Then, Rinzai requested his senior attendant who was ready on him, “Was there a fault or not?” The attendant mentioned, “There was.” Rinzai mentioned, “Was the fault with the visitor or with the host?” The attendant mentioned, “Each have been at fault.” Rinzai requested what the fault was. At that, the attendant left. Rinzai remarked, “Higher not say there isn’t any work.” In a while, a monk associated the above to Nanzen, who commented, “Two tremendous horses hit and trampled one another.”
Commentary:
In actual fact, Rinzai examined his senior attendant with the identical sample of query the previous monk had used; the choice of a fault or not. The attendant made a smart reply to Rinzai’s query by saying, “There was”, which didn’t imply that there was a fault however simply revealed the true-Self in the identical means that Rinzai had completed by giving a Katsu to the previous monk. To be able to take a look at the attendant a bit of additional, Rinzai raised one other query ‘Was the fault with the visitor or with the host?’. This was a really artful query that would entice the attendant into clinging to phrases, as a result of though Rinzai pretended to ask in regards to the previous monk and himself through the use of the phrases ‘visitor’ and ‘host’, he really meant types and Vacancy, the true-Self. To rephrase Rinzai’s query, he meant, “Have you learnt Vacancy, the true-Self from types within the dialog and acts that I exchanged with the previous monk? The attendant, understanding higher than to be deceived by the trick, responded by saying, “Each have been at fault.” He would possibly appear to have mentioned that each Rinzai and the previous monk have been mistaken, however he meant, “What I’m displaying to you by giving my reply just isn’t completely different from what you and the previous monk confirmed to one another.” Rinzai requested him as soon as extra what he meant by the reply ‘Each have been at fault’. The attendant additionally confirmed the true-Self but once more by leaving Rinzai. ‘Higher to not say that there isn’t any work’ signifies that the quick dialogue and acts traded between the attendant and him weren’t merely nugatory wordplay however relatively confirmed the core of Buddhism.
Nanzen’s remark ‘Two tremendous horses hit and trampled one another’ implies two issues; approving two folks’s enlightenment and revealing the true-Self, by which he meant, “My act of answering your query is basically not completely different from what Rinzai and his attendant revealed to one another.”
Scholar: “What did Rinzai and his attendant reveal to one another?”
Grasp: “You and I are revealing it to one another, too.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All photos ©Simon Hathaway
#zen #meditation #zenmeditation #enlightened #enlightenment #zenfools #images
