This past weekend we honored Shakyamuni Buddha's awakening, conventionally celebrated on December 8, ("rohatsu" in Japanese.) Many of the participants are pictured at the left, in a photo taken by Dharma Holder Michael Herzog. The tanto (head seat), Lara Nordenson, gave the sesshin the name "Morning Stars Everywhere." This name was based on the teaching that the Buddha awakened when he saw the morning star after a long night of fighting off the forces of confusion and suffering in his own mind, through the powerful practice of being still and unmoving in the face of everything. (Otherwise known as zazen!)
The teachers of this Rohatsu sesshin, Dharma Holder Alan Richardson, David Roshi and myself talked about how this morning star appears everywhere, in all places and in all times. And we chose the following koan to explore together., Case 32 in the Gateless Gate collection:
THE BUDDHA RESPONDS TO AN OUTSIDER
An outsider asked the World-Honored One, “I do not ask for the spoken; I do not ask for the unspoken.” The World-Honored One just sat still.
The outsider praised him, saying, “The World-Honored One with his great compassion and mercy has opened the clouds of my delusion and enabled me to enter the way.” He then made bows and took his leave.
Ananda asked, “What did that outsider realize to make him praise you?”
The World-Honored One said, “He is like the fine horse who runs even at the shadow of the whip.”
Wumen's commentary
Ananda is the Buddha's disciple, but his realization is less than the outsider's. Now tell me, how do they differ -- the disciple and the outsider?
Wumen's Verse
Walking along the edge of a sword,
Running along the ridge of an iceberg,
No steps, no ladders,
Jumping from the cliff with hands open.
