The Core
The Shoyoroku Case 31: Yunmen's Open Pillar is a koan in which Yunmen Wenyan asks, "The ancient Buddha and the open pillar intersect. Which level of function is this?", and when no one in the assembly can answer, he answers his own question, saying, "Clouds rise on the Southern Mountain; rain falls on the Northern Mountain." Usually, people say that it means "the state of absolute non-duality and oneness of subject and object, where the separation between subject and object disappears." However, in this dictionary, we define it as a practical lesson: "abandoning calculation of levels or stages through discrimination, and based on the fact that the highest Buddha and the object before your eyes resonate as one from the beginning, the true Way exists right inside becoming completely one with the objective world or environment before your eyes and working together with no-mind."
Q&A
- Q: Why does this koan combine these two extremes: "the highest Buddha (the ancient Buddha)" and "a simple building column (the open pillar)"?
- A: Because it is to break human self-centered assumptions and dualistic thinking, such as "the Buddha is special, while objects and the environment are targets to be controlled," and to clearly present the fact that all existences act on each other equally as one from the beginning.
