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Dalong's Pure Everlasting Body (BCR82)

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KOAN:

Someone asked Dalong, “The color body perishes. What is the pure everlasting body?”
Dalong said, “Mountain flowers bloom like brocade, valley streams run deepest indigo.”

—Blue Cliff Record Case 82 (PZI version)

ALSO,

A student asked Dalong, “The physical body perishes. What is the pure everlasting body?”
Dalong said, “Flowers cover the mountains like brocade, mountain torrents so deep they’re indigo.”

(transl. by John Tarrant & Joan Sutherland, titled: Dalong’s Flowers Like Brocade)

Text February 5, 2021

The Everlasting Body Runs Deepest Indigo: Meditation for Troubled Times

John Tarrant

Koans
Dalong's Pure Everlasting Body (BCR82), I Vow to Set Endless Heartache to Rest, Sutra of Complete Enlightenment (BS45), The Land of Demons (EV42), The Valley Streams Run Deepest Indigo
Tags
brocade, compassion, Covid, Dalong (Ta Lung), delusive thinking, Four Boundless Vows, friendship, Green Glade of Meditation, intimacy, June 14 2020, modesty, poet Czesław Miłosz, poet Du Fu, poet Li Bai, poet Rilke, rakshasas, tumultuous times, writer Primo Levi
Category
Text, Transcript

It’s a very strong thing to be human, you can be subjected to all sorts of great forces. And sometimes you can win through, and sometimes you die. But we’re all of us doing that, all the time. So I was thinking about how good it is to love each other, to meet each other, and to make peace in our hearts. Sunday talk with John Tarrant, recorded June 14 2020.

6874 Words