Yunmen Wenyan

Post Reply
User avatar
bokki
Posts: 344
Joined: Tue Nov 07, 2017 11:45 pm

Yunmen Wenyan

Post by bokki »

I hope this is the right place for my question.
Yunmen is , was, will, be..one of the most important moments in chan/zen history...
Why are his words not used, explained, understood, and so on..
Would you please say, if you will, something about him, or anything you would about Yunmen?
Thank You
bokki
User avatar
KeithA
Posts: 680
Joined: Tue May 24, 2011 11:02 pm

Re: Yunmen Wenyan

Post by KeithA »

Everyday is a good day!
Hi Bokki. :smile:
When walking, standing, sitting, lying down, speaking,
being silent, moving, being still.
At all times, in all places, without interruption - what is this?
One mind is infinite kalpas.

New Haven Zen Center
User avatar
Astus
Former staff member
Posts: 8881
Joined: Tue Feb 23, 2010 11:22 pm
Location: Budapest

Re: Yunmen Wenyan

Post by Astus »

pokii wrote: Wed Nov 08, 2017 8:49 pmYunmen is , was, will, be..one of the most important moments in chan/zen history...
How so?
Why are his words not used, explained, understood, and so on..
Shenxiu and Shenhui were verifiably important historical teachers, however, their teachings were abandoned and forgotten almost completely in a few hundred years.

"in the course of the future there will be monks who won't listen when discourses that are words of the Tathagata — deep, deep in their meaning, transcendent, connected with emptiness — are being recited. They won't lend ear, won't set their hearts on knowing them, won't regard these teachings as worth grasping or mastering. But they will listen when discourses that are literary works — the works of poets, elegant in sound, elegant in rhetoric, the work of outsiders, words of disciples — are recited. They will lend ear and set their hearts on knowing them. They will regard these teachings as worth grasping & mastering."
(Ani Sutta)
Would you please say, if you will, something about him, or anything you would about Yunmen?
If one examines this thoroughly, it’s stone-dead.
1 Myriad dharmas are only mind.
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?

2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.

3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.

4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.


1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
Meido
Posts: 671
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2011 2:50 am
Contact:

Re: Yunmen Wenyan

Post by Meido »

pokii wrote: Wed Nov 08, 2017 8:49 pm Why are his words not used, explained, understood, and so on..
Wondering why you say this?

To start, Ummon features in 20-something koan in Hekiganroku and Mumonkan alone, meaning that in Rinzai practice at least his words and their function are rather intimately examined.

~ Meido
Matylda
Posts: 1057
Joined: Mon May 14, 2012 3:32 pm

Re: Yunmen Wenyan

Post by Matylda »

Meido wrote: Thu Nov 09, 2017 6:03 pm
pokii wrote: Wed Nov 08, 2017 8:49 pm Why are his words not used, explained, understood, and so on..
Wondering why you say this?

To start, Ummon features in 20-something koan in Hekiganroku and Mumonkan alone, meaning that in Rinzai practice at least his words and their function are rather intimately examined.

~ Meido
In opus magnum of soto zen - Shobogenzo - Unmon is mentioned in many places as well.
zengarten
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Nov 20, 2017 12:10 pm
Location: Thailand
Contact:

Re: Yunmen Wenyan

Post by zengarten »

Zen Master Yunmen: His Life and Essential Sayings, translated by Urs App, is said to re-appear at Shambala in May 2018. It's a great read. Yunmen is more than the Ummon we know from the koan collections, he is a giant.
Post Reply

Return to “Rinzai”