A
The koan you’re referring to—"Hanging on by the teeth"—is a classic from Zen Buddhism, particularly found in The Blue Cliff Record (Case 5) and The Book of Serenity (Case 16). It’s deeply paradoxical and confronts the limits of conceptual thinking and attachment.
🪶 The Koan: Hanging by the Teeth
“A man is hanging in a tree by his teeth. His hands grasp no branch. His feet find no hold. Below him stands a Zen master who asks, ‘Why did Bodhidharma come from the West?’
If he does not answer, he evades his duty.
If he opens his mouth, he falls to his death.
What should he do?”
🔍 Interpretation
1. The Impossible Dilemma
This koan presents a situation where no action seems possible:
-
If the man speaks (answers the question), he dies.
-
If he remains silent, he fails the sacred duty of Zen—responding truthfully in the moment.
This is not a test of logic; it’s a trap for the dualistic mind.
2. What’s Really Being Asked?
The Zen master below asks:
“Why did Bodhidharma come from the West?”
This is a traditional Zen question. It's really asking:
“What is the essence of Zen? What is your true nature?”
You're caught in a situation where thinking, speaking, and silence all fail. The koan forces the practitioner to go beyond duality, beyond reason, beyond self-preservation.
3. The Deeper Teaching
-
The man is you—caught in the world, afraid to lose the ego (fall), but called to awaken.
-
The teeth represent the last bit of clinging to control, to life, to safety.
-
The only escape is a radical surrender—letting go of the fear of death, silence, or speaking.
💡 True Zen response arises from emptiness, not from calculation.
🧘♂️ Reflection Question (Koan Style):
If everything you know—mind, logic, speech, silence—fails you,
what remains?
That is the heart of the koan.
🧭 Contemporary Meaning
This koan speaks to our modern spiritual condition:
-
We often hang on to ideas, identities, careers, relationships—terrified to “let go.”
-
Yet, true transformation—awakening, realization—requires letting go completely, even if it means “death” to our current sense of self.
🪷 Zen Master Yunmen's Approach
In response to a similar dilemma, the great Zen master Yunmen once answered such a koan by screaming, or raising a finger, or staying completely still. These are non-verbal awakenings—not escapes, but direct expressions of truth.
Would you like suggestions for how to meditate on this koan or how it relates to Advaita Vedanta or Aparokshanubhuti?
No comments:
Post a Comment