief, stating that otherwise they woudl leave in a body.
When bankei had read the petition he called everyone before him. "You are wise brothers," he told them. "You know what is right and what is not right. You may somewhere else to study if ou wish, but this poor brother does not even know right from wrong. Who will teach him if I do not? I am going to keep him here even if all the rest of you leave."
A torrent of tears cleansed the face of the brother who had stolen. All desire to steal had vanished.
Compassion holds us together!
Stay strong when those around are weak, everyone needs a little support.
From about 1650 when he began teaching the way of the Unborn until his death in 1693, he was adored by the public and his lectures attended by thousands. In today's world he would be a famous televangelist. He threw open the temple doors, taught there was no difference between the monk and the butcher when it came to enlightenment, and declared that koans and rituals and Zazen and supreme effort were unnecessary and all one had to do, monk or layperson, was "abide in the unborn".
So what do we make of this remarkable man and his teaching? If you know Japanese history, you know the last half of the seventeenth century was one of chaos. The Catholic Missionaries and foreign traders had grown in influence and a rising middle class that conflicted with feudalism caused the Emperor to outlaw the Christian religion and bar foreigners from setting foot on Japan. This policy of isolationism that tried to stamp out all foreign influence continued for centuries. In the meantime, the people continued to suffer in a feudal system designed to keep the noble families, including the samurai class, in power. And the sons of the samurai families filled the Buddhist temples, since peasant boys were not allowed by the landowners to leave the land upon pain of death.
Into this mess stepped Bankei, who was the son of a samurai who put down the sword to become a herbal healer, a shopkeeper in fact. This young man began teaching a gospel of inclusion, that enlightenment was available to everyone, rich or poor, monk or shopkeeper, man or woman (that willingness to include women was especially noted).
This teaching was, in fact, Zen's answer to Christianity. It became wildly popular with the lay people, but not so much with the established temples who saw an attack on their exclusiveness. Fortunately for the established temples, such a teaching is powered by the personality of the Teacher. It didn't take long after Bankei's death for the temples to restore their authority.
Within several generations after his death the new Rinzai masters declared his understanding flawed, re-established a strict military style koan and zazen routine and declared the life of a monk necessary to become enlightened, and the man's teaching was ignored. And now you know the rest of the story.
Strange to think that no matter how special anyone tries to make spiritual endeavor, still its ordinary specialness seeps out around the edges. It reminds me of some teenage boy with a condom stowed secretly in his wallet ... there's no escaping the fact that fun is on the horizon.
Some say that in transcending the mind/identity, the koan just becomes another Zen story.
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