thank you joe... must the koan be that long winded? you missed edgar's koan why suggest he did not write one? when in reality you did not see merle
Group, ...for All (for personal, non-commercial use) -- Joe ---------------------------------------------------------- Koan -- Night Fog in the Highlands -- INTRODUCTION The whole world is Medicine. The 10000 Things return to the One; the One returns to the 10000 Things. Helmeted Sage meets helmeted Sage on Monday Night Football: Who is the true Sage, and who is the Meatball? THE CASE A modern dealer of antiquities in the State of New Jersey once wondered if only an awakened person realizes that the 10000 things are Oneself. So he put the question to Bill! (a name so-adopted in order to distinguish himself from someone else of the same name). Bill! replied that, for an awakened person, there IS no self, and that for the awakened person, there is nothing that is not his (true) Self. The antiquities dealer was non-plussed by this, so he looked for the horns of the moon thru dense clouds -- a model for the horns of his dilemma and his fog -- seeing them not at all, he went to Bed. COMMENTARY The ancients, in confronting situations and encountering beings, brought to light the Great Matter within the emptiness of the Universe. Those who explain it say that white is the basis of all colors, yet they don't explain that there is still something beyond white. I say that since it is called "color", it relates to the eye, but the color that goes beyond white is only the colorless, and does not relate to the eye. At this point, I would prod the antiquities dealer, and ask, "What do you see?" We would then know if he had gone beyond the Universe, or not, something which is, of course, as meaningless as it is impossible. Have you not seen Guo Xiang Tennen's verse: Stubbornness does not Compassion show; Nor Self-Protectiveness quicken the Slow. One-up-man-ship Makes not a worthwhile Show. Generosity and consideration Are a far more wholesome ration. But Clarity, Honesty, and help, Come not from a whelp. To raise a point and then depart Is the misplaced throwing of a dart. To live to lie another day, is the cellulose Philosophy ...of a bale of Hay. I say that, when the sun comes out the situation is embarrassing. One knocks it down, the other props it up again. Fortunately for a cook-pot, a tripod has three legs. THE VERSE One knocks down, the other props up. Raising a point, departing. The hidden moon, no arms in the night, fog in the Highlands, to bed, not to wake. Danger!: If your mouth opens even a bit, water rushes in. TEISHO ON THE CASE Waking is not a sleeping matter. Artifice is the great expedient means. The empty-fist binds attention, and holds promise for Children. Nature holds no expedient means; expedient means reveal Nature. We sleep the dreamless sleep only after we awake. Attention!
