Entangling Vines Read online

  Entangling Vines

  Wisdom Publications, Inc.

  199 Elm Street

  Somerville, MA 02144 USA

  www.wisdompubs.org

  © 2013 Thomas Yūhō Kirchner

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photography, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system or technologies now known or later developed, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Shūmon kattōshū. English.

  Entangling vines : Zen koans of the Shūmon kattōshū / translated and annotated by Thomas Yūhō Kirchner ; foreword by Nelson Foster ; introduction by Ueda Shizuteru. — First Wisdom edition.

  pages cm

  Previously published: Saga Tenryuji : Tenryu-ji Institute for Philosophy and Religion, 2004.

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN 1-61429-077-6 (cloth : alk. paper)

  1. Rinzai (Sect)—Quotations, maxims, etc. 2. Koan. I. Kirchner, Thomas Yūhō, translator, writer of added commentary. II. Title.

  BQ9367.S5813 2013

  294.3’927—dc23

  2012037699

  ISBN 978-1-61429-077-3

  eBook ISBN 978-1-61429-096-4

  17 16 15 14 13

  5 4 3 2 1

  Cover art by Phil Pascuzzo. Cover design by Gopa&Ted2. Set in Minion Pro and SimSun fonts 10.5pt/12.6pt. Typesetting for this book was done by Thomas Yūhō Kirchner.

  Wisdom Publications’ books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

  Printed in the United States of America.

  This book was produced with environmental mindfulness. We have elected to print this title on 30% PCW recycled paper. As a result, we have saved the following resources: 12 trees, 6 million BTUs of energy, 1.024 lbs. of greenhouse gases, 5,553 gallons of water, and 327 lbs. of solid waste. For more information, please visit our website, www.wisdompubs.org.

  Contents

  Foreword by Nelson Foster

  Introduction by Ueda Shizuteru

  Translator’s Preface

  Preface to the Wisdom Edition

  Conventions and Abbreviations

  Entangling Vines, Part 1

  Case 1Pacifying the Mind of the Second Patriarch

  Case 2The Sixth Patriarch’s Robe and Bowl

  Case 3Wuzu’s “Someone’s Servants”

  Case 4Yunmen’s “Mount Sumeru”

  Case 5Mazu’s “This Very Mind”

  Case 6Zhaozhou’s “Drop It!”

  Case 7Doushuai’s Three Barriers

  Case 8Lingyun Sees Peach Blossoms

  Case 9Zhaozhou’s “Juniper Tree”

  Case 10Huanglong’s Three Barriers

  Case 11Ruiyan’s “Master”

  Case 12Zhaozhou Sees Through an Old Woman

  Case 13Langzhong’s “Hell”

  Case 14Changsheng’s “Chaos”

  Case 15One Peak Is Not White

  Case 16An Ox Goes through a Lattice Window

  Case 17Qianfeng’s “Three Types of Sickness”

  Case 18Shangu’s Sweet-Olive Blossoms

  Case 19-1Xiangyan’s “Up a Tree”

  Case 19-2Dahui’s “Up a Tree”

  Case 20Yunmen’s “Dry Piece of Shit”

  Case 21Yunmen’s “Sulu”

  Case 22-1Deshan Carries His Bowls

  Case 22-2Mian’s “True Meaning”

  Case 23Mazu’s “West River”

  Case 24Not Entering Nirvana

  Case 25Shishuang’s “Top of a Pole”

  Case 26Xiangyan’s Sound of a Bamboo

  Case 27The Mind Turns with Its Surroundings

  Case 28-1Qiannu and Her Spirit

  Case 28-2Xutang’s Verse

  Case 29Yunmen’s “Exposed”

  Case 30Mian’s “Brittle Bowl”

  Case 31The National Teacher Calls Three Times

  Case 32Lan’an’s “Being and Nonbeing”

  Case 33Nanquan’s Sickle

  Case 34Baizhang’s Wild Fox

  Case 35Kanzan’s “Works like a Thief”

  Case 36Two Monks Roll Up Bamboo Shades

  Case 37Use the Empty Sky for Paper

  Case 38The Wise Women in the Mortuary Grove

  Case 39Drifting to the Land of the Demons

  Case 40A Scholar Writes a Treatise

  Case 41The Lamp in the Room

  Case 42Cast Aside Both Mind and Body

  Case 43Bodhidharma Didn’t Come to China

  Case 44Danxia Burns a Buddha Image

  Case 45Asleep or Awake, At All Times Be One

  Case 46-1Zhaozhou’s “Wu”

  Case 46-2A Verse on Zhaozhou’s “Wu”

  Case 46-3Zhongfeng’s Eight-Word Question on “Wu”

  Case 46-4Dahui’s “Wu”

  Case 46-5Before the Monk Asked about Buddha Nature

  Case 46-6Penetrate It Thoroughly

  Case 47Buddha Straight, Ancestors Crooked

  Case 48A Woman Comes Out of Samadhi

  Case 49East Mountain Walks on the Water

  Case 50Lotus Samadhi

  Case 51The Buddha of Great Universal Wisdom Excellence

  Case 52Huanglong’s “Sutra Chanting”

  Case 53Mazu’s “Salt and Sauce”

  Case 54Juniper Tree, Carrying Bowls

  Case 55Mr. Zhang Drinks Wine

  Case 56Gushan’s Gāthā

  Case 57To Lose a Human Birth

  Case 58Shoushan’s “This Sutra”

  Case 59Xinghua’s “Hold to the Center”

  Case 60Guishan’s “Water Buffalo”

  Case 61The Sail Has Yet to Be Hoisted

  Case 62Dongshan’s “Three Pounds of Hemp”

  Case 63Nantang’s “Other Realms”

  Case 64No Merit

  Case 65A Man in a Thousand-Foot Well

  Case 66Damei’s “Plum Pit”

  Case 67Fadeng Is Not Yet Finished

  Case 68Nanquan’s Fried Dumplings

  Case 69A Springless Lock

  Case 70The Six Non-Buddhist Teachers

  Case 71Bajiao’s Staff

  Case 72The Buddha Never Preached

  Case 73Yuanwu’s “Gate of Misfortune”

  Case 74Drop Deluded Thought

  Case 75Misusing the Mind

  Case 76Yangshan’s Headrest

  Case 77The Three Buddhas’ Night Talk

  Case 78Mazu’s Moon Viewing

  Case 79The Buddhas Don’t Know It

  Case 80Linji’s “Solitary Peak”

  Case 81Speech and Silence

  Case 82Yangshan’s Gavel

  Case 83The Sixth Patriarch’s Banner in the Wind

  Case 84Comments on the Five Houses

  Case 85All the Plants

  Case 86Know the Emptiness of All That Exists

  Case 87Why the Woman Came Out of Samadhi

  Case 88To See Form and Enlighten the Mind

  Case 89A Meeting on Another Mountain

  Case 90Nanquan’s “Water Buffalo”

  Case 91Yunmen’s Three Statements

  Case 92A Fragrant Breeze from the South

  Case 93Baizhang’s New Paddy

  Case 94The Avataṃsaka Sutra’s Simile of the Mind

  Case 95Yun’an Returns the Vestment

  Case 96A Verse in Praise of the Sixth Patriarch

  Case 97When Someone Is Ordained

  Case 98Yuanwu’s Enlightenment Verse

  Case 99Jiashan’s Surroundings

  Case 100Straw Sandals in My Vestment

&nb
sp; Case 101Jiashan Digs a Hole

  Case 102Hear in the Morning, Die in the Evening

  Case 103Ordinary Mind Is the Way

  Case 104Calling for Help from the Well Tower

  Case 105A Dead Snake in the Road

  Case 106Ciming’s Practice

  Case 107Daitō’s Three Questions

  Case 108Vimalakīrti, the Golden-Millet Tathāgata

  Case 109The Barbarian Has No Beard

  Case 110Mind Is Not Buddha

  Case 111Qingshui, Poor and Alone

  Case 112Vimalakīrti’s Ten-Foot-Square Room

  Case 113Foxing’s Three Turning-Phrases

  Case 114When the Buddha Was Born

  Case 115Nanquan Loses the Fire

  Case 116Guishan Picks Tea

  Case 117Baizhang’s “No Eating”

  Case 118Nanyue’s Explanation

  Case 119Luopu’s “Offerings”

  Case 120Yunmen’s Tune

  Case 121Zhaozhou’s “Put Out the Fire!”

  Case 122Huangbo’s Staff

  Case 123Comparing Three Students of Linji

  Case 124The World-Honored-One’s Lotus Eyes

  Case 125The Secret Transmission from West to East

  Case 126Confucius’s “Changes”

  Case 127Earning a Living and Producing Things

  Entangling Vines, Part 2

  Case 128Deshan Burns His Commentaries

  Case 129Dongshan and the Earth Spirit

  Case 130Xinghua Levies a Fine

  Case 131Magu and the Hand-Cloth

  Case 132Shushan’s Memorial Tombstone

  Case 133King Udayana Thinks of the Buddha

  Case 134Shoushan’s Stick

  Case 135The World-Honored-One Holds Up a Flower

  Case 136Mahākāśyapa’s Temple Flagpole

  Case 137Guanghui’s “Evil Karma”

  Case 138Qianfeng’s “Single Road”

  Case 139Nanyue Polishes a Tile

  Case 140Doushuai’s Lychees

  Case 141Realm of the Buddha, Realm of Mara

  Case 142Songyuan’s Three Turning-Phrases

  Case 143Xutang’s Three Questions

  Case 144Daitō’s Three Turning-Phrases

  Case 145Nanquan Living in a Hermitage

  Case 146Ciming’s Signpost

  Case 147Ciming’s Bowl of Water

  Case 148Putting on Your Vestment at the Sound of the Bell

  Case 149Subtle Flow

  Case 150Fayun Addresses the Assembly

  Case 151Yangshan Smashes a Mirror

  Case 152Yunmen’s Sermon

  Case 153Chen Cao in a Tower

  Case 154An Old Woman Burns Down a Hermitage

  Case 155A Different Way of Doing Things

  Case 156One Word and a Four-Horse Team

  Case 157The Dharmakāya Eats Food

  Case 158Xutang’s “Words”

  Case 159The Three Statements of Linji

  Case 160The Avataṃsaka Sutra’s Dharma Realms

  Case 161Dongshan’s “End of the Training Period”

  Case 162Caoshan’s “Great Sea”

  Case 163The Verse of Vipaśyin

  Case 164Yunmen Loses His Powers

  Case 165Aṅgulimāla and the Difficult Delivery

  Case 166Yantou the Ferryman

  Case 167Magu Digs Up Weeds

  Case 168Haoyue’s “Paying Debts”

  Case 169Daitō’s “Iron”

  Case 170Buddha’s Teaching, Bodhidharma’s Intention

  Case 171Comment and Verse on the Final Word

  Case 172Ciming Tends the Hearth

  Case 173Ciming and the Tiger’s Roar

  Case 174Ciming Takes Off a Shoe

  Case 175Kanzan’s “Inherently Perfect Buddha”

  Case 176Linji’s “Hunk of Red Flesh”

  Case 177Linji’s Four Realms

  Case 178Linji’s Four Shouts

  Case 179One Shout Remains

  Case 180Linji’s “Host and Guest”

  Case 181The Four Guest-Host Relationships

  Case 182Baizhang Goes to See Mazu Again

  Case 183-1Ciming’s Consecutive Shouts

  Case 183-2Xutang’s Dark Valley

  Case 184Xinghua’s Two Waves of the Hand

  Case 185Nanyuan’s “Pecking and Tapping”

  Case 186Xutang’s Staff

  Case 187Linji Delivers a Blow

  Case 188Dongshan’s “Three-Score Blows”

  Case 189Ciming Asks about the Three-Score Blows

  Case 190Zhaozhou Checks Two Hermits

  Case 191Langye’s “Perception First”

  Case 192Linji Plants Pines

  Case 193Baizhang’s “Already Explained”

  Case 194Deshan Uses His Stick

  Case 195Linji’s “Blind Ass”

  Case 196Zhang Zhuo Sees the Sutra

  Case 197The Staff of the South

  Case 198Mañjuśrī Visits

  Case 199To Knock Down with One Blow

  Case 200Xuefeng Strikes a Monk

  Case 201Sudhana Gets Some Medicine

  Case 202Touzi Answers “Buddha”

  Case 203Yunmen Calls Attendant Chengyuan

  Case 204The Śūraṅgama Sutra’s “Turning Things Around”

  Case 205Shoukuo’s “Lame Nag”

  Case 206Changsha Enjoys the Moon

  Case 207-1Linji Washes His Feet

  Case 207-2Songyuan Takes the High Seat

  Case 208Linji’s Four Positions

  Case 209Lu Gen’s Laughing and Crying

  Case 210Linji’s Four Functions

  Case 211Qianfeng’s “Take Up the One”

  Case 212Mañjuśrī Gives Rise to Views

  Case 213Tettō’s Admonitions

  Case 214The Infinite Realms

  Case 215Letian Asks about the Dharma

  Case 216Fubei Answers a Woman

  Case 217Form Is Emptiness

  Case 218Linji Asks for Alms

  Case 219Zhaozhou’s “Talk around the Fireside”

  Case 220Guishan Picks Up a Grain of Rice

  Case 221Changshi Watches a Polo Game

  Case 222No Merit, Evil Realms

  Case 223Pure Original Nature

  Case 224An Uncut Weed Patch

  Case 225The Garuḍa King

  Case 226Split in Two, Torn in Three

  Case 227The Merit of Donating Food to the Sangha

  Case 228Langye’s “Great Bell”

  Case 229In the Dharma There Is No Duality

  Case 230A Veteran General of the Dharma Assembly

  Case 231Flower Adornment Samadhi

  Case 232Let Go of Everything

  Case 233Sound the Dharma Drum

  Case 234The Mind-Ground Contains the Seeds

  Case 235The Dharma Realm of the Emptiness of Emptiness

  Case 236If a Single Dharma Exists

  Case 237Atop Mount Putuo

  Case 238The Origin of the Circle-Figures

  Case 239Hongzhi’s Four “Uses”

  Case 240After Birth and Before Discrimination

  Case 241Where Wisdom Cannot Reach

  Case 242An Ancient Worthy’s “Great Death”

  Case 243Huijue’s “No Sin”

  Case 244The Eight Phrases of Hongzhi

  Case 245To Be Stepped On without Anger

  Case 246A Piece of Rope on a Moonlit Night

  Case 247Xianzong Asks about the Light

  Case 248The Great King Has Come

  Case 249Responding to a Wayfarer on the Road

  Case 250Huangbo Bows to a Buddha Image

  Case 251Prince Nata Tears His Flesh

  Case 252Yinfeng Pushes a Wheelbarrow

  Case 253Kanzan Scolds a Monk

  Case 254I Accept That the Old Barbarian Knows

  Case 255Ten Realizations, Same Reality

  Case 256Tianhuang’s “Like This”

  Case 257Jiashan’s “Dharmakāya”

  Case 258Chaling’s Enlightenment Verse

  Cas
e 259Baiyun’s “Still Lacking”

  Case 260Taizong Holds a Bowl

  Case 261Stop All Thoughts

  Case 262Zhaozhou’s Stone Bridge

  Case 263A Buddha Long Ago Set His Mind

  Case 264Dongshan’s Fruit

  Case 265Changqing’s Staff

  Case 266A Monk Is Bitten by a Snake

  Case 267The National Teacher’s Water Bowl

  Case 268Moving through the Three Realms

  Case 269A Clear-Eyed Person Falls into a Well

  Case 270-1Shoushan’s Principles of the Teaching

  Case 270-2Filthy, Stagnant Water

  Case 271The Sound of the Wood Isn’t Separate from Me

  Case 272Nanquan’s Death

  Reference Materials

  Biographical Notes

  Chart of Names in Pinyin

  Chart of Names in Wade-Giles

  Chart of Names in Japanese

  Bibliography

  Index

  About the Translator

  Foreword

  THIS BOOK OFFERS “ENTANGLING VINES,” but who would want them and what for? The phrase suggests tough, jungly vegetation that will trip you up, snag you in its rope-like sinews, and hold you captive. As a title, it seems calculated to put off all but the boldest or most foolhardy readers, signaling that exploration of these pages will be a struggle—arduous, exhausting, possibly futile altogether. It invites risk-takers, curiosity seekers, and especially, perhaps, people driven to get to the bottom of life’s biggest questions. Shall we count you in?

  As the subtitle makes clear, the vines threatening to tie us up here are koans, the famously enigmatic little stories of Zen tradition. The liveliness and strangeness of koans—the humor and inscrutability of their repartee, their unorthodox treatment of Buddhist doctrine, the indifference they exhibit to logic or social convention, their frequent eruption into hitting and hollering, their broad expressive range, from crudeness to banality to poetry of great subtlety and beauty—have made them intriguing to people of diverse cultures ever since they emerged as a feature of Zen’s Chinese precursor, Chan, some nine centuries ago.

  Understanding has lagged far behind interest, unfortunately. In attempting to characterize koans, popular writers commonly resort to the words puzzles and riddles, which are so inaccurate as to be positively misleading. Academic specialists fare little better with such arid definitions as “pedagogical tools for religious training.” Zen masters, who seem supremely qualified to explain the nature and working of koans, typically deflect requests for such information, declaring words inadequate to do justice to the phenomenon. Try a koan and see for yourself, they say.

  Which brings us back to the entanglement under consideration—yours. Entanglement in koans takes two basic forms, one of them praised in Chan and Zen tradition, the other deplored, even ridiculed. The latter is a fascination with koans that remains merely literary or intellectual. The tradition doesn’t reject such pursuits wholesale; indeed, it possesses an extraordinarily rich literature, and many of its great figures have demonstrated nimbleness and delight in the life of the mind. Zen has always insisted, however, that other interests be subordinated to practice and awakening, and it deploys a set of vivid metaphors to emphasize the absurdity and fruitlessness of a Zen student entering the thickets of analysis and interpretation before experiencing insight: heading east when you want to go west, scratching your shoe when your foot itches, beating the cart instead of the horse.