August "Potluck" Koan

Offering to you our August koan.  Sit with all of the 12 Steps.  What Step (or Steps) come to you while sitting with this koan? 

Koan: Three Views of Hard and Easy


One day, while Layman P’ang was meditating in his sitting hut, he suddenly cried out, “”It’s hard, hard, hard! And I’ve put ten coats of linseed oil on this platform, too!”


His wife said, It’s easy, easy, easy! Just turn your eyes to the floor, lower your feet to it, and be on your way!”


Ling-chao, his daughter,  said “it’s neither hard nor easy! The mind of the Ancestors* is in every blade of grass!”

* Referring to Hsin-hsin ming who wrote:  “Though the Great Way is expansive, treading upon it is neither hard nor easy.”


In August we'll be meeting on the usual second Friday, the 10th.  This is our 12 & Zen "potluck" koan;  what Step will you be bringing to the table?

Bill K.