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Gentling the Bull – 08 Both Bull and Man forgotten
Identifier
011775
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Gentling the Bull – Both Bull and Man forgotten
When all worldly wanting dropped away, holiness, too, lost its meaning. Do not stay at a place where Buddha is, and pass quickly by where he is not. If one remains unattached to either, not even a thousand eyes can spy him out. Holiness to which birds consecrate flowers is shameful.
1
Whip and rein, bull and man, are all gone and vanished.
No words can encompass the blue vault of the sky.
How could snow pile up on a red-hot hearth?
Only when arrived at this place can a man match the old masters.
2
Shame! Up till now I wanted to save the whole world;
Now, surprise! There is no world to be saved!
Strange! Without ancestors or successors,
Who can inherit, who pass on this truth.
3
Space shattered at one blow and holy and worldly both vanished.
In the Untreadable the path has come to an end.
The bright moon over the temple and the sound of wind in the tree,
All rivers, returning their waters, flow back again to the sea.