Master Dong - "In Front of a Donkey - Behind A Horse..."

[Shi Da Dao]

One of the first instructions Richard Hunn gave to me was that the Linji (Rinzai) Ch'an School in China did NOT sit fixated on a particular gongan (koan) for hours on end - and the Caodong (Soto) Ch'an School in China did not sit in quiescent extinction. Once these common misunderstandings were dispelled and squared away - the genuine training began. The Caodong engages in the most vigorous of Dharma-Combat (verbal and behavioural) designed to reveal the empty mind ground (host) and clearly distinguish it from the mundanity of the material world (guest). This includes the weaponisation of the use of 'silence' (Vimalakirti) in response to nonsense. The Linji can sit for hours in extended meditation - just as the Caodong can engage in all types of dialectical exchanges and interactions in the material!

The master asked a monk: 'What is your name?' The monk replied that he was so-and-so. The master asked: 'Who is the owner of the Venerable Friend?' The monk replied: 'He is seen when replying to your question.' The master said: 'Alas! Alas! Nowadays, everybody is like this and mistakes for his Self all that is in front of a donkey and behind a horse. This is why the Buddha Dharma is in decline. How can one who does not know the host within the guest understand the host within the host?' Thereupon the monk asked: 'What is the host within the host?' The master replied: 'To say what you just did is easy but it is very difficult to continue talking (about the host within host).' Thereupon, the master chanted the following gatha:

Nowadays, alas, of those who follow Tao
Tens of thousands only recognize the gate,
Like one going to the capital for an imperial audience
But stopping on arrival at the T'ung Kuan Pass.

Note (by Charles Luk):

The master's method of interpreting the absolute was more strict than those prevailing at the time.

He did not accept the monk's interpretation of the owner or self who was replying to his question, for the act of answering was 'guest' only.

Donkeys and horses rarely stand still, and all that is seen in front of a donkey and behind a horse is but changing phenomena.

The master meant that people did not understand the unchanging and mistook the changing for the real.

Host within guest is the real within the seeming and host within host is the real within the real, or the absolute, the seeming having been completely wiped-out. Here the master made a minute analysis of the absolute.

Charles Luk: Ch'an and Zen Teaching - Second Series - Lu K'uan Yu, Rider, (1987), Page 142, Footnote 2