A student asked Yunmen, “What is the pure and everlasting body of reality?”
Yunmen said, “A fence of flowers and healing herbs.”
The student asked, “What’s it like when I reach there?”
Yunmen said, “Golden haired lion!”
Another time when Yunmen was asked a similar question, his reply was “dried shitstick.” Reminds me of Zhaozhou’s response to a similar question, which was, “Oak tree in the garden.” That’s what the pure and everlasting body of reality looks like, sounds like, acts like. That the image of a golden haired lion is used in reference to the intertwined nature of the real and the provisional, emptiness and form, is interesting, but I doubt Yunmen had that in mind when he said it. I doubt he had anything in mind when he said it.
I receive an inordinate number of videos featuring people hugging, being hugged by, rolling around with and generally being amazingly intimate with big lions, tigers, and all manner of big cat. I love seeing them and wish I could have a big cat with which I could to do that, too.
What if Yunmen felt that way, and saw the student who asked the question as a golden haired lion that he wanted to roll around with? The verse to the case would appear to be not so kind, to either Yunmen or the student:
A fence of flowers and healing herbs. Don’t look so stupid!
The pointer is on the scale arm, not on the measuring pan.
“…When one goes on that way…” —What a foolish thing to say! A golden-haired lion. Everybody look!
Indeed, everybody look! Here are a couple of ways that a golden haired lion can look.
—David Weinstein, August 6th, 2024
David Weinstein Roshi, Director of Rockridge Meditation Community
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