Hyakujo's Fox

At the end of the work day I take a shuttle bus from my office building to the Secaucus Junction train station, where I catch a New Jersey Transit train into Manhattan, then transfer to the Long Island Railroad for the 55 minute ride to Syosset. There are a lot of steps to take and connections to be made, and when one element of the commute goes askew, it throws off everything else. A late connection or slow shuttle bus ride means that it can take me an additional hour to get home, which is problematic on the nights my wife has to work late or when we have somewhere to go. Fortunately it doesn’t happen all that often. More typical are the days when everything is just late enough that I have to sprint from one place to another in a state of low grade panic. That happens three out of five days in an average week. The weakest link in the chain is New Jersey Transit, whose trains are invariably late by five or more minutes, despite what the digital boards at the train station say about their arrival times. A little known fact about commuter rail is that trains are still considered “on-time” even if they arrive at a station 6 minutes past their scheduled time.

Missed connections. Made connections. Barely gained connections. Good opportunities to observe the immutable workings of cause and effect. A late shuttle bus translates into an ineffective sprint to catch a train, which causes a missed connection, which means I relieve the babysitter an hour later, which means she gets home late to her family, which means a fight with her husband, maybe a divorce, an angry ride down a winding country road, a deer on the hood, etc. etc. Aside from moving, or getting a new job there isn’t any way out. Of course, there isn’t any way around cause and effect, for anyone, which reminds me of Hyakujo’s Fox:

“Once when Hyakujo delivered some Zen lectures an old man attended them, unseen by the monks. At the end of each talk when the monks left so did he. But one day he remained after they had gone, and Hyakujo asked him: "Who are you?"

The old man replied: "I am not a human being, but I was a human being when the Kashapa Buddha preached in this world. I was a Zen master and lived on this mountain. At that time one of my students asked me whether or not the enlightened man is subject to the law of causation. I answered him: 'The enlightened man is not subject to the law of causation.' For this answer evidencing a clinging to absoluteness I became a fox for five hundred rebirths, and I am still a fox. Will you save me from this condition with your Zen words and let me get out of a fox's body? Now may I ask you: Is the enlightened man subject to the law of causation?"
Hyakujo said: "The enlightened man is one with the law of causation."

At the words of Hyakujo the old man was enlightened. "I am emancipated," he said, paying homage with a deep bow. "I am no more a fox, but I have to leave my body in my dwelling place behind this mountain. Please perform my funeral as a monk." Then he disappeared.

The next day Hyakujo gave an order through the chief monk to prepare to attend the funeral of a monk. "No one was sick in the infirmary," wondered the monks. "What does our teacher mean?"

After dinner Hyakujo led the monks out and around the mountain. In a cave, with his staff he poked out the corpse of an old fox and then performed the ceremony of cremation.

That evening Hyakujo gave a talk to the monks and told them this story about the law of causation.

Obaku, upon hearing the story, asked Hyakujo: "I understand that a long time ago because a certain person gave a wrong Zen answer he became a fox for five hundred rebirths. Now I want to ask: If some modern master is asked many questions and he always gives the right answer, what will become of him?"

Hyakujo said: "You come here near me and I will tell you."

Obaku went near Hyakujo and slapped the teacher's face with his hand, for he knew this was the answer his teacher intended to give him.

Hyakujo clapped his hands and laughed at this discernment. "I thought a Persian had a red beard," he said, "and now I know a Persian who has a red beard."

Mumon's comment: "The enlightened man is not subject." How can this answer make the monk a fox?
"The enlightened man is one with the law of causation." How can this answer make the fox emancipated?