Case 43 Shuzan's Shippei
Shuzan Oshõ held up his shippei [staff of office] before his disciples and said, "You monks! If you call this a shippei, you oppose its reality.
If you do not call it a shippei, you ignore the fact.
Tell me, you monks, what will you call it?"
Mumon's Comment
If you call it a shippei, you oppose its reality.
If you do not call it a shippei, you ignore the fact.
Words are not available; silence is not available.
Now, tell me quickly, what is it?
Mumon's Verse
Holding up the shippei,
He takes life, he gives life.
Opposing and ignoring interweave.
Even Buddhas and patriarchs beg for their lives.
For those of you who have never seen a shippei it is a carved stick about 2 feet long. Sometimes it has horse hair at one end. Typically a Zen Master will hold his shippie, dressed in full regalia, while doing sanzen with his students. I don't have a shippei because I am a lay teacher and not a priest. In the old days and maybe still in Japan today the shippei would be occasionally used to hit a student to shock him out of conventional thought. The only time I ever saw the shippei used was Sasaki Roshi using it to test the depth of my samadhi. All he did was drop it and watch my reaction to the sound.
Again Shuzan Osho is using his shippei to test the samadhi of his students. If a student gets caught thinking and thus come out of samadhi or was never in samadhi he/she will give some stupid answer that will never satisfy Shuzan but if he remains in samadhi some spontanious action will manifest. The student might grab the shippei and try to break it or maybe let out a great shout, who knows. But whatever the student does he or she will be having great fun.
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