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Yunmen's Day of the Full Moon (BCR6)
KOAN:
Yunmen said, “I’m not asking you about before the full moon. Come and say a word or two about after the full moon.”
He responded to his own request, “Every day is a good day.”
—Blue Cliff Record Case 6 (transl. by John Tarrant & Joan Sutherland, titled: Yunmen’s Good Day)
Every Day Is a Good Day!
The whole thing about Chan is that it’s an improvisational culture. Because we love it? No, because that’s what life is! That’s the good day. Not-knowing is intimately tied to the good day. It’s not an achievement—it’s the gift of the universe, and you are in the universe having received the gift. Poetry, dreams, Linji’s death, and more. As recorded in Winter Sesshin 2020.
Every Day is a Good Day
A student asked Yunmen: ‘I don’t ask you about before the full moon, what about after the full moon teacher?’ Yunmen replied ‘Every day is a good day’. A side story to this koan is that Yunmen was ill when the student came to visit and he was asking him about his health. There is a light which shines through everything: the day, the moment, an illness, even our problems.