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When Luopu was near death, he taught his gathering,
“Today I have something to ask you about:
If you think, ‘This is it,’ then you’re putting a head on top of your head.
If you think, ‘This isn’t it,’ then you’re looking for life by cutting off your head.”
The head student said, “The green mountain is always moving its feet;
you don’t carry a lantern in broad daylight.”
Luopu said, “Is this a time to be making speeches?”

—Book of Serenity Case 41

A senior student named Yancong stepped out and said to Luopu,
“We need to leave these two paths that you talk about,
please don’t ask about them.”
Luopu said, “You’re not there yet. Try again.”
Yancong said, “I can’t say it completely.”
Luopu said, “I don’t care whether what you say is complete or not.”
Yancong said, “I’m not a student who can answer you.”

When evening came, Luopu called for Yancong and said, “The reply you gave today was actually rooted in something. Try to embody what our late teacher said,

In front of your eyes, there are no things,
your thoughts are in front of your eyes,
there’s something else that’s not the things in front of your eyes,
it’s not something you can reach with ears or eyes.

Luopu asked, “Which phrase is the guest? Which phrase is the host? If you can sort that out, I’ll pass on the bowl and robe to you.”
Yancong said, “I can’t.”
Luopu said, “You can.”
Yancong said, “Honestly, I can’t.”
Luopu roared and said, “What a shame! What a shame!”
A student asked, “What do you mean?”
Luopu, said, “You don’t row the boat of compassion over smooth waters, but in a steep gorge there’s no point in releasing the wooden goose.”

What struck me first about this koan was the comment from the head monk about the green mountains. And I found myself remembering another head monk.

Baizhang was looking for an abbot for a new temple and it came down to the head monk and the cook, Guishan. Baizhang put a water jug on the ground and asked each of them to say what it was without calling it a water jug. The head monk said, “It cannot be called a wooden shoe.” Guishan kicked the water jug over and left, and he was awarded the abbotship of the new temple. Head monks, what we call Head of Practice in our retreats, are often depicted as somewhat rigid and slow—makes you wonder how they got to be a head monk. The comment of the head monk in this case with Luopu reminds me of the ‘wooden shoe’ comment by the other head monk with Baizhang. In this case, Yancong is in a similar position to Guishan and the water jug, however he cannot “kick the jug over.” Head monks are often portrayed this way. Longtime practitioners who have risen to a position of authority but who still haven’t got it.

Luopu was Linji’s attendant for twenty years, a position even more highly regarded than head monk, yet he never “got it” with Linji. So he knew very well what it was like to be close but not quite there. In addition to his desire for a dharma heir before he died, there was the way he must have sympathized with Yancong, who was close but not quite there.

Luopu makes a great effort trying to help Yancong, which brought to mind something that Guishan said about helping when asked by a student to explain something. He said, “If I explained it to you, later on you’d revile me. What I say is mine, and has nothing to do with you.” Which brought along another old teacher, Bukko, who replied to the question, “What is Zen?” by saying, “Zen is the heart of the one who asks. You cannot get it from another’s words.”

You should probably stop reading this now, but there was one last thing, the death of the Buddha. We are told that his instruction on his death bed was:

I was only able to point the way for you.
Be a lamp unto yourself, be a refuge to yourself.
Take yourself to no external refuge.

Sounds more “Zen” than Luopu, echoing Bukko’s “You can’t get it from someone else’s words.”

—David Weinstein

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David Weinstein Roshi, Director of Rockridge Meditation Community