Water doesn’t wash water,
Gold isn’t changed for gold.
Find a horse without knowing its color,
Enjoy the lute without the strings.
Typing knots, drawing trigrams, when there are such things,
Completely lost is the true pure mind of original man.
Welcome back to our investigation of Koans, sometimes called Koan Study. This time we study Fayan’s Boat or Land from the Book of Serenity.
We can make no assumptions when investigating a koan. To assume is to miss. With that in mind, we enter into Boat or Land.
Water doesn’t wash water and gold isn’t changed for gold, is a discussion on the eye’s impossibility of seeing itself. This is like saying don’t go searching for things, accept things as they occur. Don’t look for your eye, that’s impossible, instead see with it.
Entering into the sense world, we investigate the next two lines. To find a horse without knowing it’s color is to be blind. It’s speaking of finding by seeing and feeling. Enjoy a lute without strings, is to hear the sounds, rather than the notes.
By tying knots and drawing trigrams, there is thinking about ‘something’. By formalising and setting something down, reality is removed. The trigram is Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. To draw them would be to limit them.
And it’s this kind of limiting that is the lose of the state of pure mind, that which is our original face, that which is before our limitation.
The beauty of Koan study, is that when a koan is really investigated, things open up. For me, I found this arising whilst studying the Koan. “To see the painting is to miss the picture. To see the picture is to see the painting.”
As always with Koans, I’d love your interpretation of the Koan. It is only with many points of view that we investigate the truth.
Koan Linked Haiku
Boat or land? After struggling with this Koan for ten years or so, I came to the realization that the sound of water is the most important part. Alexander, how long will you analyze this knot of Gordian? With time, the salt water washes all our footprints away. Nothing left to do but have fun splashing in the water.
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Water doesn’t wash water,
Gold isn’t changed for gold.
One cannot purify oneself because you already are what you are.
@Jerry; Wow, Bingo. Thanks for that. I love being reminded about what I already know but forget.
Gassho,
Wade
And yet koans are.
And knots help to hold.
“Find a horse without knowing it’s colour” reminds me of the tale of the man being struck by a poisonous arrow and wanting to know who shot it, what tribe he’s from, etc. You don’t need to know the colour of a horse to find one. The colour is not the horse, nor the horse the colour.
@Evan, Koans help undo the knots
@Ray, fantastic story and simile. Thank you.
May all beings be peaceful.
Gassho,
Wade