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When the Rain Beats Down (MK28d)

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KOAN:

When the rain beats down on the pear blossoms, a butterfly flies up.

—PZI Miscellaneous Koans, Case 28d (Dahui)

From Dahui’s koan:

a. The leaves of the lotus are round, round, rounder than a mirror.
b. The thorn of the water nut is sharp, sharp, sharper than an awl.
c. When the wind blows, the down on the pussy willows floats away.
d. When the rain beats down on the pear blossoms, a butterfly flies up.

Text July 13, 2021

Solstice, Juneteenth, a Butterfly Flies Up!

John Tarrant

Koans
When the Rain Beats Down (MK28d), Zhuangzi Dreamed He Was a Butterfly
Tags
2021, Daoism, Dying, Father's Day, intimacy, June, Laozi, molasses jacket, poet Czesław Miłosz, poet juan ramón jimenez, poet Li Bai, solstice, sunday talk, valley spirit, writer Alberto Rios, Zhuangzi
Category
Text, Transcript

Even a time of torpor, or a time when plans come apart, or we thought the culture was going in one way and it’s going in another—we rely on the spaciousness, we rely on not what we’ve planned and schemed, but we rely on what’s been opened up in our hearts. Transcript from the PZI Zen Online recording from Sunday, June 21, 2020.

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