This week Roshi discussed koan case 83 from the Book of Serenity – “Daowu Attends to the Sick”

 

Guishan: Where are you coming from? 

Daowu: I’ve come from tending the sick. 

Guishan: How many people were sick?  

Daowu: There were the sick and the not sick. 

Guishan: Aren’t you the one who is not sick? 

Daowu: Being sick and not being sick have nothing to do with it at all. Speak 

quickly! Speak quickly!  

Guishan: Even if I could say anything, it would have no bearing.

 

Roshi started by asking the group what it exactly means to be “sick” and who is really sick in this case?  In our tradition, there is a concept of the “Medicine Buddha.”  What is this Buddha trying to cure exactly and how?  We know that our practice, in and of itself, is a treatment for the reality of suffering.  We also know that we all must practice!  So, when Daowu says he is tending to the sick, he is tending to all sentient beings by teaching the Dharma.  Guishan asks, how many people were sick?  In reality we will find that some people are sick (e.g. deluded) and some people are not.  Some people have made progress in practice and others have simply not started yet and thus remain deluded.  Roshi stopped here and noted that the truly sick are not simply deluded, but are in active denial or hopelessly naïve.  

 

The master then asks Daowu if he is sick.  What would we answer to such a question?  Would we answer that we are NOT sick because we are accomplished practitioners of the Dharma?  Hmmm, our hubris would make us truly deluded!  This is the master testing Daowu.  Our whole life is about being “sick” and “unsick” at the same time.  The point is not our current “health”, but the constant practice of HEALING.  Daowu is smart enough to answer – being sick is beside the point.

 

Roshi explained that taking medicine or undergoing surgery is simply repairing the body.  We take these steps to allow the mind to work on the real healing – namely the transcendence of suffering through practice.  Pain is physical, but suffering is definitely in the domain of the mind.  Our nature is continuous suffering, but also continuous healing through our practice.  We do it for ourselves and then we turn outward and do it for all beings.  

 

Roshi then told the story of a famous American Zen teacher who was dying of cancer.  She kept saying, I am not sick!  I am not sick!  Her students thought the cancer was making her crazy!  However, all she was doing was echoing Daowu.  “Being sick and not being sick have nothing to do with it at all.”  The Zen teacher was not defined by her physical sickness.  Right up to the last second the she focused her mind on healing.  She showed that it is possible to gain a state of serenity and extend that state out to the people around us.  In our modern culture, this is sometimes referred to as “dying well.”  

 

Roshi wrapped up by reminding us that we are on a journey of constant healing, both for ourselves and all beings.  The Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are real and live in our consciousness forever.  We transmit their medicine through all space and time through our constant practice, skillful behavior, and good examples to all beings.  In this way we each help in our small way to reduce the suffering in the world.