Welcome to Case 3 in our Koan Reflections.
Before we begin Case 3,
We will reflect on Case 2.
Case 2,
Bodhidharma says,
Bring me your mind.
When he says this,
He's answering being with non-being.
He instantly elicits a sense of non-being.
Bring me your mind.
How could anyone bring them his mind?
In this moment,
One could experience a true sense of non-being and thus the opening for enlightenment.
Now we will begin Case 3 in our new method.
Our new method will allow us to hear the koan,
Pause,
Reflect as long as we want,
And then take time to reflect together.
Each koan will be put in one recording.
I will now read Case 3,
Then give opportunity to pause for as long as you like,
Reflect.
Remember,
These koans are meant for us to reflect.
Sometimes the koan's meaning comes to us over many hours or days or weeks.
So after we read the koan,
You can pause,
Choose to reflect as long as you want,
And resume and we'll reflect together.
Now from Yi Wu's Mind of Chinese Chan,
We'll read Case 3,
Seng Can's Confessing His Sin.
Seng Can said to Hui Ke,
I have rheumatism.
Please confess the sin for me.
Hui Ke replied,
Show me your sin and I will confess it for you.
After a long period of reflection,
Seng Can said,
I have looked for but I'm unable to find my sin.
Hui Ke replied,
I have thus finished confessing your sin,
But still you must rely on Buddha,
The Dharma,
And the Sangha.
Seng Can said,
Seeing you,
I know what the Sangha is,
But I am not clear about the Buddha and the Dharma.
Hui Ke replied,
This mind is the Buddha.
This mind is the Dharma.
They are not two.
The Sangha also is this mind.
Seng Can then said,
Today I know the nature of sin is neither inside nor outside,
Nor in between.
It is just like the mind that is not separate from the Buddha and the Dharma.
Seng Can understood the Buddhist philosophy that illness can be caused by past karma.
Therefore,
He asked for Hui Ke to confess his sin to help heal him of his rheumatism.
Hui Ke said,
Show me.
Show me your sin.
This was a moment where now Seng Can could see his actual sin,
His actual past karma.
Any mistakes he made,
Any time where he neglected his body or let his body fall out of harmony or did some harm to his body that caused such an illness,
It no longer is in this moment.
He cannot show him his sin.
Thus,
Hui Ke finished confessing the sin.
There was no sin to confess.
But he also anticipated the next question.
If there's no sin to confess,
Then why am I not healed?
That's when he stepped up with the comment,
You must rely on the Buddha,
The Dharma,
And the Sangha.
Through this discussion,
They realized the Buddha,
Dharma,
And Sangha are just this mind.
So using just this pure mind,
We can endure any illness.
We can make the most out of any past karma.
We can see ourselves,
Our karma,
Our life,
Any illness,
Any trouble at the highest level.
From this level,
We allow all past so-called sins that are no longer with us,
All past karma,
All past effects that we can no longer influence any longer,
We allow them to dissipate.
When we allow them to dissipate,
We allow all our murkiness to settle.
We allow our lives to become true.
We allow our minds to come through,
Our true minds to come through with no hindrance.
