Ananda asked Makakashō, “My elder brother in the Dharma, when the World-honoured One Transmitted the kesa of gold brocade to you did He pass on anything else?” Makakashō called out, “Ananda!” When Ananda acknowledged the call, Makakashō said, “Chop down the flag pole in front of your temple gate!” and Ananda awakened to his TRUE SELF.
The matter of ‘chopping down the flag pole in front of the temple gate’ is as follows. In India the custom was that, when the Buddha’s disciples entered into a debate with non-Buddhists, both sides would raise a flag. When one side was bested, their flag was taken down; the defeat was thereby signaled without recourse to sounding drums and bells. In today’s story, too, it is as though Makakashō and Ananda had raised flags in debate.
Ananda was the Buddha’s attendant for 20 years, memorizing all of his discourses. If hearing and repeating the words of the Buddha were enough, he would have been an arhat long before. We are invited to ask ourselves what more there is that Ananda had not received, and why at this point he awakened.
Note that Ananda is not invited to take down his flag in defeat. He is to chop down the flag pole entirely, so that there is no place for a flag of disputation.
It is not only Ananda who has a problem with knowing the words of the scriptures, but not penetrating to the real meaning.
When Dogen first became a monk, he studied in a Tendai monastery where he is said to have read the entire Tripitaka in Chinese, twice. But then he had to learn Rinzai Zen, and then Soto Zen, before
dropping off body and mind.
And then, after returning to Japan, he declared that he needed far more training, and took himself off from Kyoto to the deep northern mountains to start Eiheiji.
Later on, he complained about the version of the Platform Sutra current in his time,
The Platform Sutra is a forgery. These are not the words of the Sixth Patriarch.
This complaint was verified by the discovery of the Dunhuang text, from centuries earlier.
Keizan Zenji commented about the perils of erudition in his commentary on Ananda’s koan, something that he knew well from his own experience.
I was confused for a while, looking through Scripture for a clue to awakening, a fruitless pursuit. It came in its own time, not from Scriptures and not from clues.
It takes as long as it takes.
Another excellent koan.
The Anti-Koan of Bibliolatry
A number of religious traditions have decided that some particular set of texts is absolute and unquestionable, thereby allowing them to ignore anything in them. They thus force blasphemy and evil on the world. You may have encountered some of their doings.
I pray regularly for those who have determined who their Lord and Savior is, to be followed devotedly all the days of their lives…
Only making sure never to catch up with Him.
I will not delve further into this problem here.
