Dongshan's Each Stitch
KOAN:
Shenshan was mending clothes when Dongshan asked, “What are you doing?”
“Mending,” said Shenshan.
“How is it going?” asked Dongshan.
“One stitch follows another,” said Shenshan.
“We’ve been traveling together for twenty years and you’re still talking like that!” said Dongshan. “How can you be so clueless?”
“How do you mend, then?”
“With each stitch the whole earth is spewing flames,” said Dongshan.
Text
September 12, 2020
Transcription: Vast Emptiness – Complete Session as Recorded
John Tarrant
Koans
A Donkey Sees a Well (BS52), Dongshan Sick, Dongshan's Each Stitch, Emperor Wu Questions Bodhidharma (BCR1)(BS2), Linji's Take the Role of Host (MK38d), Someone with no Shadow or Form Is Drawing the Water, Yunmen Says Something in Response (BCR14), Yunmen’s Medicine and Sickness Cure Each Other (BCR87)
Transcription: Series 2 Class 6 – Vast Emptiness. The entire session as recorded July 25 2020. Please do not share this curriculum record.
Video
June 30, 2017
Dongshan’s Each Stitch Spews Flames
Speaking about Dongshan’s Each Stitch koan, Allison tells a story of recognizing awakening can come from anywhere when we can truly inhabit life as our own.