The Blue Cliff Record, Case 7

At mid-month Unmon addressed the assembly, saying, “I’m not asking you about before the fifteenth of the month, what can you say about after the fifteeth?.” When no one could answer, he himself said, “Every day is a good day.”

Unmon (Yun-men), a great master who lived in 10^th C. China, was renowned for teaching by means of simple, dramatic sayings like this one, and we will no doubt encounter him over and over in the course of our study together. This is one of his most famous sayings, and although many commentaries and verses have been attached to it over the years, today we will just concern ourselves the case itself. Unmon himself was said to have become enlightened in a very dramatic fashion. He was a student of Seppo’s, a very strict teacher who made it almost impossible for anybody to study with him. Whenever a potential student would show up at the door of his hermitage, he’d grab the poor fellow by the collar, and scream at him, “Speak, Speak!” If you hesitated for even a second, you got thrown out on your ear. Having received this treatment a couple of times, Unmon was determined to get into to study with the teacher. So when Seppo tried to shove him out the door, Unmon stuck his foot in the way, wedging it open. Chen just slammed the door and broke his leg. Unmon, let out a howl, “ OWWWW” and with that howl answered Chen’s demand for an authentic expression and had a great enlightenment experience.

In any case, according to the lunar calendar that was apparently in use at time of this story, mid-month was the full moon, a traditional symbol of enlightenment. So Unmon is, in effect, asking his monks, don’t talk to me about becoming enlightened, say something that reflects your enlightenment. Since no one apparently came forward, he answered his own question and said, “Everyday is a good day.”

How are we going to understand these words of Unmon’s? Taken out of the context of practice, they’re easy to misinterpret. I hope no one imagines Unmon was a Zen Pollyanna, assuring us everything is just fine as it is, so have a nice day! Somehow I don’t see him affixing little yellow smiley face stickers to everything when he says, “Everyday is a good day!”

Up until the fifteenth, the moon is slowly going through its phases, and if we we’re the moon, we might be saying, “Oh, why aren’t I full yet? Why is there always something missing from me? Why aren’t I all round and bright like the sun? and so on.” Of course, the moon itself never actually changes during the course of it cycle. It’s always round, only its appearance from earth changes. So in one sense, Unmon is reminding us of an essential nature that manifests in a series of ever changing appearances. But what makes it a “good” day?

What kind of day are we having today? During sesshin we all experience difficulties of one kind or another. What’s so good about that? If I had to grade how the sesshin was going, I’d give it only a C- . The morning service was chanted in a pretty rag tag fashion; oryoki practice didn’t go very smoothly; a lot of people here who have by now done quite a few sesshins and who should know better (myself included) have been making lots of little careless errors of procedure and so on. So, if we are going to think about things that way, we’re not having a very good day at all. But another way to misinterpret Unmon’s words would be to say, “Well, we just having the day we’re having, if I mess something up, so what, after all, “Every day is a good day.” This is a half truth and a more subtle mistake, but one I’m sure that would earn you thirty blows from Unmon’s stick.

The day we’re having is precisely who we are and what we’re all here to practice with. It is what it is, but who we are includes reponding fully and appropriately to it. A good day is a day that is fully engaged, just as it is, by us just as we are. Anything less than full engagement, means we remain separate from the day as it is, and that’s where all sorts of subtle and not so subtle judgements and evaluations start creeping in.

Today is May 1^st. Not a “nice” day. Not a just any day. A good day.