Azief remembered that story for some reason. Maybe it is his mind making the association with what he is thinking about and dug out that story.
When he first read it, the story of the fox is not what attract him. It is the reason why Huangbo slapped Baizhang face and why Baizhang laughed that made him wonder
He thought and thought and he reached his own conclusion about this matter.
This story is about exploration of cause and effect, as well as the nature of realization and liberation.
·ƈθm Baizhang response indicates that while practitioners may cultivate great devotion and spiritual practice, they should not disregard the consequences of their actions.
It emphasizes the importance of understanding and respecting the interconnectedness of all things, including cause and effect.
Huangbo slap is a non-conceptual action meant to awaken Baizhang to a deeper understanding.
Baizhang laughter and comment about Huangbo beard playfully highlight the limitations of conceptual thinking and the need for refinement in spiritual practice.
And so, he asked himself.
"Not falling into causation."
Why was he turned into a fox?
"Not ignoring causation."
Why was he released from the fox body? If you have an eye to see through this, then you will know that the former head of the monastery did enjoy his five hundred happy blessed lives as a fox.
Not falling, not ignoring:
Odd and even are on one die.
Not ignoring, not falling:
Hundreds and thousands of regrets
There is many interpretations of this koan.
This is Wumen poem, a monk that compile this story have about the koan
Wumen poem suggests that neither view of causality has an absolute monopoly on the truth.
There is an alternative translation of Wumen's Ode
Not falling, not darkening
Two colours, one game.
Not darkening, not falling
One thousand mistakes, ten thousand mistakes.
"Two colours, one game" refers literally to the "die" used in the Chinese game that had colours instead of numbered dots as in the die known to Europeans.
The image refers to the Zen view that there is an underlying oneness to the two colours of falling or not falling into cause and effect.
When one turns the light around and awakens to one's self-nature, "then opens the gate of the oneness of cause and effect".
for the ordinary person the two conflicting views of causality are between falling into cause and effect or not falling into cause and effect, because they dream of being free from cause and effect as being separate from cause and effect.
But when a person awakens to their true nature those who have awaken sees the oneness of cause and effect
therefore, that person does not "darken", "obscure", or "ignore" the functioning of cause and effect by imagining cause and effect are two separate things, that cause and effect is separate from one's natural nature.
`Not subject to causality.'
How can this answer cause five hundred rebirths as a fox?
`Not blind to causality.'
How can this emancipate a fox?
To understand clearly you have to have just one eye.
Then you will appreciate how that previous monk lived five hundred fox lives as five hundred lives of grace.
That previous monk that turned into the fox is the abbot of that temple and he turns into a fox because he answer the question 'Does a person who practices with great devotion still fall into cause and effect?'
And he answer 'No, such a person doesn't.'
`this mean that the answer Not subject to causality.'
This answer cause five hundred rebirths as a fox!
And then the fox asked the current Baizhang the same question
"Does a person who practices with great devotion still fall into cause and effect?"
Baizhang answer, "Don't ignore cause and effect."
`This means that the answer is not blind to causality. Or in other words do not ignore cause and effect'
This emancipate the fox
What about Huangbo?
Later on, he shows up and asks, suppose the old master, the fox had answered correctly, would he have saved himself the trouble of five hundred lives as a fox?
And then the current Abbot told Huangbo to come closer.
Before the abbot had a chance to slap Huangbo, Huangbo slaps the abbot.
This is Zen way of agreeing with each other.
Practice isn't about being right about doctrine, conforming to a set of ideas and values. There's nothing to understand or conform to in Zen.
All the Zen literature is actually quite simple anyway, and understanding it is no guarantee of anything.
If you like Zen you appreciate that some people understand, but understanding is not the point.
Living is the point.
Thus, awakened persons neither "fall into" nor do they "not fall into" cause and effect, because they are one with cause and effect.
And because they are one with cause and effect, they do not darken or ignore cause and effect.
Yet another and very different translation to the above two takes things more literally:
Controlled or not controlled?
The same die shows two faces.
Not controlled or controlled,
Both are a grievous error
This is a debated koan with different thought and different interpretation. And everyone who read it, have their own thoughts about this Zen story.
You could think that the old abbot becoming a fox, lives five hundred years more and that is a grace to live so long.
One could see it as a punishment and find that the five hundred years is a long time of punishment.
But Azief has his own interpretation. And he does not agree with this Zen story nor did he agree with the Way of the fox or the Way of the Abbot.
He did not follow this way. And his way is not of cause and effect
But his way does touch the way of cause and effect just like Hikigaya way touch the cause of effect of the world.
Hikigaya never told him what his Grand Path is.
But Azief could tell and Jean could tell. Anyone who have found their Grand Path and working to get there, all could tell
Turning illusion into reality, reality into illusion, subverting reality and the illusory, unveiling truth, transcending illusion.
This is his feeling of the path that Hikigaya had taken.
And that path surely would touch cause and effect.
The stronger they are, the more they are exposed to this kind of thing, of using the rules of the world and the laws that affect the fabric of reality
If he changes something, there is cause and effect. The more he uses it, the more cause and effect that would be burdened.
"Karma, Fate, Destiny….how could it not be touched?"
"One flower, one leaf, a stone on the road, the wind that blows, the infinitesimal atoms and particles that floated all over…..everything is connected"
"Remove a flower, remove a leaf, remove a stone, fate and destiny could be overturned and Karma is formed."
When Hikigaya turned something unreal into real, when he turned the illusory into reality, how could it create cause and effect.
"And he still did not realize he is in that state"
Hikigaya himself did not notice what is happening to him.
He did not notice that the space and time around him is being distorted and things around him turns illusory and some things sems to pop out from that distorted space.
Azief thought of his own enlightenment in the past, and maybe he is also like this.
And Hikigaya enlightenment also somehow made Azief ponder his own path.
He did not expect that as he talks with Hikigaya, their conversation veered from talking about the world affair to discussing the Grand Path
If this is in the Three Thousand World what he and Hikigaya is having right now could be considered a Dao Discussion.
This kind of discussion does not have to be long. Sometimes it could be short. There are times when one could preach for thousand of years and enlightened some beings
And sometimes, all it takes is one word to cut all confusion.
What is important is to yourself and your true nature. And whether you agree or not with your true nature or rebel against it, both are acceptable outcome.
Follow the Heavenly Way or rebel against it?
Be it subordinate, or be its protector or be its adversary…any answer is acceptable.
Just like life, you make a choice and you stick with it.
And the moment you did not stick with it, that Heart that Seeks the Path would crack and it began to crumble.
As Azief was thinking of this he suddenly sense that something is changing about Hikigaya and he look back at Hikigaya.
The aura that emanated out from him before now slowly being absorbed into his body
That aura seems to melded itself perfectly with Hikigaya but Hikigaya himself did not notice it.
Azief only smile seeing this.
This change is not a noticeable change. It is like a will. A desire. Some kind of force of the soul.
It refines the Heart that Seeks the Path.
In the Three Thousand Worlds, this would be called the Dao Heart.
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