Case 13 - Pa Ling's Snow in a Silver Bowl
A
monk asked Baling, “What
is the school of Kanadeva?”
Baling
said, “Piling up snow
in a silver bowl.”
Background
& Reflections
Baling
Haojian, a monk of the Five Dynasty era (907-60),
was an eccentric known for always carrying around a tattered
sitting-cloth. He
studied under Yunmen Wenyan and eventually succeeded to his dharma. In those days, at the time
of his
transmission, a student submitted a written exposition of his
understanding.
Baling submitted the following three questions or koans and their
answers.
1.
“What is the Way?
The
master said, “A
clear-eyed man falls into a well.”
2.
“What is the Blown-hair
Sword?” [1]
That
master said, “Branches
of coral support the moon.”
3.
“What is the Tipo
school?” [2]
The
master said, “A silver
bowl filled with snow.”
When
Yunmen read Baling’s
questions and answers he was very pleased. He said to Baling,
“On the
anniversary of my death, simply recite these Three Turning Phrases.
That will
suffice to repay my kindness.”
Thus
was born the Three
Turning Phrases of Baling. Eventually, they were used as a vehicle for
transmission in the Yunmen school.
Not
much else is known about
Baling, except for his famous Three Turning Phrases. Besides always
carrying
about a tattered bowing-mat he was very talkative and was often chided
for his
big mouth by fellow monks and friends. There are several instances of
this in
encounters Baling had with the great Layman Pang.
In
Secrets of the Blue Cliff Record,
Hakuin says about the koan that
the answer to the monk’s question is contained in the
question itself.
A
monk asked Baling, “What
is the school of Kanadeva?”
So
with a little stretching,
the first word “What” could be taken to be the
beginning of a list of questions
which immediately can lead to a debate and thus, the teaching style of
Kanadeva.
And
so there may be a karmic
connection with Kanadeva. For Kanadeva was famous for entering into
highly
charged debates with non-Buddhists, who were of course called
“heretics.” He
usually won the debates. And being the winner he held up a red flag as
a sign
of his success. Then the losers converted Buddhism. It is said he had
many
followers—most of them losers.
And
then we have Baling’s
response to the monk’s question. It may be that his response
is an invitation
to the student to debate.
“Piling
up snow in a silver
bowl.”
As
you all know this phrase
comes from the initial verses of Dongshan Liangjie’s
“Song of the Jewel Mirror
Awareness” which we chant during Service.
The
teaching of thusness
Is
intimately communicated
By
Buddhas and ancestors;
Now
you have it,
So
keep it well.
Filling
a silver bowl with
snow,
Hiding
a heron in the
moonlight.
Dongshan
preceded Baling by
three generations. While we don’t have dates for Baling we
have dates for
Dongshan and Baling’s teacher, Yunmen. Dongshan died when
Yunmen was four years
old. And probably, his Jewel Mirror poem was quite well known.
I
have always thought that the snow in the
silver bowl, as well as the hidden heron in the moonlight, are symbols
for
emptiness. They are there and yet they are not there. Or they are not
there and
yet they are there. Like the self. The self is not the self and yet is
the
self. Both are true at the same time. Like the wave and the particle.
And they
are empty. And they are true because they are empty. And both being and
not
being is emptiness. Kirchner in the Kattoshu
biographical notes of Baling, tells us that the Kanadeva school
emphasized shunyata—or
emptiness and the teachings
of the Madhyamika school. And of course the father of Madhyamika is
Kanadeva’s
teacher, Nagarjuna.
The
fifteenth ancestor was
the Venerable Kanadeva. He had an audience with the Great Being,
Nagarjuna, in
the hope of becoming a follower. Nagarjuna knew he was a man of great
wisdom.
First, he sent his assistant for a bowl full of water and had it placed
before
him. The Venerable Kanadeva saw it and thrust a needle into the bowl of
water
and presented it to Nagarjuna. They met each other and joyfully
realized that
they were of like minds.
Keizan’s
Verse
A
needle fished up all the
ocean water;
Wherever
fierce dragons go,
it
is hard to conceal
themselves.
This
is from Case 16 of the Dentoroku.
And
all of this is packed in this seemingly
simple exchange between a student and Baling. Seemingly simple, but
this is probably
one of the more difficult koans in koan study and so I’ll
stop here.
A
monk asked Baling, “What
is the school of Kanadeva?”
Baling
said, “Piling up snow
in a silver bowl.”
[1] Chuimaojian: This is the name of a famous sword with a blade so sharp it could cut a hair blown against it. It symbolized the deep functioning of the Zen master in cutting off the delusions of the student.
[2] The Tipo school is the teaching of the fifteenth Indian Zen patriarch, Kanadeva; tipo is the Chinese transliteration. The school emphasized the shunyata, or emptiness, teachings of the Madhyamika school.