Blue Cliff Record, Case 21
A monk asked Chih Men, “How is it when the lotus flower has not yet emerged from the water?”
Chih Men said, “A Lotus flower.”
The monk said, “What about after it has emerged from the water?”
Men said, “Lotus leaves.”
Reflections
This is a koan of transformation. A koan of birth and death. This is a koan of before and after. This koan is similar, but not quite, to the koan, “Show me the face you had before your parents were born.” Or, “What is that plant before it has risen from the earth?”
Chi Men may say a rose is a rose.
But what is the rose before it has emerged from the ground?
What is “before?”
What is “after?”
What is before pregnancy?
Before your father’s seed joined your mother’ egg?
Where were you?
Where are you?
Is there such a thing as tense?
What face did you have before your parents were born?
What is Chih Men saying? What is his teaching? And why is the transformation of this koan going backwards? Obviously, before the lotus emerges from the sea of water it is not a flower, it is a leaf. Before the rose emerges it is a seed, a root, a vine, a leaf, and then the rose emerges—then it is a flower.
How does the lotus emerge from the water?
And is a flower?
What is Chih Men telling us?
Is there a difference between before and after?
Is this the nub of this koan?
What is the absolute in this koan?
What is the relative?
Is the absolute before or after?
Is the relative before or after?
It would seem that before emerging we are in the realm of the absolute and after emerging we enter the realm of the relative. If this is so, how can we become enlightened in the realm of the relative? But Shakyamuni was enlightened in the realm of the relative and thunderously declared,
All sentient beings are enlightened together with me—here and now!
Is there indeed a difference between “before” and “after?”
Is there a before before?
Is there an after after?
Is there an after before?
Is there a before after?
Is the face I had before my parents were born the same face facing you now?
How is that possible?
I am a mishmash of particles of Cleopatra, of Julius Caesar, of Leonardo da Vinci, of the Marquis de Sade, of Adolf Hitler, of Hammurabi, of Moses, Shakyamuni Buddha, Saint Francis of Assisi, Jack the Ripper, of the terrorists who smashed the planes into the World Trade Center. How can there be a before and after? Where is before and after if I am all of these?
I contain the particles of all humanity. You contain the particles of all humanity. You and you and you. Each of you. All of you. Together, one body. One mixed-up, broken, suffering, joyful, hateful, sorrowful, enthusiastic, loving, lousy, wonderful body. One body.
Is there before and after?
What is this koan telling us?
What is the teaching of this koan?
Were the old-sourpuss Buddhas wrong?
About birth and death?
Is there birth and death?
Is there a birth before death.
A death, before birth?
Or are birth and death the same?
Or is what we see as birth and death, or what we think we see as birth and death, a flow of creation, like the flow of a river, emerging, moving in and out, flowing past the rocks and rapids, the tossed beer cans, the soda bottles, the refuse and sewage?
Are we standing by the river?
Are we standing in the river?
Are we the river? The water? The rocks? The beer cans? The sand?
The fish? The current?
Maybe even a lotus flower?
***
A monk asked Chih Men, “How is it when the lotus flower has not yet emerged from the water?”
Chih Men said, “A Lotus flower.”
The monk said, “What about after it has emerged from the water?”
Men said, “Lotus leaves.”
