nan-ch'uan's cat

I was dreaming of fur licking all to the right and then licking all to the left, then to the right, then to the left, right, left, left, right, up, down, back, forth, one direction and then another.

So today is when I muster myself to address the koan with my favorite Zen master's teacher, Nan-Ch'uan. It goes like this:

At Nan-Ch'uan's one day the residents of the east and west halls were fighting over a cat. Seeing this, Nan-Ch'uan picked it up and said, "If you can speak effectively, I won't kill it." No one responded. Nan-Ch'uan cut the cat in two.

This is pertinent.

Later that evening, Nan-Ch'uan told his top student, Zhaozhou, about the incident. Zhouzhou merely took off his sandals, placed them on his head and walked out. Nan-Ch'uan called after him, "Had you been there, you would have saved the cat."

Creating a controversy over what is completely UNcontroversial is merely distracting from the matter at hand. At a Zen teaching center the matter at hand is enlightenment, awakening to true mind. At a U.S. Military prison it is following the Geneva Conventions. In general it is treating each other humanely... following the Golden Rule, if you will. A controversy ONLY distracts from the matter at hand. Everyone knows the matter at hand, but everyone lets controversy distract them from accord with it. It is like placing the ass at the reins of the cart and pulling it. It is like saddling yourself up and carrying your horse around. It is like using your hat for shoes or your shoes for your hat. IT IS STUPID, backasswards -- agonizingly hard work toward no effective end -- beside the point, useless and terrible things go on while you're laboring thus. Those terrible things go on completely unimpeded by you or any of the people engaged in the diversionary controversy with you. The cat gets hacked in two because you can't deal with effectiveness, won't take the spotlight off the diversionary to get at the kernel and perform. Cause and effect get away from you, victimize you, make you and/or other creatures suffer and die, because you preferred to attend to the diversionary instead of the real.

Nice goin'.

This is only one tiny sliver of the meaning of this koan, but, maybe you can agree, it's pertinent.

[I keep adding to my 'sorry' post.... Sorry.]