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From Blue Cliff Record 55: Daowu’s “I Won’t Say”

One day Daowu, accompanied by his disciple Jianyuan went to visit a family in which a funeral was to take place, in order to express sympathy.
Jianyuan touched the coffin and said, “Tell me, please, is this life or is this death?”
Daowu said, “I don’t say life; I don’t say death.”

Blue Cliff Record 55

On February 5th, 2022 I put up an entry after learning earlier in the week that one of our teachers, a flawed but influential person, and a Buddhist by his own account, had passed. Since then we’ve learned, grown, shrank, grown again, changed, along with my own understanding of the past. I felt that entry also deserved to change.

Daowu won’t say life and won’t say death.

On death, life and self, from the Sayings of Buddha (Peter Pauper Press,1957):

Some say that the self endures after death, some say it perishes. Both are wrong…(pg. 10) … as the sun’s power through a burning-glass causes fire to appear, so through the cognizance born of sense and object, the mind originates and with it the ego, the thought of self…. The shoot springs from the seed; the seed is not the shoot; both are not one and the same, but successive phases in a continuous growth. (pg. 11)

….

Life is instantaneous and living is dying. Just as the chariot wheel in rolling rolls only at one point of the tire, and in resting rests at one point; in the same way, the life of a living being lasts only for the period of one thought. (pg. 16)

Sayings of Buddha,

This old translation, presumably the words of Buddha, came into English through a winding path, according to the book’s introduction. Here’s the explanation: “The narrative of [Buddha’s] life has as its principal source the Sanskrit stories of the monk Asvaghosha, which were translated into Chinese in 420 A.D. and from Chinese into English by Samuel Beale in the Eighteenth Century. The present text is derived chiefly from The Gospel of Buddha, a compilation by Paul Carus from many source-books of Buddhist teachings, including Beale.” (Forward 1,2)

So here we have the words of a legendary teacher (Buddha), as recorded by another legendary poet and teacher (Asvaghosha), translated into the Chinese by an unnamed person–likely also a teacher, possibly someone like the Bodhidharma–and these texts are translated into English by another teacher and scholar, Beale. If you Google “the Sayings of Buddha,” interestingly enough, the author is listed simply as Buddha.

Who knows who said what with a history like that? And yet, the teachings of Buddha are found in many cultures and have been translated many times over. These teachings and philosophies form a kind of conversation between generations and cultures. So if you read Daowu’s words next to those of the Buddha, you can see how the one teacher has influenced the other.

And the Blue Cliff Record, which presumably records Daowu’s words and actions, is itself, a bedrock of Zen Buddhism. What about it? Another torturous history. Legendary teacher, Bodhidharma, is credited with bringing Chan Buddhism, the precursor or Zen, from India to China. Some trace his lineage to Buddha. Well and good. According to the Wikipedia page, the Blue Cliff Record is derived from lectures on Buddhism written by a monk, Yuanwu Keqin, an adherent of Chan Buddhism. He collected and wrote koans to instruct students during summer retreats between 1111 and 1117 in Hunan. Yuanwu used as his source another collection of koans collected by the poet Xuedou Chongxian . Their words together made up the Blue Cliff Record.

According to legend, Yuanwu’s successor, Dahui Zonggao, became convinced that the work led too many students astray, so he burned it, or rather, burned the blocks used to create copies and several copies.

So the Blue Cliff Record was seemingly lost or in pieces, until it was later reconstituted by Zhang Mingyuan. His actions were controversial: his child’s illness was interpreted as a bad omen, given his endeavor to revive the Blue Cliff Record (same Wikipedian entry). However, with some encouragement, he persisted.

Dogen Zenji, the founder of the Soto School of Zen, is credited with bringing the reconstituted Blue Cliff Record from China to Japan. (also Wikipedia, linked.)

We deal with sacred texts like we deal with memories: we return again and again to them, sometimes fighting them, sometimes lovingly treasuring them, sometimes erasing them, sometimes reconstituting them. For better or worse, sacred texts are the words of the past reaching into our present.

What to do with such ghosts?

I missed posting last week. Over last weekend, I did start a draft for a longer post on how my karate practice has helped me with my professional life in visual effects. However, it got lengthy, is incomplete, and also needs revisions. I hope to complete it, get a friend’s eyes on it, and eventually get it up.

For now, though, I want to write about what our karate club studied this past week, and bring this blog up to date. What did we do? We reviewed the basics!

Using Basic Kata to Improve Technique

Often we have Sensei R. on Tuesday evenings, but this past week, we did not have him. The Club did not raise as much as we needed in January. We did have an angel donor who put in more than usual, and Sensei R. also taught a week pro bono. However, we want to pay for his services, and not take advantage of his kindness. This month we planned to have him teach less. Also, he is focused on a performance: his one-man show, and we want to give him space for this.

Senpai N. covered Tuesday evening. After running kihon, she asked folks which kata they needed to review, and one of our green belts requested Pinan Sono Go. It had been a while since we’d run it, so it was great to review. Senpai N. ran through it, attempted to answer questions, and Sensei T. covered some of the finer points.

Mix it Up with Weapons

Likewise Friday evening, Senpai SL, our resident weapons expert, used simple combinations, followed by basic kata, for his katana class. First he had students name simple katana moves that they remembered, such as a basic downward slash, or an upper-cut. He chose 3 attacks and had us perform these as a combination while stepping forward or stepping backwards. Then he chose 3 blocks with the katana, created a similar combination, and has us practice until we got that down. Finally, towards the end of class, we substituted the katana attacks for punches and the katana blocks for blocks in Pinan Sono Ichi. It was a lot of fun and a great way to review and use a basic kata.

Focus on Clean, Clear Moves and Hone Techniques

On Saturday, Senpai CF, one of our youngest junior shodans, led class. After asking one of our green belts to lead the warm-up, he had several students lead kihon and led parts himself. Afterwards, he went over Pinan Sono Ni. It had been so long since we had practiced that kata! I personally benefitted from reviewing it, and the class did as well. Senpai F., monitor that morning, noted we all needed to work on our hikite hand. Also, blocks performed in kata are normally two-handed. I realized I needed to focus on clearly articulating both hands during my blocks for Pinan Sono Ni.

Sensei T. reviewed some of the bunkai associated with Pinan Sono Ni. Sensei. R had recommended and excellent book on bunkai for the Pinans: Steven Chriscole’s Okinawan Shuri-te. Here is his ad for his book:

In the book, Mr. Chriscole talks about how many of the Pinans were focused on techniques used when facing basically weapons based on 19th Century technology: rifles with bayonets, as well as sabres, katana or knives. Sensei T. touched on how some of the techniques are codes for techniques to basically wrestle a weapon from an opponent, then deliver an attack.

The book refers to the Hinans, which is the Shotokan name for what we, in Kyokushin, refer to as the Pinans. However, our karate, and our Pinans, grew out of Shotokan. Our founder, Oyama, studied Shotokan for two years in Gichin Funakoshi‘s dojo.

Always More There than Meets the Eye

Reviewing the basics is a great way to clean up your technique. Sensei R. would often have us run all of the Pinans, reminding us to step before punching, to improve balance and give more power to our punches, focus on two-handed techniques for blocks, and remember our hikite hands while punching. For kicking, we make sure our foot position is proper, and try to kick higher and faster. Sensei M, while practicing both the kin-geri and ashiro-geri kicks, encouraged us to pull back our striking foot faster than we put it out.

Reviewing the basics is a great way to improve your karate practice.