January 9, 2015
For this Sunday’s Koan Gathering ( 3 to 5 PM, Creek Bend Zendo) we’ll return to the koan and poem we took up together last Sunday. They seem to keep flowing…. and you can jump in where you are, whether you attended last week or not.
In particular, we’ll bring in a verse from Rilke’s poem:
“In this uncontainable night,
be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,
the meaning discovered there.”
Here are the koan and the poem
Zhaozhou and an Infant’s Sixth Sense
Blue Cliff Record, Case 80 (trans. by Joan Sutherland and John Tarrant)
A student asked Zhaozhou, “Does a newborn baby have consciousness?
Zhaozhou said, “Tossing a ball on rushing waters.”
The student went on to ask Touzi, “what does ‘tossing a ball on rushing waters’ mean?”
Touzi said, “Moment after moment, it never stops flowing.”
Note: Literally, the sixth sense, which is consciousness (the first five are sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch). Yuanwu quotes master Shando: “Among the sixteen contemplation practices, the baby’s practice is the best. When she’s babbling she symbolizes the person studying the Way, with her detachment from the discriminating mind that grasps and rejects.”
…and the poem:
Sonnets to Orpheus, Part Two XXIX
“Quiet friend who has come so far,
feel how your breathing makes more space around you.
Let this darkness be a bell tower
and you the bell. As you ring,
What batters you becomes your strength.
Move back and forth into the change.
What is it like, such intensity of pain?
If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.
In this uncontainable night,
be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,
the meaning discovered there.
And if the world has ceased to hear you,
say to the silent earth: I flow.
To the rushing water, speak: I am.”
Rainer Maria Rilke
And here are a few questions that came up after last week’s inquiry:
- What was the student asking? Why might this question matter to her? What if you are asking—why does it matter to you?
- If you know your teacher wants more than anything to help you wake up, how is it when you hear his reply?
Why might you ask someone else about it later? - Just for the heck of it, since you may not have organized memories of being new born, what is it like to be newborn now? Try it (you can do it when no one is watching).
- As you are sitting and as you are going about your life, just any old time, what is it like when you either physically or inwardly toss a ball on the rapidly flowing water?
What do you notice about it? What if you try that as an instruction to take up in meditation: do this with your whole self, sitting here.