The Fireplace Records Case #58
Mt. Adams Emerges in the West
"Master Yellow-Bitterroot Mountain asked me,
'What is the meaning of Old Pahto emerging in the West?'
I lifted my cane and placed it in my mouth, saying nothing.
Later, zany Zen liar that I am, I wrote:
"No minds, no dharmas. No-mind, much Dharma."
Zen Koans: The Fireplace Records
Koans by Mike Garofalo
Subject Index to 1,975 Zen Buddhist Koans
Meetings with Master Chang San-Feng
Mount Adams, Old Pahto, Washington
The Fireplace Records Case #57
Shifu Miao Zhang Takes a Walk
Toju Zenchu brandished his staff before Daoist
Shifu Miao Zhang and challenged him "Miao
Zhang, speak and you get whacked with Nanten's
staff. Do not speak and you still get whacked with
Nanten's staff." Shifu Zhang stood up quickly,
lifted his cane strongly in defense, and quietly
said, "Yunmen's shit stick stinks and Nanten's
staff is cracked! I am leaving now to take my
evening walk. Goodbye."
Zen Koans: The Fireplace Records
Koans by Mike Garofalo
Subject Index to 1,975 Zen Buddhist Koans
The Fireplace Records Case #56
Cutting Through the Wind
Mayoku walked around his old Daoist friend,
Shifu Miao Zhang, three times and then thumped
his staff on the ground. Miao Zhang stood up,
walked around Mayoku once, tapped his cane three
times on the wall, and said "The power of the wind
can topple trees and is gone by morning. My cane
can cut through the wind."
Zen Koans: The Fireplace Records
Koans by Mike Garofalo
Subject Index to 1,975 Zen Buddhist Koans
The Fireplace Records Case #55
Wittgenstein Supposedly Said
suppose somebody says
suppose one wanted to ask
people will say
you may answer
someone says to me
you may say
suppose it were asked
one might ask
it will be said
suppose he might say
subjunctive mood swings
no one would say
there is a tendency
when do we say
we are inclined to say
Look at it this way
Compare it to this and not to that
More pictures, fewer muddles
Contrast with something similar
Change your point of view
Zen Koans: The Fireplace Records
Koans by Mike Garofalo
Subject Index to 1,975 Zen Buddhist Koans
Fireplace Records Case #54
Become a Stronger Swimmer
If one sees me in forms,
If one seeks me in sounds,
He practices a misleading way.
He cannot see the essence of creeds:
All conditioned creeds
are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, shadows,
like dew drops and a lightning flash:
contemplate them thus.
Creeds and doctrines are like a raft
to carry one to the other shore,
and then to relinquish.
Neither cling to the raft forever,
or reject it when drowning.
Even better,
become a stronger swimmer.
Zen Koans: The Fireplace Records
Koans by Mike Garofalo
Subject Index to 1,975 Zen Buddhist Koans
Fireplace Records Case #53
Thou Are Not That
"You are That."
i am not That,
but part of That am i
and i a bit of That,
for the time-being
for awhile, for a lifetime,
while That changes.
"That Thou Art."
Thou are not That,
except "That" as understood
as idea, as assumed, as imagined;
as i
think i am, believe i am, wish i was;
while That changes what i am,
or will be
"That" is elusive, expanding to
the edge of the Big Everything,
at either end of the inside of infinity...
that is the way that That is.
Not like this piece of popcorn on the tip of my tongue.
Zen Koans: The Fireplace Records
Koans by Mike Garofalo
Subject Index to 1,975 Zen Buddhist Koans
Fireplace Records Case #52
The Case of the Fly in the Kitchen
You say that the world is everything
that is the case.
What would it be like
if it were not?
What's not the case? Plenty! Case Closed!
When nothing the case?
Seems a mistake.
Like a reductio ad absurdum clam bake,
When nobody came,
early or late.
Or it's not the case that the world
is everything that is the case.
What? Strange? A fly buzzing in a bottle.
That "Fish fly to Seattle" is not the case
still tells us something about the world we make.
Or is it that not everything
in the world is the case.
That suggestion
that's learning towards truth
in some comforting familiar manner
Appeals to my communal action words, and
My idiosyncratic individual voice in time.
Was it:
Was it the case once in the past or not?
Is it now the case or not?
Will it ever be the case or not?
Was everything ever the case? Ever?
We enjoyed those playful games:
wrestling with hypothetical cases,
find the imaginary treasure chest,
watching the film detective solve the case,
Until they broke the lock on her case.
a case
the case
one case
many cases
Closed Case
Zen Koans: The Fireplace Records
Koans by Mike Garofalo
Subject Index to 1,975 Zen Buddhist Koans
The Fireplace Records, Chapter 50
What is the Meaning of Mu?
What is the Meaning of Mu?
"What is the meaning of Mu?"
Asked the perplexed monk.
Master Duksan slapped the monk!
"Stop asking vague questions.
Go write a poem about a pond."
Wake Up! Live Right!
Make your philosophy
Insightful poetry.
Speak beautifully,
Think creatively.
---Master Duksan,
a pond, or the pond---?"
He dared to think.
Imagined or real?
He did not speak.
Zen Koans: The Fireplace Records
Koans by Mike Garofalo
Subject Index to 1,975 Zen Buddhist Koans
The Blue Cliff Record 100 Koans
(Pi Yen Lu, Hekiganroku) BCR
The Blue Cliff Record Koan Collection (BCR)
100 Cases of Brief Koans, Stories, Spiritual Encounters, Wisdom Tales, Sermons, Dialogues, Extensive Commentary
Compiled, copied, and shared by Chan Master Xuedou Zhongxian (980-1052 CE). Commentary by Engo.
Indexed by Michael P. Garofalo.
Subject Index for the Blue Cliff Record 100 Koans Collection (BCR). PDF, Second Draft, 8/11/2023, 29 pages.
Alphabetical List of the Blue Cliff Record (BCR) 100 Koans Collection Cases. PDF, Second Draft, 8/11/2023, 4 pages.
List of Cases by Case Numbers in the Blue Cliff Record (BCR) Koan Collection. PDF, Second Draft, 8/11/2023, 4 pages.
Subject Index to 1,975 Zen Buddhist Koans
Zen Buddhist Koans and Information:
https://www.egreenway.com/buddhism/koansdup1.htm
The Fireplace Records, Chapter 48
Ungraspable Mind and Time
An old woman salesperson asked a knowledgeable scholar-monk, an expert in the Diamond Cutter Sutra, about some verses in that Sutra.
"I heard a statement from the Diamond Sutra that "the past mind is ungraspable, the present mind is ungraspable, and the future mind is ungraspable." Please tell me what this means. What Mind knows this?"
The monk paused, became a little uncomfortable, could not immediately frame an good answer, and said to the woman: "I don't have a good answer to your questions. What is your understanding?"
The woman then said, "I don't understand, you don't understand,. Maybe nobody can understand the ungraspable aspects of Mind. Anyway, would you like to purchase some rice cakes?"
The monk laughed and purchased some rice cakes. He smiled as he grasped his staff and started walking to a new Temple library. On the way, he tried to grasp the meaning of the ungraspable nature of Mind. His thoughts held him in constant reiterations and ruminations on time and mind. His stubbornness and diligence held him tightly to the problematic issue of "the past mind is ungraspable, the present mind is ungraspable, and the future mind is ungraspable." He could not release his grasp on these profound and disturbing ideas.
He finally gave up and let go of these ideas. He realized that "grasping" is only a conventional metaphor for understanding something, a figure of speech, a bunch of words, a stretch of the imagination. He gave up his research on the Diamond Cutter Sutra, gave all his books and manuscripts to the Temple library, and left for the mountains on a long retreat.
The Student's Considerations
We can grasp and effectively use the basic ideas of past, present, and future.
Maybe what is called "Mind" is a debatable topic and imprecise.
Let Go! Loosen your grasp! Demonstrate some detachment!
An expert acknowledges that there are subjects he does not fully understand.
"Time" and time are important topics in all philosopher's theories.
Maybe the Diamond Sutra's claims are false, incorrect, faulty, or shaky.
It is hard to grasp things with shaky hands and trembling minds.
Maybe the mind is ungraspable - so what! It still often works well for us.
What practical consequences arise from an "ungraspable mind" to provide meaningfulness?
Don't worry too much about grasping borderline problems.
Everything pivots on the Present - a tiny slice of Reality.
The Past Mind is more graspable than the Present Mind.
Is the "ungraspable mind" a meaningless intellectual diversion.
If you think too much, the fatigue may cause errors or mis-directions of one's thoughts and reasoning.
Indeed the mind cannot be grasped, unlike grasping a peach or a rock or a book or a staff or a rice cake, or your knee.
A brain is graspable, a mind is not graspable.
Sutras are NOT contemporary science or psychology.
Even the wisest persons can sometimes be humbled by ordinary people.
Asking a question is NOT making a statement or asserting a proposition.
Attach to Nothing! Don't hold on tightly to verbal formulas.
Time is the movement of things; we invented past, present, and future states.
Opening A Mountain: Koans of the Zen Masters. By Steven Heine. 60 Koans: Te-shan and the Woman Selling Rice Cakes p. 94
The Whole World is a Single Flower. By Seung Shan. Case 9.
Slices of Time
The Arrows of Time
never rest,
moving forward unrelenting
irreversible
from hot towards cold
from organized to disorganized
from past to future
from moving towards stillness
from life towards death.
Or,
so it seems,
to us,
with our little particulars,
with our homebrew views,
with our social habits a must.
The Spiderwebs of Time
are legion
multitudes of nows and thens;
Uncountable heres and theres
unhitched
from any eternal present
everywhere.
The Moments of Time
are a matrix of memories,
colored by fondness,
vaguer and vaguer by the day,
fading, cropped, mixed,
deleted, falling away.
The Times of Your Life
from birth to death,
can't be denied.
How did you live?
Where, when, why?
What did it mean?
Was a little a lie?
running out of time
for catching up
with the future
now
my mind grinds
my times
into memories
To dance at the still point
Of the Time beyond time,
Beyond pasts, within futures,
this Moment
Now and forever, beyond minds.
- M.P.G.
Hands, Grasping, Holding, Fingers, Touch
Subject Index to 1,965 Zen Buddhist Koans (PDF, 587 pages)
Caught on the Edges of the West: Highway 101
Poetry - Bibliography, Links, Resources, Guides
Uncle Mike's Cellphone Poetry Series
Meetings with Taoist Master Chang San-Feng
Shifu Miao Zhang Points the Way
The Fireplace Records, Chapter 47
Shoveling Up some Dharma
Caught on the Edges of the West: Highway 101
Shoveling Up Some Dharma
Mixing up with water a 60 pound bag of Redi-Mix cement, by hand, using a flat metal mixing bin, water hose, a flat-nosed shovel, and shoveling work efforts by me. We used the mixed concrete slush, "Mud", shovel by shovel full of "Mud" over and and over. The hand shoveled batch of concrete slush, carefully wetted for various building constrution projects, created over and over.
Repeated practice can improve one's skills, reduce workoad, and give to us the real life body-mind experences of working,
ways of being-in-the-world, when making things, producing things, doing things.
This sort of workday construction shoveling efforts for eight hours of work a day,
five days a week;
just think about it,
sink your analytical and feeling sharp teeth
into the feeling memories of when mixing concrete.
I never worked that hard.
[The back of my mind
was bounced around and hurt.]
My father bough two acres of a hillside property, with a clear wide view of the San Gabriel Valley, California, in 1957, in Hacienda Heights, He lived and worked there at "the ranch" for forty years from 1957-1997. In 1997 my dad died at age 82, of complications from congestive heart failure, old age, diabetes, and strokes.
In the 1960's I would do 8 to 12 hours of construction work at the ranch each week, attend Catholic High School, play high school team sports, and later attend college and work at the City of Commerce Public Library.
The land was in the Hacienda Heights, Puente Hills,
Turnbull Canyon, North Whittier Heights;
and Colima Road - Highway 30 Regions;
From Rolling Springs on High at the junction with the Angeles Crest Highway
south to Huntington Beach low tide,
85 miles, up to down, Snow to Surf, a scenic ride.
I'd take a bus from Hacienda Heights on Colima Road 30,
through the many southern cities,
Orange County Newer,
and ending at the Seashore at Huntington Beach CA.
I had cousins living in the Stanton suburban rectangles.
We lived within 25 miles of the Pacific Ocean at Huntington Beach.
I would walk a lot,
having all-weather awakenings.
Joining our summertime emblems:
kites and flapping canvas tens,
keeping wind and sand at bay;
Less clothing, showing more human flesh
and shape, feeling open in the sun;
Wet with Sea surf, boogie boarding or body surfing,
a cool satisfied wet body-mind,
seventeen and strong
[eighty now and fading on.]
Sitting huddled around a San Clemente State Beach campfire,
on a dark winter night, exploring youtful enjoyments.
Standing on wet piers, looking at the waves rocking below,
up and down, back and forth, steadily to the shore,
On some lost late autumn morning
long ago in the San Clemente Pier in a parking lot,
people sorting pier fishing gear, bait, food, drink, raingear, chairs ...
The Pacific, always calling, draws the fishermen nearer.
The jetties drew me, the Bays and harbors drew me,
the hard relentless winter strorm seas smashing
into the Bandon Oregon Sea Stacks and rocky cliffs
all drew me, inticiced me, startled me, the rivers drew me;
seeing the tide lines that mark at the shore,
living with these fluctuations, dying with these fluctuations,
doomed yet divine;
drawn to the Pacific, clinging to the Pacific
a lifeline, a sturdy vine, a factual mind
a poem, just hanging on, on a fisherman's line, sometimes rhymed.
1,000 Collaged Images of the Golden Gate Bridge in my brain.
Rolling in and out, past roadway signs
[Highway 101 at Port Angeles, Aberdeen, Astoria, Newport, Brookings,
Eureka, Redwoods, Santa Paula, San Francisco, San Jose,
Salinas, Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Pedro, San Diego .]
Sitting now on a rocky cliff at Bandon. Below us are massive sea stacks
splattered with surf spray as huge waves come smashing into rock.
Powerful sights and sounds never forgotten.
The Fireplace Records, Chapter 45
Dancing with the Dao
In a short lecture by Alan Watts, titled "Walking on the Wheel," he contrasts those who favor listening to music with those who favor dancing to music. Both are enjoyable, beneficial, pleasurable, and healthy.
Some Christians and Platonic disciplinarians are disdainful of music, dancing, plays, jokes, games of chance, literature, etc. They contend that such arts corrupt the soul, lead one into vice, overindulge the senses, are sinful, encourage laziness, and take us away from the contemplation of the Divine. Secular pleasures are rejected, puritan attitudes prevail, and contempt for worldly pastimes are demanded.
My wife told me her Church of Christ fundamentalist parents would not allow any Christmas celebrations, not allow her to go to movies or dances, favored only church hymns, would not allow any musical instruments in church services, and condemned secular cultural pastimes. Probably, Islamic parents do the same these days.
Most people ignore the ascetic and disciplinary path to salvation and to the magical after-life. They enjoy both listening to music, playing music, and dancing to a variety of musical types.
A person with a more passive, quiet, contemplative nature enjoys relaxing and listening to music. They settle into stillness and auditory indulgence. These folks also might favor silent still meditation, standing meditation, yin yoga, and Qi Gong practices.
I enjoy dancing, tai chi chuan, and walking while listening to music. I enjoy playing the harmonica. Doing and making with my body-mind has provided me with a lifetime of pleasures and enjoyment.
Comments, Sources, Observations, Koans, Poems, Quips:
Dance, laugh, sing, and smile your way to vibrant health.
The Dao enjoys Dancing.
636 Riddles, Jokes, Witticisms, Humor
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, Chapter 43
Warmed by the Kitchen Fire
The Ladies gathered around the kitchen hearth. They were in a happy mood, laughing, smiling, working together. They were all making cookies and goodies for the holiday celebration. The kitchen smelled of wheat flour, butter, fruits, sugar, spices, and warm people. The children and men congregated nearby, sharing the warmth of the kitchen fire.
It was cold and damp outside, with little patches of melting snow covering the fallen late autumn leaves. Doors and windows were closed tight to prevent heat from escaping and cold air from seeping into the kitchen. Cozy was the watchword.
This family scene had been repeated for twenty centuries in farming communities. Sharing food. Sharing cooking. Sharing companionship. Sharing warmth. Sharing peace and good will. Sharing the home.
A man brought in some extra firewood from the storage area under a roof cover alongside the house. A couple of the other men smoked pipes and sipped whiskey. All smiled. All laughed. All were content. All were secure.
Read about the significance and history of fireplaces, stoves, hearths, kitchens, campfires, survival, warmth, etc. I constantly look for quotations about this topic as part of my research for the Fireplace Records.
Campfires Smoking
I sit by my simple yurt by the sea,
and light a campfire at dawn,
against the cold,
and just be.
Sitka Spruce Forest
all around—
smoking campfire
on cold wet ground.
Do the pines daydream?
feeding logs
into the campfire flames.
Splitting dry kindling,
damp December day—
wind chimes tinkling.
Wet pine logs—
campfire smoke
in our eyes
Gathered around
the campfire's light—
very chilly night.
Crackling campfire
pops and sparks—
keeping ghosts away
Campfire embers,
fading reds—
time for bed.
Comments, Sources, Observations, Koans, Poems, Quips:
Fire in the our bellies move us forward.
The fire in his eyes showed his determination.
The team was fired up.
Air, Earth, Fire, and Water.
Our sun is an immense ball of fire.
Without firewood we die.
They all shivered beside the campground fire.
How many sides has a campfire ring?
The inside and the outside.
History of Fireplaces, Campfires, Stoves
Who Gathers and Chops Firewood for the Cook's Kitchen
727 Riddles, Jokes, Witticisms, Puns, Humor
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
History of Fireplaces, Campfires, Stoves
The Fireplace Records, Chapter 42
The Decaying Tree
The smell of the sea hugged the fog in the redwood trees,
All cool and dank, dimly lit and rank with green,
And in shadowed limbs the Stellar jays jabbered free,
And me, standing silently, an alien in this enchanted scene.
From behind the mossy grey stumps
the sounds of footsteps crunching fronds of ferns
caught my suddenly wary mind ...
What?
"Hello, old friend," said Chang San Feng.
"Master Chang, what a surprise," said I.
Master Chang sat on a stump, smiled, and said,
"Can you hear the Blue Dragon singing in the decaying tree;
Or is it the White Tiger roaring in the wilderness of your bright white skull?
No matter! The answer is in the questioning; don't you Chan men see?
In the red ball flesh of this decaying tree
Sapless woody shards of centuries of seasons
Nourish the new roots of mindfulness sprouting.
Yes, Yes, but how can it be?
The up-surging waves of life sprout forth from the decaying tree,
As sure as sunrise rolling over the deep black sea.
Coming, coming, endlessly coming; waves of Chi.
Tan Qian's raven roosts for 10,000 moons
in the withered branches of the rotting tree;
then, one day, the weathered tree falls,
nobody hearing, soundlessly crashing
on the forest floor, on some unknown noon.
Over and over, over and over, life bringing death, death bringing life,
Beyond even the miraculous memories of an old Xian like me;
Watching, watching, sequestered from the strife,
Turning my soul away sometimes because I cannot bear to see.
Even minds may die, but Mind is always free
Bounding beyond, beyond, far beyond you and me;
Somehow finding the Possibility Keys
And unlocking the Door out of the Voids of Eternities."
Master Chang somehow, someway,
slowly disappeared into the red brown heart of the decaying tree.
Then the squawk of the jay
opened my mind's eye to the new day -
Namaste."
- Michael P. Garofalo
Remembering Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, California
April 27, 2012
Comments, Sources, Observations, Koans, Poems, Quips:
Dead things help produce life.
Don't underestimate the power of Nature.
Mysteries upon mysteries upon mysteries.
Dragons appear and disappear.
Ravens roosting in the boughs of trees for centuries.
636 Riddles, Jokes, Witticisms, Humor
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 (TFR) Indexes
The Fireplace Records: Index of Chapter Titles. Links to the Cloud Hands Blog Posts. By Michael P. Garofalo. 40 Chapters as of 11/10/2023.
Cloud Hands Blog Posts of the Fireplace Records. The Cloud Hands Blog posts of The Fireplace Records include illustrations, photographs, book covers, paintings, links to resources, reading suggestions, comments, capping verses, notes, asides, and a Google Translate drop-down menu. By Michael P. Garofalo.
Subject Index to 40 Chapters of The Fireplace Records. November 10, 2023. PDF, 14 pages.
Numerical Order List of 40 Chapters from The Fireplace Records. November 10, 2023. PDF, 2 pages.
Alphabetical Chapter Title List of 40 Chapters from The Fireplace Records. November 10, 2023. PDF, 2 pages.
Subject Index to 1,975 Zen Buddhist Koans
Keys to Collections of BSL/Koans Databases
Fireplaces, Kitchens, Stoves, Campfires, Ovens, Pots, Kettles, Wood, BBQ
Literary reflections and flashes of insight around the fireplace
Compiled by Michael P. Garofalo
Quotations: Light, Sun, Fire, Sunshine, Heat, Vision Shadows, Shade, Flames
Michael P. Garofalo
Cloud Hands Blog
Biography
