Case 15 - Yun-Men’s Upside-Down Statement
In
a previous talk I spoke about Case 14 of the Blue
Cliff Record. I will focus on Case
15 in this talk. I will use both the translations of Thomas Cleary and
J. C.
Cleary, The Blue Cliff Record, as
well as Katsuki Sekida, in his book Two
Zen Classics Mumonkan & Hekiganroku.
I
am going to follow an outline of study that I sometimes
use to work with koans. The outline has seven sections.
1.
The Case. This is what
would be quoted in daisan.
2.
Analysis and understanding.
3.
Key Word
4.
Rewrite of the case in my
own words
5.
Teaching of the case
6.
A poem that presents or
expresses my understanding of
the
teaching of the case.
7.
The Presentation in daisan.
1.
The Case
(Cleary
translation)
A
monk asked Yun Men,
"When it's not the present intellect, and it's not the present
phenomena,
what is it?"
Yun
Men said, "An upside-down statement."
(Sekida
translation)
A
monk asked Ummon, "What is it when no thought is stirring and nothing
presents itself?"
Unman
said, "No preaching
on Oneness."
2.
Analysis and understanding
The
punch-lines of both translations of this koan are:
“No preaching on Oneness,” and “an
upside-down event,” leads me to my own
rendition: Yunmen’s answer and meaning is
“ass-backwards.”
3.
So the Key Word of this koan is “Ass-backwards.”
An
ass-backwards situation is a state of disorder,
confusion, chaos; with the ass in front rather than behind (pardon the
pun),
the top down and the bottom up; upside-down. The question, as usual in
koan
study is whether the response of the Master is a response to the
question or a
comment about the questioner. Is the answer to the monk's question
contained in
the response "ass-backwards?" Or, is the response a description of
the monk and his question, as well as an answer to the question? What is ass-backwards
about the monk's
question? What is ass-backwards in this koan? Confused, bottom up,
upside down?
When I think in these terms I am reminded of several other cases and
stories.
The first is in the koan "Nan-ch'uan Kills the Cat," case 14 of the Wumenkuan. I am thinking of Chao-chou's
response to Nan-ch'uan's recounting of the events of that day which
resulted in
the killing of the cat. Not saying a word, Chao-chou removes the
sandals from
his feet, places them on his head and leaves the room. Ass-backwards.
Placing that which belongs on the feet on the head.
I think this act of Chao-chou screams that everything about the
situation
between the monks of the eastern and western halls, as well as
Nan-ch'uan
himself, was crazy, in a state of disorder, chaos, confusion,
topsy-turvy,
ass-backwards.
There’s
the famous story in the Shurangama Sutra
of Yajñadatta. Yajñadatta was a very vain man, a
prince. He was always looking at himself in a mirror. He had mirrors in
every
room of his castle. And he had an irresistible need to look into one to
see
himself whenever he saw a mirror. Probably, somebody who was fed up
with
Yajñadatta decided to play a trick on him, and had all the
mirrors painted
black so that they did not reflect. Next morning when
Yajñadatta woke up and as
usual, first thing, he went to the mirror near his bed. He looked and
saw
nothing. There was no reflection. There was no head. This startled him.
So he
raced to another room to another mirror. No head there! He went from
room to
room, mirror to mirror. In each mirror there was no head. He became
frantic.
Crazed. He believed he lost his head. He wailed and screamed like a
madman that
he had lost his head. Finally his servants grabbed him and tied him to
a post.
Then one of them slapped Yajñadatta on the face. And
Yajñadatta realized that
he still had a head. He never lost it.
Then
the great encounter in Canto twenty-eight of the Inferno
of Dante. Gustave Doré made a
most moving etching of this scene between Dante and Bertrand de Born,
who stood
on a hilltop holding his head in his hand, waving it like a lantern and
speaking of his painful suffering through the lips of his detached
head.
Bertrand de Born created discord between members of the same family. He
turned
son against father, separating them. For this, his own head was severed
from
his body in Hell.
The
headless theme, reminds me of the famous Legend
of Sleepy Hollow by Washington
Irving. Ichabod Crane, the schoolteacher is pursued by a headless
horseman, who
sees, and is able to unerringly ride his horse in the night, chasing
Ichabod,
and scaring the hell out of him.
Jesus
says he came not to bring peace but a sword. That
he's come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her
mother, a
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And that one's enemies would
be
members of one's own household. In other sections Jesus speaks of those
who
have eyes and do not see and ears and do not hear.
And he speak of slaves ruling their masters,
and of the last being first and the first being last.
When
we find similar themes in very different traditions
we realize we are dealing with an archetype. And in this koan it's
clear to me
that we are dealing with the archetypes of reversal and displacement.
What is the
great displacement in this koan? What is the great reversal in this
koan? What
is ass-backwards?
Let's
look again as the monk's question. If it's not the
present intellect, mind, dharma, form, emptiness, relative,
absolute—what is
it?
What
is it? It
is a metaphor for the present intellect, mind, dharma, form, emptiness,
relative, absolute, no thought stirring, and nothing presenting itself.
And the
monk is claiming that It is none of
these things. So what's left? What is left when all else is stripped
away?
Everything, including the dualism of form and emptiness, relative and
absolute,
mind and dharma. Everything needs to go. Everything needs to be
stripped away
in order to find It. And then what
does one find?
When
we get to this point we step into the heart of the
unknown abyss of the koan. Now we leave behind our explications, our
analysis,
our metaphors, our relatives and absolutes, comparisons, and
intellectual
understanding. Now we step into the archetype to experience the
reversal and
displacement of the koan.
4.
Rewrite
·
A
monk asked Yun-men, "If it's not mind
or dharma, what is it?"
Yun-men
said,
"Ass-backwards."
·
A
monk asked Yun-men, "If it's not form
or emptiness, then what is it?"
Yun-men
said,
"Ass-backwards."
·
A
monk asked Yun-men, "If it's not
relative or absolute, then what is it?"
Yun-men
said,
"Ass-backwards."
5.
Teaching
Clear
our beings of all concepts: mind, dharma, form,
emptiness, relative, absolute, thoughts, intellect,
phenomena-everything.
That's
It!
That’s
It?
What’s
That?
What’s
It?
6.
Two Poems
No
place to go
No
place to leave
No
place to hide
No
place
No
Something
Take
away nothing
Equals
something
Something
Take
away something
Equals
nothing
Nothing
Take
away something
Equals
Ass-backwards
Nothing
Take
away nothing
7.
Presentation.
Now
that we have explored this koan, how would you
present it in daisan?
A
monk asked Yun Men,
"When it's not the present intellect, and it's not the present
phenomena,
what is it?"
Yun
Men said, "An upside-down statement."
A
monk
asked Ummon, "What is it when no thought is stirring and nothing
presents
itself?"