Whisk

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

Last night, my son and his fiancé came over for dinner at Mokusho Dharma Center. The condo has been transformed. It is the temporary housing of Mokusho, but is nonetheless, a practice center inside and out.

He picked up my fly whisk (hossu) and set it on his head asking if it helped. I served him Dr. Brown’s Cream Soda and he returned the whisk to its place on the altar.

My hossu was offered to me by my Master, Rev. Hogaku-roshi, at my Dharma Transmission ceremony. I have kept it close, but rarely pick it up, preferring instead the small, well worn, teaching kyosaku of Rev. Dr. Soyu Matsuoka-roshi, my Dharma Grandfather. They are each the same yet different.

Master Dogen cites as his very first koan, the case of Qingyuan’s Whisk. “Where are you from?”
“Caoxi” (the place where Hui Neng taught).
Qingyuan held up his hossu, “Do they have this in Caoxi?”

What is being held up? It is just a stick with horse hair? Is it just a sliver of wood, sanded smooth?
Zen question, always: “”what’s this?!”
Zen answer always, to quote Master Seung Sahn, “Open mouth, big mistake!”
Later in the Case, the master says, “It’s not that I mind saying something, but I fear it will be misunderstood later.” On this point, Master Daido argues this master should be hit.
While silence is thunder, inaction in the face of need, is a grave error: no need to go somewhere to find something. The truth we need is within us always.

Be well.