Category: truth

Gateless Gate 8: What-Next Invents Cartwheel

Hoop Old Cart Broken Round Woodworm

[Explanation: For over 20 years my spiritual practice has been Zen meditation. I am currently a member of Boundless Way Temple, Worcester, MA. I study koans under the instruction of David Rynick, Roshi. “Koan” comes from the ancient Chinese practice of law and simply means “case,” as in the record of a legal proceeding that points to the truth of the matter at hand. Koans are statements of proceedings usually in a monastery context, that point to truth. Another one of David’s students and I have taken up the practice of writing verses in response to some of the koans we study. My dharma name is “Setsusho.” Below is the koan. Following that is “Setsusho’s” response!]

Case

Master Moon-Shrine Mountain asked the monks: “When What-Next invented the cartwheel, it had a hundred spokes. But what if hub and rim are broken off, spokes scattered away–do you understand the bright clarity of what it could do then?”

Setsusho’s verse

Deaf monk hears with eyes

Sparkling ripples slapping the raft

As he and Huck and Jim

Light out for the territories

Setsusho’s Verse: Gateless Gate #6: “World Honored One Twirls a Flower”

[Explanation: For over 20 years my spiritual practice has been Zen meditation. I am currently a member of Boundless Way Temple, Worcester, MA. I study koans under the instruction of David Rynick, Roshi. Another one of David’s students and I have taken up the practice of writing verses in response to some of the koans we study. My dharma name is “Setsusho.” Below is the koan. Following that is “Setsusho’s” response!]

6: WORLD-HONORED HELD FLOWER

Long ago on Spirit-Vulture Peak, Shākyamuni Buddha, the World-Honored One, held a flower up and revealed it to the sangha. Everyone sat in shadowy silence. Then Mahākāshyapa’s face broke into the faintest smile. The World-Honored-One said: “I possess the perfect dharma of the eye’s treasure-house, the nirvana of mind’s mysterious depths, the true form of formlessness, the subtle mystery of the dharma-gate. Not relying on words and texts, outside teaching and beyond doctrine—I here entrust all that to Mahākāshyapa.”

Hinton, David. No-Gate Gateway (p. 18). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.

Setsusho’s Verse
Ant crawls across IKEA carpet where a sleepy monk sits.

Amarylis blooms like juice squirting from peeled orange.

Monk, ant, amarylis.

This truth never fails.