Knowing and the unknowable

>Jianyuan accompanied Daowu to a funeral. Jianyuan patted the coffin and said, "Alive? Dead?"

>Daowu said, "I won't say alive, and I won't say dead."

>Jianyuan said, "Why won't you say?"

>Daowu said, "I won't say, I won't say."

How often do we find our knowing and the discovered reality completely at odds? Accepting the unexpected is part of dealing with our lives and the matter of our death.

Daowu said, "I won't say alive, I won't say dead." I can pick up any object - this pen, this cup - and look at it. Can I ever really know what's on the other side?

No matter which way I turn it, I am only ever seeing THIS side. Should I presume I know what's on the other side?

The endless boredom and restlessness of looking for something new. Part of us so desperately wants to know. What happens when we fall into the memory trap? What does this kind of knowing lead to?

Yongjia said:

>The real nature of ignorance is the Buddha Nature itself. The empty, delusory body is the very body of the dharma. When the dharma body awakens completely, there is nothing at all.

This great mystery is right before us, every moment is brand new. Never seen before and never seen again.

Why did Daowu respond, "I won't say"?