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  Case 158 Xutang’s “Words”

  Xutang took the high seat and said:

  Xuansha Shibei questioned Jingqing, “‘Not to perceive a single dharma—this is a grave error.’1 So tell me, what is this ‘single dharma not perceived’?” Jingqing pointed at a pillar2 and replied, “This is ‘not to perceive a single dharma,’ is it not?” Xuansha said, “You may enjoy the pure water and fine rice of Zhezhong, but as for the Buddhadharma, not yet!”3

  Xutang commented, “How excellent, though, were Jingqing’s words ‘is it not?’4 Do you understand?”

  Cold clouds embrace the hidden rock,

  The frosty moon illuminates the clear pool.

  1.This is an out-of-context quote from Avataṃsaka Sutra 36 (T 10:257c). The original passage, , translates as, “I do not see anything that is a bigger mistake than for enlightening beings to become angry at other enlightening beings” (Cleary 1993a, p. 952). However, since before the time of Xuansha Zen monks have taken just the characters and read them in the way that Xuansha does. This is a distinctly Zen interpretation.

  2.“Pillar” is a common metaphor for the Zen concept of no-mind (see Case 14, note 2).

  3.Zhezhong , Jingqing’s home region, was a famous rice-producing area. One interpretation of his comment would be, “That view may be all right where you come from, but with me it won’t pass!”

  4.“Is it not?” translates , which indicates a rhetorical question.

  Case 159 The Three Statements of Linji1

  Linji took the high seat in the hall. A monk asked, “What is the First Statement?”

  The master said, “When the seal of the Three Essentials2 is lifted the vermilion stamp is sharp. There is no room for conjecture; host and guest are clearly defined.”

  “What is the Second Statement?”

  The master said, “How could Mañjuśrī permit Wuzhuo’s questioning?3 How could expedient means oppose the activity that cuts through the flow?”4

  “What is the Third Statement?”

  The master said, “Look at the puppets performing on the stage! Their every movement is controlled by the one behind.”5

  The master further said, “Each statement must contain the three Mysterious Gates; each Mysterious Gate must contain the Three Essentials.6 There are expedients, and there is functioning. How do all of you understand this?” The master then stepped down.

  1.Also Record of Linji, Discourse 9.

  2.The seal is a sign or emblem signifying realization of the ultimate truth, which transcends all reasoning and yet clearly differentiates host and guest. For the Three Essentials, see note 6, below.

  3.The Chinese term (lit., “marvelous wisdom”) is taken here to indicate Mañjuśrī, since Mañjuśrī is the Bodhisattva of Marvelous Wisdom. Wuzhuo was a monk said to have climbed Mount Wutai , the legendary home of Mañjuśrī in China, and there spoken to the bodhisattva.

  4.Linji’s response may be taken to mean that although Mañjuśrī’s ultimate wisdom is beyond the reach of conceptual inquiry, it is nevertheless expressed in the world through teaching and expedient activities, which in no way obscure this wisdom.

  5.Some commentators see this to mean that humans and other phenomena, like puppets on a stage, appear to be acting on their own yet are simply responding to the functioning of reality. Other commentators say that the puppet master represents the Zen teacher, using all manner of expedients to bring the students to enlightenment.

  6.It is not certain what the Three Statements, the Three Essentials, and the Three Mysterious Gates represented for Linji. They have been equated with the Buddha, Dharma, and Way; with the dharmakāya, saṃbhogakāya, and nirmāṇakāya; and with the Chinese philosophical concepts of principle , wisdom , and function (or ). Commentators agree that they simply express the one reality in its manifestations as absolute, as wisdom, and as human activity.

  Case 160 The Avataṃsaka Sutra’s Dharma Realms

  The four dharma realms (dharmadhātu) of the Avataṃsaka Sutra are:

  The realm of phenomena;

  The realm of principle;

  The realm of the unobstructed and mutual interpenetration of principle and phenomena;

  The realm of the unobstructed and mutual interpenetration of phenomena and phenomena.1

  1.The teaching of the four dharmadhātu is also mentioned in Case 89 of the Blue Cliff Record, Commentary on the Verse. This teaching is central to the Huayan school, which teaches the interrelationship of all phenomena:

  The teachings of Huayan have as their point of departure the theory of causation by the universal principle, or dharmadhātu. According to this, all dharmas [phenomena] of the universe are dependent on one another and condition each other, and none can subsist on its own. All dharmas are empty: both aspects of this emptiness, the static (, absolute) and the active (, phenomena), interpenetrate each other unobstructedly; every phenomenon is identical to every other. (REEPR, p. 145)

  Case 161 Dongshan’s “End of the Training Period”1

  Dongshan Liangjie addressed the assembly, saying, “Autumn is starting and the training season has ended. Monks, go east or west as you wish,2 but go where there’s no blade of grass in ten thousand li.”3 He then asked, “How do you go to where there’s no blade of grass in ten thousand li?”

  A monk told Shishuang Qingzhu about this. Shishuang replied, “Why didn’t you say, ‘The moment you leave the gate there’s grass’?”

  Later Dongshan heard about this and said, “How many people like that are there in the great Tang Empire?”

  1.Also Record of Equanimity 89.

  2.The monastic year had two three-month training periods, known as (lit., “peaceful dwelling,” since it was a time when the monks could remain in one place)or (lit., “summer,” since the training periods occurred in India’s summer rainy season), separated by two off-seasons when the monks were free to leave the monastery on pilgrimage.

  3.Grass and weeds are metaphors for hindrances, delusions, and ordinary phenomena. See, for example, Case 7.

  For li, see Case 150, note 2.

  Case 162 Caoshan’s “Great Sea”

  A monk asked Caoshan Benji, “I’ve heard that the teachings say, ‘The Great Sea doesn’t harbor corpses.’1 What is this sea?”

  Caoshan answered, “That which includes all being.”

  The monk asked, “Then why doesn’t it harbor corpses?”

  “It doesn’t accept those who have expired,”2 replied Caoshan.

  “If it contains all being,” asked the monk, “why doesn’t it accept those who have expired?”

  Caoshan answered, “‘Being’ is beyond merit, whereas those who have expired still possess their virtue.”3

  The monk asked, “Can one go beyond even this?”

  Caoshan answered, “You may say one can, you may say one can’t, but the Nāga King is drawing his sword.”4

  1.The monk refers to the Avataṃsaka Sutra, which says; “Bodhisattvas accept no evil, just as the Great Sea doesn’t harbor corpses” (T 10:442a). Similar statements are also found in earlier sutras, e.g., the Dharma Sea Sutra , which states that those who break the precepts must leave the sangha, just as the sea throws out corpses (T 1:818b).

  2.In the traditional interpretation, “those who have expired” (“those whose breath has stopped”) represents those who have died the Great Death.

  3.This line, , is enigmatic and the translation provisional. “‘Being’ is beyond merit” is similar to the notion that at the highest level of service there is no “doer” () and thus no one to retain merit. (“Merit” translates , which can indicate merit, spiritual practice, or achievement resulting from practice.) “Those who have expired still have their virtue” indicates that “the expired” still linger in the realm of satori.

  4.The sword of the Nāga King cuts off all duality.

  Case 163 The Verse of Vipaśyin

  Vipaśyin,1 in his transmission verse, said:

  We receive life from out of the formless;
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  From which issue all phenomena, like phantoms.

  A phantom-person’s mind being void from the start,

  Both fortune and misfortune are empty and without essence.

  1.Vipaśyin was the first of the Seven Buddhas of the Past. See Case 34, note 2. The transmission verses of the Buddhas of the Past are first seen in the Anthology of the Ancestral Hall .

  Case 164 Yunmen Loses His Powers1

  Lingshu Rumin, though reborn many times, never lost his supernatural powers. Yunmen was reborn three times as a king and thereby lost his powers.2

  1.Also Blue Cliff Record 6, Commentary.

  2.Yunmen served as head monk under Lingshu at Lingshu yuan and succeeded him as abbot. Yamada: The legendary account is that Lingshu and Yunmen were in previous existences disciples of Śākyamuni Buddha. Lingshu bought some incense and presented it to Śākyamuni. Afterward he attained enlightenment and throughout his successive lives had the supernatural power of knowing the past and future. Yunmen was reborn three times as a king, losing his supernatural powers because he engaged in worldly affairs (1985, 1:312–13).

  Case 165 Aṅgulimāla and the Difficult Delivery

  Once Aṅgulimāla went into a city with his begging bowl and came to the home of a rich man. At the time the wealthy man’s wife was going through a difficult delivery. The wealthy man asked Aṅgulimāla, “Śramaṇa, you are a disciple of the Buddha. Is there some way in which to spare my wife this difficult delivery?”

  Aṅgulimāla replied, “I have only recently entered the Way and don’t yet know such a method. I will immediately return to the Buddha, ask him, then come and tell you.” He hurried back and related the above matter to the Buddha.

  The Buddha told him, “Go quickly and tell him, ‘Since coming to know the wise and holy Dharma, never once have I taken life.’”1

  Following the Buddha’s advice, Aṅgulimāla went back to the rich man and told him this. The moment the man’s wife heard this, she gave birth to her child. The mother and child were safe.

  1.Prior to joining the sangha and becoming a bhikku, Aṅgulimāla had been a notorious mass murderer. See Aṅgulimāla in the Biographical Notes.

  Case 166 Yantou the Ferryman

  Yantou Quanhuo, following the Huichang persecution,1 became a ferryman on a lake in Ezhou.2 One day a woman with a baby in her arms came and asked, “Plying the oar and handling the pole are no concern of mine. But tell me, where did this baby in my arms come from?”

  Yantou struck the woman with the oar.

  The woman said, “I have borne seven children. Six of them never encountered a true friend,3 nor will this one ever be any good.” So saying, she threw the baby into the water.

  1.The Huichang persecution was a major suppression of Buddhism in 842–45 by Emperor Wuzong (r. 841–46). According to contemporary accounts, over two hundred thousand monks and nuns were forcibly laicized and numberless temples and shrines were looted or destroyed. However, at the time it occurred Yantou Quanhuo was only seventeen years old and had not even begun his Zen training. Thus it had little relation to his becoming a ferryman, which occurred many years later, subsequent to his practice under Deshan Xuanjian.

  2.Some texts follow this with: “He hung a board on both shores. People wishing to cross the lake would hit the board once. The master would say, ‘Who is it? Which shore are you crossing to?’ then pole his boat to get them.”

  3.A “true friend” is a “friend of the Way,” someone who understands one’s innermost mind.

  Case 167 Magu Digs Up Weeds

  Lecture master Shouzhou Liangsui sought instruction from Magu Baotie. Magu, seeing him come, took a spade, went to the garden, and started digging weeds without paying any attention to Liangsui. He then returned to his quarters.

  The next day, when Liangsui came for instruction again, Magu shut the gate. Liangsui knocked on the door. Magu asked, “Who’s there?”

  As he was about to answer, Liangsui experienced a clear, deep realization. He said, “Master, you shouldn’t slight me. If I hadn’t come here and met you, I probably would have spent my life deceived by the sutras and sastras.”

  In later years Liangsui told the assembly, “That which I know, everyone does not know; that which everyone knows, I know completely.”

  Case 168 Haoyue’s “Paying Debts”

  The court monk Haoyue1 asked Changsha Jingcen, “An ancient worthy once said,2 ‘With awakening, karmic obstructions are originally empty; without awakening, past debts must be paid.’ Why then did Venerable Āryasiṁha and the Second Patriarch have to pay their debts?”3

  Changsha answered, “Venerable monk, you don’t understand what ‘originally empty’ means.”

  “What is original emptiness?” Haoyue asked.

  “Karmic obstruction itself,” replied Changsha.

  “What is karmic obstruction?” asked Haoyue.

  “Original emptiness itself,” answered Changsha.

  When Haoyue had nothing to say, Changsha instructed him with a verse:

  Provisional existence is not existence;

  Provisional extinction is not null.4

  In their true sense, nirvana and repaying debts

  Are of one nature and differ not at all.

  1.The court monk performed memorial services for the emperor.

  2.The “ancient worthy” is Yongjia Xuanjue.

  3.Both masters lost their lives in violent incidents that other masters ascribed to evil karma. See Āryasiṁha and Huike in the Biographical Notes.

  4.An expression of the doctrine of śūnyatā, the teaching that all phenomena are empty and cannot be defined in terms of existence and nonexistence.

  Case 169 Daitō’s “Iron”

  Daitō’s talk about iron.1

  1.Daitō is notable for the frequent mention of iron in his work. The Record of Daitō contains such examples as: “Touch iron and make gold” ; “Chaos chews raw iron” ; “An iron boat floats on the water” ; “An iron wheel crushes stone” ; “A silver mountain, an iron wall” ; “One slab of iron—ten thousand miles” ; “An iron ball has no seams” ; “Flowers blossom on an iron tree” .

  Case 170 Buddha’s Teaching, Bodhidharma’s Intention

  An ancient worthy said, “Buddha’s teaching is expressed through reason; Bodhidharma’s intention is expressed through devices.”1

  1.“Reason” translates , clear, logical explanation. “Bodhidharma’s intention” is Bodhidharma’s intention in coming from the West; “devices” translates , the use of expedient means like the stick, the shout, questions-and-answers, and koans. The identity of the “ancient worthy” is uncertain. The Japanese Zen master Musō Soseki quotes a similar passage, also attributing it to an unidentified “man of old,” and comments at some length in his Dialogues in a Dream:

  An ancient master said, “Prior to Mazu and Baizhang, many teachers utilized the ‘teaching through principle’ approach and few used the ‘teaching through devices’ approach. Subsequent to Mazu and Baizhang, many teachers utilized the ‘teaching through devices’ approach and few used the ‘teaching through principle’ approach. In so doing, their policy was to ‘watch the wind and set the sails accordingly.’”

  Present-day students who prefer teaching through principle tend to demean teaching through devices, and those who prefer teaching through devices tend to demean teaching through principle. Neither type of student understands the methods of the founding masters. If you say that teaching through devices is the superior method, would you then say that all of the masters prior to Mazu and Baizhang lacked the Zen eye? If you say that teaching through principle is superior, would you say that Linji and Deshan did not know the true meaning of Zen?… A koan is simply an upāya; if one imposes interpretations upon the different expressions of this upāya, one obscures what the masters are truly attempting to convey. A completely liberated person can take gold and transform it to dirt, and can take dirt and transform it to gold. When such people hold something in their hands,
how can you possibly know whether it is dirt or gold? It is no different with the teachings. When a clear-eyed master expresses a teaching, it is impossible to define it either as “teaching through principle” or “teaching through devices.” (Chapter 81; translation from Kirchner 2010, pp. 169–70)

  Case 171 Comment and Verse on the Final Word1

  Wumen Huikai commented on the koan “Deshan Carries His Bowls”:

  As for the “final word,” neither Yantou nor Deshan have so much as even dreamed of it. If you look closely, it is like a puppet show. The verse:

  If you understand the first word, you understand the final word.

  But, first or final, they are not the same word!2

  1.Wumen guan 13, Verse. For the koan “Deshan Carries His Bowls,” see Cases 22-1, 22-2, and 54, above. For “final word,” see also Case 140.

  2.The Chinese of the final clause is ambiguous. Shibayama renders it as, “‘It’ is not a word” (1974, p. 100); Cleary has, “Are they not this one word?”(1993b, p. 63); Sekida has, “[They] are not one word” (1977, p. 56).

  Yamamoto comments on the line by citing the koan that comprises Case 72 of the Kattōshū, in which the Buddha states, “For forty-nine years I have dwelt in the world, but I have yet to preach a single word” (1960, p. 173). In Blue Cliff Record 51, Yantou comments, “If you wish to know the final word, just this! just this!” (Main Case).