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Jiashan Gardening (BS68)
KOAN:
A student asked Jiashan, “What if you sweep away the dust and see the Buddha?”
Jiashan said, “You have to wield your sword. If you don’t, you’ll be like a fisherman stuck in a tangle of reeds, unable to catch a single fish.”
The student then asked Shishuang, “What if you sweep away the dust and see the Buddha?”
Shishuang said, “The Buddha has no country. Where will you meet her?”
The student reported this to Jiashan. Jiashan stepped up to the rostrum and said,“As far as gardening tools go, Shishuang is inferior to me, but for discourse on the
deepest reality, he’s a hundred steps ahead of me.”
—Book of Serenity, Case 68
A Great Current Carries Us
The Daoist idea that came into Chan and Zen is that we harmonize with things. We don’t try and subdue them, although that’s a very strong human impulse. The great koan masters pointed out that the heart has a place of ease, and that there’s an inner freedom and a path we can walk no matter what we’ve suffered or are afraid of or are afraid might happen.
A Great Current Carries Us
You can feel happy despite your stories. The world and human life are never still—you are on the Way, carried by the great current of the Dao. Allowing koans to have you, when you work with them, is the same as opening to your life—there are no steps. You are already free, and there is unexpected help on difficult paths. Music from Jordan McConnell & Michael Wilding. Complete Sunday session recorded August 7, 2022. 81 minutes.
A Great Current Carries Us
You can feel happy despite your stories. The world and human life are never still—you are on the Way, carried by the great current of the Dao. Allowing koans to have you, when you work with them, is the same as opening to your life—there are no steps. You are already free, and there is unexpected help on difficult paths. Music from Jordan McConnell & Michael Wilding. Complete Sunday session recorded August 7, 2022. 81 minutes.