The Shoe Shine Koan

Live Oak, August 8, 1999
Rev. Chuck Freeman

Picture Norman Rockwell Americana with me for a moment. A small town Barbershop, Amory, Mississippi, on South Main St. in the early 60’s. The patented candy canesque red and white pole outside identifying the establishment.

Scissors, snip, snip, snipping; the rhythmic uneven droning of electric clippers. A Barber or two in their smock like uniforms. The unmistakable smells of Vitalis, and talcum powder. Old geezers talking politics, baseball, and telling salty stories; newspapers being grazed over, and quite probably a checker game going.

Hair isn’t styled it is cut. No manicurists or massage therapists wait in the wings. There is one side attraction and only one- the ShoeShine Man.

Every Christmas we would go visit our Grandma. I would often accompany my Grandpa or uncle to the Barbershop. It was an alluring adventure, and a piece or two of bubble gum generally awaited me. On this holiday I was 8-10 years old.

My interest was arrested by the dignified black man turning out the shoeshines. His effortless speed and craftsmanship mesmerized me. I loved his final move in which he popped the thin cloth for the crowning glossy sheen.

I determined I wanted a shoeshine. I had my own money and wanted to budget my allowance wisely. Warily, I approached the man and asked in a tentative voice; "Sir, how much for a shoe shine?"

His stern reply took me aback; "Son, if you have to ask, you can’t afford it!"

I tucked my tail, soothing my wounds with the sweet double bubble treat from the Barber.

This episode had not crossed my consciousness in over 35 years, until I was attending a series of classes with my Buddhist friend David Collins earlier this year. We were reading and studying the life and teachings of early Zen Masters.

One focus of the meetings was to explore koans. A koan is the written record of an "aha" moment a disciple has in dialogue with his spiritual teacher. It is the occasion for a breakthrough, an insight, or an enlightenment.

We share a common theme with Zen, which prides itself in not being obligated to any scripture, dogma, or doctrine.

Zen’s focus is on direct, experiential engagement with living reality. The human tendency is to seek the reassurance of familiarity, repetition, and stasis. The mind is unnecessarily imprisoned by barriers of habit; mechanical patterns of thought and activity.

The koan exists to challenge the fossilization process into which our minds settle, to see through the veil of illusion, to actual fact. We are then capable of arriving at direct witness of reality.

Koans are often expressed in cryptic statements and formulas to destroy pretensions and awaken the questioner to deeper levels of understanding.

Many of these exchanges between student and teacher came to be cherished in the community’s memory and recorded as a kind of interactive text or "to be lived" scripture for subsequent generations to be enriched by.

The first source of our Living Tradition parallels Zen handsomely, drawing from; "direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder…which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and openness to the forces that create and uphold life."

My experience with the shoeshine man can readily be taken as a koan. "How much for a shoe shine?" "If you have to ask you can’t afford it!"

What spiritual jewel can be mined from his shattering rejoinder?

Even more central for you this morning; what offensive encounter, comment, or interaction has entered your life recently that can be interpreted as a koan?

Let’s take a few breaths of reflection and consider this possibility.

Once a monk made a request of Chao-chou. "I have just entered the monastery," he said. "Please give me instructions, Master." Chao-chou said, "Have you had your breakfast?" "Yes, I have," replied the monk. "Then", said Chao-chou, "wash your bowls." The monk had an insight. (David Collins handouts, C-cp.8)

Those who divide life into sacred and profane, spiritual and secular, natural and supernatural have missed the boat, the plane, the bicycle, and even the walking stick!

Shibayama says this story represents Zen without the "stink" of enlightenment. That is to say, don’t smell up the place with your artificial, contrived attempts to become enlightened. Sniff what is under your nose first.

We get up, shower, feed our families, go to work, run errands, nap if we’re lucky, eat supper, and hit the sack. To live an ordinary life, just as it is; this is religion.

You can know the basics of eternity as such when you allow the scales to drop from your eyes and dig the wax out of your ears.

"Do not let the word ‘Tao’ (The Way) delude you; realize it is nothing else than what you do morning and night." (Shimbayama,C-c, p.8)

Here is your McGuffy reader for enlightenment; after breakfast, wash the dishes.

Master Hui-neng was traveling one afternoon and came upon a Buddhist Monastery where a flag was raised, signifying a lecture was to take place in the evening. As he got closer he witnessed two monks in a heated metaphysical dispute.

The breeze and the flag were interplaying. One monk maintained that the wind was flapping. The other monk argued that the flag was flapping. This was the appropriate metaphysical understanding.

Hui-neng inquired about their discussion and was asked to weigh in with his take on the issue. He observed the phenomenon of the flag and the wind, paused, looked the monks in the eye and replied; "It is your mind that is flapping."

This calls to mind the joke about two signs, which are posted in the afterlife. One is labeled "Heaven" and the other reads, "A discussion about Heaven." The second line is jammed packed with Unitarian Universalists.

Oh, how we get penned up and trapped in the boxes of our concepts, philosophies, ideologies, theories, and theologies. We are flapping and flopping around so much we miss the present, primal expression.

If your mind, wind, flag are flapping; dive into the flappingess with your utmost attention. Let flapping instruct you fully. If your mind is flapping, the universe is flapping. This is what is before you, and all there is right now.

One of Chao-chou’s favorite poems reads: "The Ultimate Path is not difficult; it just precludes picking and choosing. Without yearning or loathing, The Way is perfectly apparent, while even a hairbreadth difference separates heaven and earth." (Collins, C-c, p.14)

A monk asked Chao-chou, "The Ultimate Path has no difficulties- just avoid picking and choosing. What is not picking and choosing?" Chao-chou said, "In the heavens and on earth I alone am the Honored One." The monk replied, "This is still picking and choosing." Chao-chou answered, "Stupid oaf! Where is the picking and choosing?" The monk was speechless.

In these days, many want to frame spiritual growth as a billowy cloud, blue-sky flight to ecstasy. Pain, reproof, or admonishment is seen as too severe for a loving Universe. But, these realities prove indispensable to the development of values and character.

Rebuke may not feel good, but it may last good. At times, I have needed my inflated self-importance to be named and upbraided along the way. I don’t want reprimand to be the full meal, but a hint of it clears the digestive tract.

Chou- chou recognized the appropriate use of the bitter spice with this student.

To proclaim, "In the heavens and on earth I alone am the Honored One," is not picking and choosing, it is the owning of a fundamental truism. When you attain enlightenment, you realize you are being itself, and the exclamation, "I alone am holy," emerges naturally. It is the nature of all reality, whether you acknowledge it or not.

This story makes the point with stunning brevity and beauty. Wei-chou asks the teacher Fa-yen; "What is Buddha?" Fa-yen answers simply; "You are Wei-chou."

So, what of the Shoeshine koan from wither we launched this whole discourse? "How much for a shoe shine?" "If you have to ask, you can’t afford it."

I doubt I will ever know what the shoeshine man meant with his terse assertion. He probably just wanted to get rid of a pesky kid.

I have discovered however, the importance lies not so much in what someone really means, but in what I do with it. The following, is how I am appropriating the koan today.

Do you truly want an experience? If so, you will be willing to pay the price. You will invest whatever mental, physical, emotional, sacred energy it takes to attain it. If you have to ask, you aren’t ready to undertake the responsibilities that lead to the bounty.

Now, I understand the saying of Jesus with a rejuvenated clearness; "Anyone who does not take their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 10:38,39)

"How much for a shoeshine?" "The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it." (Matthew 13:45)