koan, ? any answers...

[RyanWind]

KYOGEN said to his pupils: "Zen is a man hanging from a tree over
a cliff. He is holding on to a twig with his teeth. His hands hold
no branch. His feet find no branch. Up on the cliff-edge a man
shouts at him: 'Why did Bodhidharma come from India into China?'
"If he fails to answer he is lost. If he answers, he dies. What
must he do?"

The man in this Zen story is holding onto the tree with his teeth, and then he's asked a question. If he answers, his mouth opens and he falls to his death. So really the koan is about a "death" from speaking, from answering a question. Since this is a Zen koan, how would this apply to Zen?

Buddha was asked if he was a God or a man and his "answer" was silence. Buddha did not answer yes or no to either being a man or being a God. So he did not answer and he did not fail to answer. His answer was silence. Both a "man" and a "god" are conceptual and therefore not real. Neither word describes his moment to moment empty awareness.

[Joe Mc]

He Should just wake up that's all :) and stop wasting his life, you would think he might find something more useful to do, than hanging from cliffs, waiting for zen patriarchs to issue koans. silly boy. lol.

[RyanWind]

Originally Posted by Joe Mc

He Should just wake up that's all :) and stop wasting his life,

If he goes to sleep, then his life will no longer be a waste! Him meddling in things is the problem.

Therefore the Master takes action
by letting things take their course.
He remains as calm at the end
as at the beginning.
He has nothing,
thus has nothing to lose.
What he desires is non-desire;
what he learns is to unlearn.
He simply reminds people
of who they have always been.
He cares about nothing but the Tao.
Thus he can care for all things.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Zen is a person who examines the part of a sign without letters.

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to."
"I don't much care where –"
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

[RyanWind]

Originally Posted by Diijin
KYOGEN said to his pupils: "Zen is a man hanging from a tree over a cliff. He is holding on to a twig with his teeth. His hands hold
no branch. His feet find no branch. Up on the cliff-edge a man
shouts at him: 'Why did Bodhidharma come from India into China?'
"If he fails to answer he is lost. If he answers, he dies. What
must he do?"

Originally Posted by RyanWind

The man is a metaphor for consciousness. The tree, branches, and twig is thought. His teeth are attention. Consciousness is holding onto thought with the attention. The line, "his hands hold no branch, his feet find no branch is about the true nature of thought. Thought only has the reality we give it. It is a phantom. One cannot really get a hold of it or control it. The man shouting at him is insight. A flash of self awareness. It asks a question about the nature of what is. What is is the attention holding onto a thought. If he fails to find the meaning of the insight, he is lost, still stuck in thought. If he answers the question he sees the true nature of the false self. Thought stops with the awareness of it's true nature. The false self based on thought and not conscious awareness dies.

Originally Posted by beachsinger

What should he do then?

He answers the question and in doing so, realizes his true nature. Thus, the tree disappears as it was illusionary thought maintained by the attention on it. He then falls to his death (EGO Dies) and he is free!