A piece of shit!

[James]

First of all , I want to say
the topic is just a simile .
I apologize if it seems
to be offensive !
But , however this is a
True story or " Koan "
which has similarity with
the EBTs sutta below .

There was a " chan " monk
(or what most people familiar
as zen monk) in China named
Fo Yin and a famous poet
called Su Dong Bo. Both of
them meet quite often. And
sometimes get together to
discuss about dhamma .
One day , it happens both
of them meet again and
decided to do a sitting
meditation or za zen .
After some times lapse,
the poet ask the monk ,
what do you think of me
in this sitting posture ?
The monk answered :
You look like a Buddha !
The poet were very happy ,
and then the monk asking
back to the poet , what about
you , what do you think I
look like in this posture ?
The poet was happy to
answer and insulted
him by saying :
You look like a piece of shit !
So, when the poet returned
to his home and telling
his sister about the incident ,
and feeling satisfied thinking
about his " triumph " over
the monk , his sister told
him that you are not
" winning " at all !
Because the monk had
a pure mind , that’s why
his mind is a Buddha mind !
But , your mind is a shit mind !

Akkosa Sutta: Insult

Once the Blessed One was staying at Rajagaha in the Bamboo Grove near the Squirrels’ Feeding Place. Now the brahman Akkosa Bharadvaja heard this: “The brahman Bharadvaja, it seems, has become a monk under the Great Monk Gotama.” Angry and unhappy, he went to where the Blessed One was. Having approached the Blessed One, he abused and criticized the Blessed One in foul and harsh words. Thus reviled, the Blessed One spoke to the brahman Akkosa Bharadvaja: 'Well, brahman, do friends, confidants, relatives, kinsmen and guests visit you?"

“Yes, Gotama, sometimes friends, confidants, relatives, kinsmen and guests do visit me.”

“Well, brahman, do you not offer them snacks or food or tidbits?”

“Yes, Gotama, sometimes I do offer them snacks or food or tidbits.”

“But if, brahman, they do not accept it, who gets it?”

“If Gotama, they do not accept it, I get it back.”

"Even so, brahman, you are abusing us who do not abuse, you are angry with us who do not get angry, you are quarreling with us who do not quarrel. All this of yours we don’t accept. You alone, brahman, get it back; all this, brahman, belongs to you.

“When, brahman, one abuses back when abused, repays anger in kind, and quarrels back when quarreled with, this is called, brahman, associating with each other and exchanging mutually. This association and mutual exchange we do not engage in. Therefore you alone, brahman, get it back; all this, brahman, belongs to you.”

[santa100]

Not only Su DongBo was one of China’s great poets but he was also an avid student of Buddhist teachings. He’d come across as being too dumb and vulgar for saying such thing in that story. There’s a different story that makes more sense for it seems to fit the characters better:

Su Dongpo was one of the great Chinese poets who lived about a thousand years ago, in the Song dynasty.
Su Dongpo was an avid student of Buddhist teachings, and often discussed them with his good friend, the Zen master Foyin. The two lived across the river from one another - Su Dongpo’s residence on the north side and Foyin’s Gold Mountain Temple on the south side.
One day, Su Dongpo felt inspired and wrote the following poem:

I bow my head to the heaven within heaven,
Hairline rays illuminating the universe.
The “Eight Winds” cannot move me,
Sitting still upon the purple golden lotus.

Impressed by himself, Su Dongpo dispatched a servant to hand-carry this poem to Foyin. He felt certain that his friend would be just as impressed.

When Foyin read the poem, he immediately saw that it was both a tribute to the Buddha and a declaration of spiritual refinement. The “Eight Winds” in the poem referred to praise, ridicule, honor, disgrace, gain, loss, pleasure and misery - interpersonal forces of the material world that drove and influenced the hearts of men. Su Dongpo was saying that he had attained a higher level of spirituality, where these forces no longer affected him.

Smiling, the Zen master wrote: “Stinky Fart” on the manuscript and had it returned to Su Dongpo.
Su Dongpo had been expecting compliments and a seal of approval, so he was shocked when he saw what the Zen master had written. He hit the roof: “How dare he insult me like this? Why that lousy old monk! He’s got a lot of explaining to do!”.

Full of indignation, Su Dongpo ordered a boat to ferry him to the other shore as quickly as possible. Once there, he jumped off and charged into the temple. He wanted to find Foyin and demand an apology.
He found Foyin’s door closed. On the door was a piece of paper, with the following two lines:

The Eight Winds cannot move me
One fart blows me across the river!

This stopped Su Dongpo cold. Foyin had anticipated this hotheaded visit. Su Dongpo’s anger suddenly drained away as he understood his friend’s meaning. If he really was a man of spiritual refinement, completely unaffected by the eight winds, then how could he be so easily provoked?

With a few strokes of the pen and minimal effort, Foyin showed that Su Dongpo was in fact not as spiritually advanced as he claimed to be. Ashamed but wiser, Su Dongpo departed quietly.

This event proved to be a turning point in Su Dongpo’s spiritual development. From that point on, he became a man of humility, and not merely someone who boasted of possessing the virtue.

Extra comment: this shows that sometimes when the conditions are right, it’d only take a few words or few verse (like those cases in the suttas) to effect a significant change in the student, far more effective than reading or memorizing all the suttas.

[Timothy]

[James]

Bravo , marvelous story !