The Killing Caves
Blue Cliff Record, Case 23: Baofu and Changqing Go on a Picnic When Baofu and Changqing went on a picnic in the hills, Baofu pointed to the top of a hill, saying, “That’s the top of Miao Peak.” 1 “That’s true, you are right,” said Changqing. “But a pity,” he added. (Xuedou: What are you doing, going on a picnic with him? I can’t say there will be no one like these two a hundred years from now, but there will be very few.) Later Baofu told Jingqing about this. Jingqing said, “If it were not for Master Changqing, skulls would appear in every field.” 1 Miao Peak is the Peak of Wonder, the center of Paradise, according to the Huayan or Avatamsaka Sutra. It was one of those crazy things you do when you travel with a fairly open agenda. We'd been visiting Angkor Wat for almost a week, and didn’t have to be in Ho Chi Minh City for another two. While in Siem Reap we’d heard about an adventurous boat trip, billed as once in a lifetime: You crossed the southern end of the largest freshwa...