Goso said to his monks, “Seijo’s soul has separated from his being. Which was the real Seijo?”
—Mumonkan Case 35, “Seijo and His Soul Separated”
This koan comes from a famous Chinese folktale from the Tang period. Once Chokan loved his beautiful daughter Sei very much. (Let it be a proper noun and good means girl.) When Sei was little, Chokan teased her, saying that she and her handsome cousin Ochu would make a great couple. The two cousins grew up, fell in love, and were devastated when Chokan announced Sei’s engagement to another man. Heartbroken, they eloped and eventually had two children. But they both longed to return home and receive their father’s blessing.
Leaving Sei in the boat, Ochu went to Chokan and apologized for running away with Sei. Chokan was shocked. “My daughter Sei has been in a coma since the day you left. Chokan showed him sick Sei in bed. Ochu said, “That can’t be, Sei is in my boat right now.” Chokan’s servant confirmed that Sei was on the ship. Chokan told this to the sick Sei who silently got out of bed as the other Sei arrived at the house and the two Seis became one. Sei then said, “I didn’t know I was in a coma. When I heard Ochu run away, I followed his ship like I was in a dream. I’m not sure which one was real, the one sick in bed or the wife and mother.”
Well, Master Goso is not asking us to solve this folktale mystery, but to open our penetrating Zen eyes and see our true nature clearly, as Master Mumon notes:
When you realize what is real, you will see that we go from one shell to another like travelers who stop for the night. But if you haven’t noticed yet, I sincerely advise you not to rush wildly. When earth, water, fire and air suddenly separate from each other, you will be like a crab struggling in hot water with seven or eight arms and legs. When this happens, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
This tale explores how we humans play many roles in life and how we relate to different people and situations. Who is behind the Real Self and who takes on these roles? Rather, these roles are guests and hosts of the Real Self. Even our personalities are servants rather than masters of Mind.
Someone recently told me that he doesn’t know who he is, who I am, who I am. How wonderful! There is so much to discover. How audacious it is to think that we know anything!
But we suffer when, like Seijo, we are separated from ourselves. This koan raises many questions: Are we one with what we do? Do we always wish we were somewhere else? Are we torn between the different aspects of our lives or the roles we are called upon to play? What is holding us back from fully committing to our Buddhist path?
A separate soul is found in us as a society. As Abraham Lincoln famously said:
“If we could first know where we are and where we are, we could better judge what and how to do. . . . “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I think this government cannot endure, half slave and half free.
As Buddhists, we want all beings to be free—free from the greed, anger, and ignorance that causes suffering. We vow to awaken to the True Nature of interdependence and the co-creation of all things.
We like to think of our country as united, but we keep seeing evidence that we are still very divided. The so-called United States was built on the genocide of many indigenous peoples and the forced labor of enslaved Africans. The great inventor Buckminster Fuller said, “We will not be able to operate our spaceship Earth successfully and for long unless we see it as a whole spaceship and see our destiny as shared. It must be everybody or nobody.”
To dig deeper into this “divided house” from a Buddhist perspective, we can ask: What is the difference between diversity and division? Can we have one without the other? We strive to be “one nation, indivisible, with freedom and justice for all”. But the soul of our nation is separated. One aspect is full of greed, hatred and error; the other believes in the freedom and justice of all. Both aspects are present in all of us. It is a misconception to think that these qualities are only for certain people. Could this be another folk tale?
Once upon a time there was a fair new nation. In his early years he was said to have espoused liberty and justice for all. But its founding fathers wanted to marry it to greed, anger, and ignorance—consumption, genocide, oppression. One side renounced this and vowed to be vigilant in pursuit of freedom and justice. But the other side remained sick in a coma of deceptive, harmful behavior. Who is the real United States?
These two karmic tributaries flow through all of us – whether we realize it or not. It is painful to witness the consequences of feeling separate. we can be “passes from one shell to another“ thinking that we are free from blame, but there is only the One True Body.
Will this nation—or any nation—merge into One Body, with all its differences? The House is divided that it already is – and it cannot be otherwise. Can it realize a nation’s True Self? Are we not part of this process? Don’t we all need to recognize our essential nature?
Buckminster Fuller also said, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. If you want to change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. You can’t change a way of thinking, but you can give it a tool to think differently.”
There are subtle, myriad differences in our various Buddhist communities. But we also have a common, renewed intention to be charitable, which is strengthened by the practice of zazen, counsel, and atonement. metta working together with the three principles of not knowing, witnessing and healing action. These are exactly the kinds of practices we need in our shared house—both individually and collectively.
The aspiring United States is often called the great democratic experiment, and we are truly a work in progress. The global task of peacemaking, reconciliation, mutual recognition and justice is a never-ending process that requires boundless patience, deep listening and the rejection of prejudice. But isn’t that what we undertake with the great bodhisattva vows?
What is in the house of our divided mind? We can find ourselves in situations where we construct narratives about ourselves. It seems that others often have an image of us that is different from how we see ourselves. This is true of nations and individuals. If we identify too much with one aspect, we can lose the other potential or be blind to the areas that need to be addressed. We can experience conflicts between our different roles and those of others. We can forget that the waves are all part of the Great Ocean.
Mumon’s poem about this koan:
The moon above the clouds is always the same;
The valleys and mountains are separate from each other.
How wonderful! How blessed!
Is it one or is it two?
Feeling disconnected from ourselves can reveal not only a longing to fully express our gifts, but also a deep desire to know our True Self. We may feel that something is incomplete within us – but we feel that there is a Whole. In order to close the gap and experience our True Self, we must personally shed all ideas, expectations, and surface responses.
Master Huo-an wrote a poem for Seijo’s koan:
Whatever they did, they won’t forget.
Even after thousands of years:
When causes and conditions combine,
The results and consequences can be experienced naturally.
We may experience the consequences of the harmful, deceptive side of ourselves. Knowing that our individual awakening affects not only our own lives, but also the larger House Un-Divided, can inspire a full commitment to practice.
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This article is adapted from an article originally published at Blog of the Los Angeles Zen Center.
