seventh world of chan buddhism - Zen Buddhist Order of Hsu Yun

The control we require is limited to these ordinary and quite pedestrian challenges.
There is a story about the Buddha who once, while waiting for a ferry, was challenged by
another guru's servant. "My master," bragged the servant, "could have crossed this river
alone. He trained himself for many years until he acquired the power to walk on water." The
Buddha looked at the penny fare he held in his hand. "Why," he asked, "would he expend so
much effort in acquiring something he could purchase so cheaply?"
Peace, joy and freedom are powers available to anyone who dedicates himself to his
Chan practice... peace despite peril, joy despite loss, freedom despite the most wretched
constraints.
In other popular forms of Buddhism, the attitude of the man of Chan who found
himself hanging over the edge of a cliff would have been different. The man would likely
have experienced concern for his past deeds and his next life. He would have damned the
tiger as an evil agent of Mara. The contemplation of a strawberry's sensory pleasure would
have seemed, at such a critical moment, rather indecent. Not so in Chan. If the last nice
thing between us and destruction is a strawberry, so be it. We are then obliged to deal in
sweetness.
This attitude did not originate in Mahayana Buddhism. It is pure Chan in that it is
derived directly from Daoism. In John Wu and Thomas Merton's excellent translation of
Zhuang Zi (Chuang Tzu) we find:
"The man through whom the Dao flows freely harms no one but never thinks of
himself as gentle. The man through whom the Dao flows freely doesn't worry about the
future but never criticizes others who do. He's not ambitious to make money but doesn't
make a virtue of being poor. He goes his way without depending on others but doesn't take
pride in being independent. Fame and wealth don't tempt him and he shrugs off insults and
rude treatment. Above all, he never makes judgments about what is good and what is evil.
According to ancient wisdom, `The man of Dao is transparent. Perfect virtue leaves no
residue. The greatest man is Nobody.'"
Perhaps Chan's most revealing glimpse of the attitude of sainthood is found in
Japanese Zen's charming story of the monk Tozan Osho, a version of which is found in
Katsuki Sekida's "Zen Training":
The Buddhist monk Tozan Osho was so kind and selfless that his holy ways brought
him great fame, a fame which spread to heaven, itself. God, hearing of this gentle monk,
grew curious and decided to come to earth to have a look at him. But when God arrived at
Tozan Osho's monastery He discovered that the monk, being so unstained by ego, was made
of the same pure Mind substance as Himself! And, as the eye cannot see itself, God could
not see Tozan Osho! Not wishing to have come such a distance for nothing, God formed a
plan. He waited until nightfall and while the monk slept, He entered the granary, removed a
bushel of rice and scattered it all over the courtyard. Then He waited. In the morning when
CHAPTER 17 RIGHT MINDFULNESS
S EVENTH W ORLD O F C HAN B UDDHISM
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