Reading koans is never easy, but that's not a reason to leave them alone. A koan I don't understand is an urge to go on with the practice, a sign there is more to investigate. So every day I read one of the one hundred wonderful dialogues in the Book of Serenity. Thomas Cleary has not only translated the cases and the poems by Hongzhi, but also the long commentaries by Wansong, a Chinese master from the thirteenth century. It is as if you are listening to a contemporaneous Zen master, explaining the Chinese metaphors we are not familiar with, drawing parallels to other cases, pointing out wrong ways of understanding, and encouraging his students (that means us) to do their best. In Zen there is much to study: Buddhism and sutras and talks by teachers of our own time. But for me there is nothing like these old dialogues, short, swift, without explaining, at the same time obscure and crystal-clear, saying the whole thing in one word.

Dialogue 15 Yangshan plants his hoe

Introduction
Knowing before speech is called silent discourse; spontaneous revelation without clarification is called hidden activity. Saluting in front of the gate, walking down the hallway - this has a reason. What about dancing in the garden or wagging the head out the back door?

Case Guishan asked Yangshan, "Where are you coming from?"
Yangshan said: "From the fields."
Guishan said, "How many people are there in the fields?"
Yangshan planted his hoe in the ground, slapped his hands and stood there.
Guishan said, "On South Mountain there are a lot of people cutting thatch."
Yangshan took up his hoe and went.

Book of Serenity, One Hundred Zen Dialogues, translated and introduced by Thomas Cleary, Shambala, Boston & London, 1998

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