Pai Chang's Wild Ducks
Note: Please read the whole thing and it will make sense by the time you get to the end. And, no! This is not about Chinese food.
"Once, when Great Master Ma and Pai Chang were
walking together, they saw some wild ducks fly by.
The Great Master asked, "What is that?"
Chang said, "Wild ducks."
The Great Master said, "Where have they gone?"
Chang said, "They've flown away."
The Great Master then twisted Pai Chang's nose.
Chang cried out in pain.
The Great Master said, "When have they ever flown away?"."
- Case 53 of The Blue Cliff Record.
It is no wonder that Zen is not a very popular path. To many, I'm sure such stories makes it seem like a brutal path without compassion. It's easy to imagine, based on such stories, that every single student would be subject to such "abuse." In reality, such treatment would have been rare, measured out only to the student able to be awakened by such methods.
There is so much, on so many levels, that can be understood from this koan*. But, the first thing that must be understood about tackling a koan is that it is not a subject you study, but a story with which you become one. You cannot gain any realization if you try to intellectualize it. You must put yourself in the koan. Become Pai Chang, become the Great Master Ma Tsu, become the wild ducks, becoming the scene itself. By becoming one with the koan and abandoning thought, its meaning becomes clear.
In becoming one with the koan, you must also understand the objective. What are you trying to realize in all your activities? You are trying to realize your True Nature.
With this in mind, Ma Tsu deliberately begins the process of dualistic thinking in order to lead Pai Chang out of it. "What is that?", asks Ma Tsu, allowing his foot to first leave the stream and step onto the bank of duality. Pai Chang blindly follows, giving a dualistic answer, "Wild ducks.", and with that proves he understands this dualistic realm well.
Ma Tsu now gives Pai Chang a chance to prove he can re-enter the stream of Oneness, "Where have they gone?" Pai Chang responds by remaining on the proverbial river bank, failing to step into the stream, and consequently gives another dualistic answer, "They've flown away."
With this answer, Ma Tsu pulls Pai Chang into the stream with one painful twist of the nose. You see, think of the last time you experienced a sharp pain. Were you thinking of here or there, this or that, subject and object? No! If you smashed your finger, your first thought was not, "My finger hurts!" Instead, there is no thought in the first quick moments of pain. You are the pain, and the pain is you. There is no separation.
Likewise, under the primary aim of Zen (eg., realizing your true nature), there is only One being. Therefore, how can the ducks fly away from you? They can only fly away from you if you identify with this body, this particular set of thoughts and emotions, as who you are.
Ultimately, I am the "space" through which Pai Chang, Ma Tsu, and the wild ducks move and have their being, and none of them can move away or toward me. "When have they ever flown away?" No, nothing can fly away from me anymore than this pain can fly away and become separate from me.
- Ron Grimes
* A koan is a Zen story (some say riddle) meant to bring the student out of thinking mode and into realization mode. Each koan is meant to bring the student step-by-step along the path of deeper realizations and awakening.
"Once, when Great Master Ma and Pai Chang were
walking together, they saw some wild ducks fly by.
The Great Master asked, "What is that?"
Chang said, "Wild ducks."
The Great Master said, "Where have they gone?"
Chang said, "They've flown away."
The Great Master then twisted Pai Chang's nose.
Chang cried out in pain.
The Great Master said, "When have they ever flown away?"."
- Case 53 of The Blue Cliff Record.
It is no wonder that Zen is not a very popular path. To many, I'm sure such stories makes it seem like a brutal path without compassion. It's easy to imagine, based on such stories, that every single student would be subject to such "abuse." In reality, such treatment would have been rare, measured out only to the student able to be awakened by such methods.
There is so much, on so many levels, that can be understood from this koan*. But, the first thing that must be understood about tackling a koan is that it is not a subject you study, but a story with which you become one. You cannot gain any realization if you try to intellectualize it. You must put yourself in the koan. Become Pai Chang, become the Great Master Ma Tsu, become the wild ducks, becoming the scene itself. By becoming one with the koan and abandoning thought, its meaning becomes clear.
In becoming one with the koan, you must also understand the objective. What are you trying to realize in all your activities? You are trying to realize your True Nature.
With this in mind, Ma Tsu deliberately begins the process of dualistic thinking in order to lead Pai Chang out of it. "What is that?", asks Ma Tsu, allowing his foot to first leave the stream and step onto the bank of duality. Pai Chang blindly follows, giving a dualistic answer, "Wild ducks.", and with that proves he understands this dualistic realm well.
Ma Tsu now gives Pai Chang a chance to prove he can re-enter the stream of Oneness, "Where have they gone?" Pai Chang responds by remaining on the proverbial river bank, failing to step into the stream, and consequently gives another dualistic answer, "They've flown away."
With this answer, Ma Tsu pulls Pai Chang into the stream with one painful twist of the nose. You see, think of the last time you experienced a sharp pain. Were you thinking of here or there, this or that, subject and object? No! If you smashed your finger, your first thought was not, "My finger hurts!" Instead, there is no thought in the first quick moments of pain. You are the pain, and the pain is you. There is no separation.
Likewise, under the primary aim of Zen (eg., realizing your true nature), there is only One being. Therefore, how can the ducks fly away from you? They can only fly away from you if you identify with this body, this particular set of thoughts and emotions, as who you are.
Ultimately, I am the "space" through which Pai Chang, Ma Tsu, and the wild ducks move and have their being, and none of them can move away or toward me. "When have they ever flown away?" No, nothing can fly away from me anymore than this pain can fly away and become separate from me.
- Ron Grimes
* A koan is a Zen story (some say riddle) meant to bring the student out of thinking mode and into realization mode. Each koan is meant to bring the student step-by-step along the path of deeper realizations and awakening.