The Inexpressible Dharma Gushing Forth
"Even though your throat, lips, and mouth are sealed shut, how will you speak?”" - Baizhang
We are into a summer series of posts here on The Sutra That Explains the Profound Meaning (aka, Samdhinirmocana Sutra; below referred to as “the sutra”). In addition, our Sunday talks will be all about the nature of mind, unpacking Chapter 5: “The Questions of Viśālamati” that addresses what Tenshin Anderson Roshi calls the "psychological dimension.”
Paid subscribers are welcome to attend our Sunday talks about the nature of mind. This next Sunday, June 28, Kokyo Henkel Osho, a successor of Tenshin Roshi, will speak and engage with the Vine community.
Our posts here on Ghost will provide some of the background on the basis (i.e., the ultimate), in order to clarify the path work for which clear understanding of the nature of mind is essential. In the previous post, we summarized the teaching from the dialogue between two great Bodhisattvas, One Who Asks in Accord with Principle and One Who Explains the Thought That is the Profound Meaning, regarding the conditioned and the unconditioned. We concluded the last post with this:
This expresses the importance of the inexpressible reality (i.e., the inexpressible nature of phenomena) for awakening and supporting others on the path of realization. And clearly there are a lot of words being expressed here, so what is the meaning of “inexpressible?”
Enter the koan tradition. It turns out that koans have a lot to say about this point. For our present inquiry, we’ll play with great master Báizhàng's (720-814) question that he regularly used to test his students: “Even though your throat, lips, and mouth are sealed shut, how will you speak?”
In other words, when you realize the inexpressible ultimate and perfectly shut up, how will you express it? And we’ll bring the post home with more from Deshan (782-865), Danxia (1064-1117), and Dogen (1200-1253).
