The Fireplace Records, Chapter 36
My Original Face: Before and After
I was mulling over the famous Koan from the Sixth Patriarch, Hui-Neng, "What was your original face before you were born?" This question appears in many Zen Koans.
The Mind Door that opened and closed between the inside of After Awakening and the outside of Before Awakening, hung on the hinges of efforts and insights. The Gate swung open and closed, mostly closed but sometimes open, as daily life offered opportunities. Being unborn or reborn swung on the hinges of opportunities with Others.
The terms "inside and outside,' or 'before and after,' were flexible, relative, ambiguous, often changing meaning, tools, open, moving, freely applied.
Before I was born, my original face was six-fold--- the faces of my parents and four grandparents.
Before I was born, my original face was a thousand-fold--- the faces of all my previous Karmic lives for kalpas of time.
Before I was born, my original face was embedded inside invisible DNA strands.
Before I was born, my original face was in water and I was only fleeting feelings.
Before I was born, some say, I had no original face--- I was nothing.
Before I was born, the Redwood tree supported the fog.
Before I was born, some say, I had the same face as my eternal soul.
Before I was reborn, my face was the same face as the dead still-born baby on the table of the morgue.
Before I was reborn, I never thought about or remembered what my original face appeared as.
Before I was reborn, I worried about the appearance of my face, and disliked my acne.
Before I was reborn, I was chained in a dark cave, hidden from the true Forms, awaiting release and the light. Only Plato's face was my face.
Before I was reborn, water flowed uphill, and smoke stayed on the ground.
Before I was reborn, a mother said “Face” and her baby pointed to his ear.
After I was born, my face was reflected four-fold in the distorting mirrors of a San Francisco amusement park.
After I was born, my original face was big, round, homely, with all parts intact--- a loved infant's face.
After I was born, my primary face once had two black eyes and a broken nose from a fist fight in Bandini, East LA.
After I was born, my face changed every decade, and my original face disappeared. My Primary Face remained the same.
After I was born, I was blind and never saw my face, only felt it.
After I was born, my head's shadow disappeared at night.
After I was born, my bearded face appeared in a dusty mirror.
After I was reborn, I looked more at the faces of others.
After I was reborn, I recognized many subtle hidden faces, including my own.
After I was reborn, an Original Face appeared to me immediately, but I did not recognize it.
After I was reborn, I paused trying to answer Koan Riddles and laughed at all the clever answers.
Comments, Sources, Observations, Koans, Poems, Quips:
Original Face Koans: GB 23, ENT 2, WWSF 177, ENT 156, ENT 229, DDJ 19, DSE 22,
Refer to my Cloud Hands Blog Posts on the topic of Koans/Stories.
Subject Index to 1,975 Zen Buddhist Koans
Zen Buddhist Koans: Indexes, Bibliography, Commentary, Information
Pulling Onions Over 1,043 One-line Sayings, Quips, Maxims, Humor
Chinese Chan Buddhist and Taoist Stories and Koans
The Fireplace Records (Blog Version) By Michael P. Garofalo
The Fireplace Records (Text Version)
By Anat Baniel. New York, Harmony Books, 2009. Index, bibliography, 306 pages. ISBN: 9780307395290. VSCL. 