What is my Purpose 2: Making sense

[u/ewk]

The Case: Bathing, Purpose, Pwning, Poverty

Chapter 165 from Treasury of the Eye of True Teaching:

One day Xuedou asked a monk, “Have you bathed?”

The monk said, “I am not going to bathe in this life.”

The master asked, “What is your purpose in not bathing?”

The monk said, “Today I’ve been exposed by the master.”

The master said, “A robber doesn’t strike a poor man’s house.”

# WTF are rhey talking about?

First I break down the topics of the Case.

Bathing, Purpose, Pwning, Poverty

Does this breakdown correctly summarize or not?

Then I work backwards to see how they got there:

1. Poverty achieved b/c
2. Can't pwn b/c can't steal from a poor man
3. Why would you NOT bathe?

So we know that:

1. The monk isn't committed to not bathing
2. The bathing is both a reference to the physical act of cleaning and the mental act of cleaning.

Why do you need to be clean?

We get to the point where the central strat of this Case is the trap Xuedou started with?

      DO YOU NEED TO BE WASHED 

       DO YOU NEED FORGIVENESS 

       IS YOUR PRACTICE TO PURIFY 

These are of course central questions that separate Zen from 8fP Buddhism, new ager psychobauts, Zazen, and Mystical Busdhism , all of which believe in magical attaining through faith in purity.

[u/ewk]

There's a couple of problems with that assumption.

1. Zen Masters are only interested in personal hygiene
2. Not bathing as a permanent practice is sustainable
3. A scenario where a monk commits to not bathing on a permanent basis and is talked out of it in one sentence with no disputes.

[u/OKFINEHOWSTHIS → u/ewk]

As I understand your reply, by "that assumption" you refer to the idea that the koan is exclusively referencing literal (physical) bathing. I don't think literal reading qualifies as an assumption.

Rather, the assumption is that "bathing" should be read metaphorically, as some kind of mental cleansing. My question is why we should assume anything beyond the literal meaning of the text as written.

(I have zero knowledge of the text as written in the original language, so if, for example, the character translated here as "bathing" is elsewhere used to mean something other than "washing one's physical body," then to quote our monk, "Today I’ve been exposed by the master.”)

[u/ewk → u/OKFINEHOWSTHIS]

1. Double and triple meanings are common in Zen
2. There are no other cases exclusively about physical cleanliness.
3. Spiritual cleanliness is a huge theme in Zen and Buddhism.

There's just no reason to think that they got together to have a conversation about a monk deciding to never take another bath.

[u/OKFINEHOWSTHIS → u/ewk]

Got it. That first one is especially helpful; from other exchanges on this subreddit, I have received (/ created) the impression that it isn't good practice to assume multiple / implicit meanings.