
Ask the One Who Knows
· Dharma Discourses, Teachings · Fall 2017, Gateless Gate, Viewby Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Gateless Gate Case 47
Doushuai’s Three Barriers
Main Case
Master Doushuai made three barriers to test his students.
To inquire after the truth, groping your way through the underbrush, is
for the purpose of seeing your nature. Here, now, where is your nature,
Venerable Monk?
If you realize your own nature, you are certainly free from life and death.
When your eyes are closed, how can you be free from life and death?
If you are free from life and death, you know where you will go. When the
four elements are decomposed, where do you go?
Commentary
If you can rightly give the three turning words here, you will be the master wherever you may be, and live up to the Dharma no matter how varied the circumstances. If, however, you are unable to give them, I warn you, you will get tired of the food you have bolted, and well-chewed food keeps hunger away.
Verse
This one instant, as it is, is an infinite number of kalpas
An infinite number of kalpas are at the same time this one instant.
If you see into this fact,
The True Self which is seeing has been seen into.
If you’re free from life and death you know where you will go. When the four elements are decomposed, where do you go? This is the question that human beings have likely been asking since the beginning of our creation. Having a life force, what happens when we die? In death, where do we go?
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