The Lighthouse in the Ocean of Chan
CW45
Chapter 6 Summary of Similar Koans at Different Stages
Koans on 'the intention of Bodhidharma's coming from the west' indicate understanding toward Patriarch Chan. Koans on 'family style' indicate the style of guidance of the patriarchs. Koans on 'duster' indicate manners of direct instruction. Koans on 'ox herding' indicate to practitioners the essentials of self-cultivation. Koans on 'glancing sutra' indicate confirmation and impression toward sutra teachings. Koans on 'sending a letter' indicate the demeanor of Chan practitioners in ordinary daily uses. Koans on 'mind' or 'body' indicate enjoyment of meritorious signs that are realized internally. Koans on 'environment' indicate piercing through and harmonizing with the environment. Koans on 'moved and transformed' indicate the ultimate of finishing birth and emancipating from death. These ten classes of koans encompass the essence of all seventeen hundred koans, exhaustively and perfectly. Once these koans are pierced through, there would be no other koans that could not be comprehended in the same light. Once koans on 'the intention of Bodhidharma's coming from the west' are comprehended, then will also koans on 'the essence of Buddha Dharma' be comprehended. Once koans on 'ox herding' are comprehended, then will also koans on 'how to sustain in all hours' be comprehended. Once koans on 'mind' and 'body' are comprehended, then will also koans on 'how is one's self,' 'drawing a portrait,' 'not seeing whereto,' or 'thrice calling the attendant' be comprehended. Once koans on 'environment' are comprehended, then will also koans on 'seamless tower' be comprehended. Once koans on 'moved and transformed' are comprehended, then will also koans on 'still coming to the feast' be comprehended. The difficulty lies at why the patriarchs throughout the ages provided replies that are mostly different. How to appreciate the differences in their depths calls for the need to compare and emulate. In the preceding chapters different answers to same classes of koans were introduced respectively through the four stages of entrance, exit, use and finish. For readers' comparison and study, to facilitate their finding the page numbers, a table is specially presented below:
Table for Locating the Koans with Different-Stage Answers in Various Chapters
[Home][Back to main list][Back to Chenian][Table of contents][next chapter][Go to Dr. Lin's works]