Subject: Hyakujo's fox
From: Cecilia Baader (ceciliaann@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Dec 05 2000 - 14:43:13 GMT
Hello, quiet 'fish,
I came across the following a few weeks ago, and thought that it was
pertinent to the discussion that we'd been having regarding the violent
route to discernment. It's a relatively well-known koan that I do not
pretend to fully understand, but it does illustrate the idea of the slap,
and rather well at that.
Why does Obaku, in his moment of discernment, understand that the answer is
a slap?
Regards,
Cecilia.
(I love the last line, by the way. It makes me grin.)
-----
Hyakujo's fox
Once when Hyakujo delivered some Zen lectures and old man attended them,
unseen by the monks. At the end of each talk when the monks left, so did
he. But one day he remained after they had gone, and Hyakujo asked him:
"Who are you?"
The old man replied, "I am not a human being, but I was when the Kashapa
Buddha preached in this world. I was a Zen master and lived on this
mountain. At that time one of my students asked me whether or not the
enlightened man is subject to the law of causation. I answered him, 'The
enlightened man is not subject to the law of causation.' For this answer
evidencing a clinging to absoluteness, I became a fox for 500 rebirths, and
I am still a fox. Will you save me from this condition with your Zen words
and let me get out of a fox's body? Now may I ask you: Is the enlightened
man subject to the laws of causation?"
Hyakujo said: "The enlightened man is one with the laws of causation."
At the words of Hyajuko the old man was enlightened. "I am emancipated," he
said, paying homage with a deep bow. "I am no more a fox, but I have to
leave my body in my dwelling place behind this mountain. Please perform my
funeral as a monk." Then he disappeared.
The next day Hyajuko gave an order through the chief monk to prepare to
attend the funeral of a monk. "No one was sick in the infirmary. What does
our teacher mean?" wondered the monks.
After dinner Hyajuko led the monks out and around the mountain. In a cave,
with his staff he poked out the corpse of an old fox and then performed the
ceremony of cremation.
That evening Hyajuko gave a talk to the monks and told them this story about
the law of causation. Obaku, upon hearing the story, asked Hyajuko: "I
understand that a long time ago because a certain person gave a wrong Zen
answer he became a fox for 500 rebirths. Now I want to ask: If some modern
master is asked many questions and he always gives the right answer, what
will become of him?"
Hyajuko said: "You come here near me and I will tell you.
Obaku went near Hyajuko and slapped the teacher's face with his hand, for he
knew this was the answer his teacher intended to give him.
Hyajuko clapped his hands and laughed at this discernment. "I thought a
Persian had a red beard, and now I know a Persian who has a red beard."
# 2 from the Gateless Gate by Ekai in Paul Reps' Zen Flesh, Zen Bones
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