Baling's Falling into a Well (MK74b)

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KOAN:

What is the way?
The clearly enlightened person falls into a well.

—PZI Miscellaneous Koans, Case 74b

(from Baling Haojian’s Three Barriers)

Text March 26, 2023

Falling with the Koan NO

John Tarrant

Koans

Baling's Falling into a Well (MK74b), Huineng's Original Face (GG23), Linji's Solitary Brightness (MK38c), Linji's True Person (MK38b)(BS38), Ready (MK57), The Oak Tree in the Garden (GG37)(BS47), Yunmen's East Mountain Walks on the Water (EV49), Zhaozhou's No (GG1)(BS18)

Category

Text, Transcript

John Tarrant gives a talk on Zhaozhou’s NO: This koan is often offered as a first “gate,” but I think you need to already be in trouble and falling before it’s useful. Life is always offering us that cliff—that door of falling. When you’re falling, you can’t screw it up because actually there’s not a lot you can do. But what you do will be very free and won’t be constrained by the usual. From a recording made in Fall Sesshin 2022.

5207 Words

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John Tarrant, PZI Cantor & Musicians, PZI Teachers

Koans

Baling's Falling into a Well (MK74b), Jiashan's State of Mind (EV99), Just This Is It, Say a Word of Zen (GG3) (BS84), Say Something in Response (BCR14), Zhaozhou's No (GG1)(BS18)