Up a Boundless Tree with the “How -To” of Koan Study

Last updated on: October 19, 2010 at 9:09 am by Dosho Port

Up a Boundless Tree with the “How -To” of Koan Study 2010-10-19T09:09:00-06:00 Dosho Port

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While playing around like I like to do with the designated victim being Case 5 from the Gateless Barrier, “Up A Tree,” I found that Dogen has a whole, wild chapter on this koan.

Now I must have known that previously … but old age seems to be creeping up on what’s left of my mind so I found it to be a delightful surprise. The Nishijima and Cross translation is online here (then click volume 3 of Shobogenzo and go to #67). I’ve taken some liberties and smoothed it out a bit.

Anyway, in one of his first paragraphs Dogen gives clear instructions on how to work with a koan so in my excitement I zipped it off to the wonderful and inimitable Boundless Way teachers, Melissa Blacker, James Ford and David Rynick, asking them to comment.

And this they each have kindly done. Below I present a version of the koan, then the Dogen nugget, then Melissa, James, and David’s pithy reflections. I’ve taken the liberty of copy/pasting their bios from the Boundless Way site as an introduction to their comments. Click their names to go to their blogs.

Koan

Kyogen said, “Suppose someone is up in a tree, holding on to a branch by her teeth, her hands without a grip on a limb, her feet without a toehold on the trunk. Someone under the tree suddenly asks, “What was Bodhidharma’s intention in coming from the west?” Just at that moment, if she opens her mouth to answer she loses body and life. If she does not answer, she avoids the question. At such a moment, how would you reply?

Dogen
If we consider [this koan] by utilizing “not thinking” and “non-thinking” on our zafu, Old Kyōgen will naturally be present. Once we are sitting in the mountain-still state upon the same round cushion as Old Kyōgen, we will be able to understand this story in detail even before Kyōgen opens his mouth. Not only will we steal Old Kyōgen’s eyes and glimpse [the truth], drawing out Śākyamuni Buddha’s right Dharma-eye treasury, we will be able instantly to see through it.

Melissa Myozen Blacker is a Dharma successor to James Ford:

With most students I suggest that they take on shikantaza as their primary practice and then drop their koan into this “mountain-still state” — this spacious container, and just see what happens. Insight into the koan is allowed to arise naturally, and can be set aside until dokusan, where the mutual connection between teacher and student allows any insight to be expressed in some way, through demonstration or through words. If no insight has arisen on the cushion, I encourage curiosity about whatever is arising in connection with the koan, and this exploration in itself can lead to insight in the moment of the intimate encounter in dokusan.

James Ford is a Dharma successor in the Soto tradition from Jiyu Kennett Roshi and from the Soto reform Harada-Yasutani tradition from John Tarrant Roshi (and is fond of one-sentence paragraphs):

The sister speaks my mind.

Our practice is presence.

All of us begin by sitting and finding some moment of intimacy with this moment.

Some of us take on a koan. And the way we recommend into that koan is as Melissa describes.

There are some for whom the practice becomes the red hot ball Wumen describes. For us should that happen it most often happens in sesshin. We encourage finding the wide space, the large space, and let the koan rest there.

The “answer” arises naturally like a dandelion poking through concrete…

David Dayan Rynick is a Dharma successor to Zen Master George Bomun Bowman. Zen Master Bowman, in addition to being a Dharma successor to Zen Master Seung Sahn has trained extensively in the Japanese Rinzai tradition with Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi:

Dogen points to the lovely truth that we cannot “work on” koans, any more than we can “work on” the dharma. As we do our best to be intimate with life as it presents itself to us on and off the cushion, each koan can be an entry point into this very life itself. Not a story about some ancient student and teacher, not an intellectual puzzle, but rather a mysterious invitation into a liveliness of our own heart.

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