tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9314453.post8013139932535556528..comments2023-08-21T05:04:54.793-07:00Comments on Turning the Wheel of Wonder: Viewing Nanquan's White Ox Through the Three JewelsAlan Gregory Wonderwheelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00186755261777539572noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9314453.post-64924416280111052642007-11-20T15:07:00.000-08:002007-11-20T15:07:00.000-08:00Dear "Anonymous", Thanks for your comment. It does...Dear "Anonymous", <BR/>Thanks for your comment. It doesn't sound strange at all that the two characters "li-nu" do mean "cat." "Li-nu" 狸奴 would literally translate as "servant of the fox" or "low-class fox" which is a colorful folk name for a cat. <BR/>If the line is taken as "Only the cats and white oxen know" then the essential point is not changed if it means that the two kiinds of beings, (i.e., (1) bodisattvas (white oxen) and (2) disciples and pratyekabuddhas and outsiders (cats)) know, while the Buddhas don't know. <BR/><BR/>But to resolve the interpretation, the question is "Does Nanquan mean that there are two or three kinds of beings other than Buddhas?" I found the three-beings model listed in the Lankavatara Sutra to be such a good fit with the metaphor of the white ox that the three-being classification fit better. This also fit with the importance that the Lankavatara Sutra has in Zen. And it explains in a way why Cleary leaves out the "white". It doesn't make much sense to say "cats and white oxen" because the symmetry of duality would call for "black cats and white oxen."<BR/><BR/>But I can see the POV where it makes literary sense if "cats and white oxen" are the two types of beings because they are both animals and it doesn't create the oddity of the three images of foxes, servants, and white oxen having two animals and a human. <BR/>I'm going to ponder this more. So, thanks again.Alan Gregory Wonderwheelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00186755261777539572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9314453.post-993898991001793512007-11-18T17:44:00.000-08:002007-11-18T17:44:00.000-08:00Strange though it may sound, the two characters li...Strange though it may sound, the two characters li-nu<BR/>(in Chinese) really do mean "cat." Put the characters into Google image search and you will come up with Chinese paintings of cats.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com