Rinzai 236
Rinzai came to Kingyu. Seeing him approach, Kingyu sat down at the gate barring it with his staff. Rinzai struck the staff three times with his hand, went into the monks’ hall and sat himself down in the first place. Kingyu came after, saw him, and remarked, “When guest and host meet, the usual courtesies are observed. Elder, where have you come from to be so ill mannered?” Rinzai retorted, “What are you mumbling, old venerable?” When Kingyu was about to open his mouth. Rinzai hit him. As Kingyu pretended to fall down, Rinzai hit him again. Kingyu observed, “It’s not my day today.”
Commentary:
Kingyu tested Rinzai by sitting down at the gate barring it with his staff, by which he meant ‘Do you know what I am revealing through these actions to you?’ Rinzai, sensing his intention, responded by tapping the staff three times with his hand, going into the monks’ hall and sitting himself down in the first place. This means, ‘I know that you want to see if I am aware of the true-Self. The actions of my tapping your staff, going into the monks’ hall and sitting down in the first place are the functions of the true-Self’. Kingyu tested Rinzai again with ‘When guest and host meet, the usual courtesies are observed. Elder, where have you come from to be so ill mannered?’. Rinzai’s response ‘What are you mumbling, old venerable?’ means ‘I am not deceived by your words since I know that you are revealing the true-Self to see whether I can recognise it or not’. When Kingyu was about to open his mouth to reveal the true-Self by saying something, Rinzai, sensing his intention, hit him, by which he meant ‘I know that you mean to show me this’. In the end, Kingyu played a trick on Rinzai by pretending to fall down, but Rinzai, not being fooled by his trick, responded wisely by hitting him again. Kingyu, realising that he couldn’t deceive Rinzai, approved Rinzai’s enlightenment by observing, “It’s not my day today.”
Rinzai 237
Issan asked Gyosan, “Who of those two masters won and who lost?” Gyosan replied, “If one won, the other won, too. If one lost, the other one lost, too.”
Commentary:
Later Issan asked Gyosan about what had happened between Kingyu and Rinzai. Gyosan meant that there was no winner and no loser because both of them were enlightened and because there is no difference when everything is one as Emptiness.
©Boo AhmAll writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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