The Staff Turned Into a Dragon and Swallowed the Universe

Blue Cliff Record, Case 60
Yunmen's Staff Turns Into a Dragon

"Yúnmén Wényan (864–949 CE), (雲門文偃; Japanese: Ummon Bun'en; also known in English as "Unmon", "Ummon Daishi", "Ummon Zenji")

Introduction 

"Engo's Introduction:  Buddhas and sentient beings are not, by nature, different.  Mountains, rivers, and your own self are all just the same.  Why should they be separation and constitute two worlds?  Even if you are well versed in Zen koans and know how to deal with them, if you stop then everything is spoiled.  If you do not stop, the whole world will be dissolved, with not a particle of it left behind.  Now tell me, what does it mean to be well versed in Zen koans?  See the following.

MAIN SUBJECT:  Ummon held out his staff and said to the assembled monks, "The staff has transformed itself into a dragon and swallowed up the universe!  Where are the mountains, the rivers, and the great world?"
-  Two Zen Classics: Mumonkan and Hekiganroku, Translated by Katsuki Sekida, 1977, p.

Commentary on Yunmen's Staff Turns Into a Dragon by Mike Garofalo

Zen Koans:  Bibliography, Index, Links, Commentary, Information

The Blue Cliff Record.  Translated by Thomas Cleary and J. C. Cleary.  Foreword by Taizan Maezumi Roshi.  Boston, Shambhala, 2005.  Glossary, biographies, bibliography, 648 pages.  ISBN: 9781590302323.  Case 60, p. 341-346.  "Yun Men's Staff Turns Into a Dragon."

Way of the Staff


Setchō's Verse 
"The staff has swallowed up the universe?
Don't say peach blossoms float on the waters.
The fish that gets it tail singed
May fail to grasp the mist and clouds.
The ones that lie with gills exposed
Need not loose heart.
My verse is done.
But do you really hear me?
Only be carefree!  Stand unwavering!
Why so bewhildered?
Seventy-two blows are not enough
I want to give you a hundred and fifty.
Setchō descended from the rostrum waving his staff. The whole crowd ran away."
-  Two Zen Classics: Mumonkan and Hekiganroku, Translated by Katsuki Sekida, 1977, p.
 

"A monk asked Kenpo, "The one road of Nirvana leads into the ten quarters. But where does it begin?" 
Kenpo raised his staff and traced a horizontal line in the air and said, "Here."
Disappointed, the monk went to Yunmen and asked him the same question.
Ummon held up his staff and said, "This staff leaps up to the 33rd heaven and hits the presiding deity on the nose,
then it dives down into the Eastern Sea where it hits the holy carp.
The carp becomes a dragon which then brings a flood of rain." 
List of Koans by Yunmen Wenyan  

Yunmen said, "A true person of the Way can speak fire without burning his mouth.  He can speak all day with moving his lips and teeth or uttering a word.  The entire day he just wears his clothes and eats his food, but never comes in contact with a single grain of rice or thread of cloth.
When we speak in this fashion it is jut the manner of our school.  It must be set forth like this to be realized.  But if you meet a true patch-robed monk of our school and try to reveal the essence through words, it will be a waste of time and effort.  Even if you get some great understanding by means of a single word you are still just dozing."
-  Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings.  By Andy Ferguson, 2000, p. 262

 

 



Roshi Robert Baker Aitken
(1917-2010)
Roshi Aitken holds a ceremonial stick.