Entangling Vines Read online

  Case 262 Zhaozhou’s Stone Bridge1

  One day Zhaozhou and the head monk were looking at the stone bridge.2 Zhaozhou asked the monk, “Who built this?”

  “Li Ying did,” replied the head monk.

  Zhaozhou said, “When he built it, where did he set to work?” The head monk had no reply.

  Zhaozhou said, “Everyone talks of the stone bridge, but ask and they don’t even know where [Li] set to work.”

  1.Also Blue Cliff Record 52, Commentary on the Main Case.

  2.This stone bridge is a famous landmark not far from Zhaozhou’s temple.

  Case 263 A Buddha Long Ago Set His Mind1

  Vipaśyin Buddha long ago set his mind to practice but even now has yet to attain the Mystery.2

  1.Also Wumen guan 22, Commentary on the Main Case.

  2.Vipaśyin was the first of the Seven Buddhas of the Past (see Case 34, note 2).

  Case 264 Dongshan’s Fruit

  On the eve of the winter solstice1 as they were eating some fruit, Dongshan Liangjie asked Head Monk Tai, “There is something that supports the heavens above and the earth below and is as black as lacquer. It’s always totally active, yet can’t be restricted to activity.2 So tell me, what is its failing?”

  “It’s failing is in its activity,” answered Tai.

  Dongshan shouted and had the fruit taken away.

  1.On the winter solstice the yin forces (darkness, cold) reach their zenith and the yang forces (light, warmth) their nadir, at which point yin starts to decrease and yang starts once again to increase. Dongshan’s question alludes to the belief that at the moment of change the forces cancel each other out and there is for a moment only empty darkness, representing the Great Death.

  2.“Activity” translates , a difficult term to render into English. It combines the nuances of , which implies movement or action, and , which implies utilization or function.

  Case 265 Changqing’s Staff1

  Changqing, taking up his staff, said to the assembly, “Know this, and you have completed a lifetime’s practice.”2

  1.Also Blue Cliff Record 18, Commentary on the Main Case.

  2.The “this” in the standard Kattōshū version is, in the Blue Cliff Record version, clearly identified as Changqing’s staff.

  Case 266 A Monk Is Bitten by a Snake

  One day while Yunju Shanwu was at Dragon Gate Mountain1 a monk was bitten in the foot by a snake. Foyan Qingyuan2 asked, “This is Dragon Gate Mountain. Why would someone be bitten by a snake?”3

  Yunju answered, “Just as I thought, that monk shows the signs of a great man!”4

  Later, when Yuanwu Keqin heard about this, he commented, “With such a monk [as Yunju] at the Dragon Gate, the lineage of Wuzu Fayan is in no danger of dying out.”5

  1.Dragon Gate Mountain is located in the Shuzhou district of present-day Anhui .

  2.Foyan Qingyuan was the master of the monastery on Dragon Gate Mountain; Yunju Shanwu was Foyan’s student and eventually his Dharma successor.

  3.Dragons are regarded in Asia as the rulers of the snake family. They are also looked upon as benevolent symbols of wisdom, and thus of enlightenment; as the protectors of Buddhism and Buddhist texts; and as the rulers of the waters, whether in the form of clouds, rivers, or oceans. Furthermore, as noted in Case 194, note 2, the saying “to have the head of a dragon and the tail of a snake” signifies a promising beginning but a disappointing end.

  Perhaps playing on these concepts, Foyan asks, “Why would a monk on Dragon Gate Mountain get bitten by the dragons’ subject, a snake?” Similarly, Mujaku comments, “Why was a monk, who should be swallowed by a dragon, bitten instead by a snake?”

  4.The signs of a great man are the thirty-two marks of a buddha. See Case 133, note 3. After this line, the Categorized Anthology of the Zen Forest adds, “With this comment, Yunju recognized him as a vessel of the Dharma.”

  5.Yuanwu Keqin and Foyan Qingyuan were fellow students and Dharma successors of Wuzu Fayan.

  Case 267 The National Teacher’s Water Bowl1

  National Teacher Nanyang Huizhong, hearing that the court monk Zilin had lectured on the Sutra Preached at the Request of Brahma-deva,2 said to the official, “It is only after truly understanding the Buddha’s meaning that one is able to expound the scriptures.”

  “How would I be able to lecture if I didn’t know the meaning?” replied the official.

  Thereupon Huizhong had his attendant bring a bowl of water with seven grains of rice in it and a single chopstick lying across the top. He asked the official, “What does this mean?”

  The official had no answer.

  Huizhong said, “You don’t even know my meaning! How can you understand the Buddha’s meaning? How can you possibly expound the scriptures?”

  1.Also Blue Cliff Record 48, Commentary on the Main Case.

  2.; T 15:586. The Sutra Preached at the Request of Brahma-deva, translated into Chinese by Kumārajiva, is an early Mahayana sutra similar to the Vimalakīrti Sutra in its teachings on nonduality, śūnyatā, and the equality of samsara and nirvana.

  Case 268 Moving through the Three Realms

  Hanshan said, “Hey! Hey! You’re caught in the cycle of the Three Realms!”1

  1.The Three Realms (Skt. triloka) are the “triple world” of samsara, within which sentient beings are reborn in the six realms of unenlightened existence (see Case 63, note 2). The Three Realms are: the kāmadhātu (), the realm of form and sensual desire; the rūpadhātu (), the realm of pure form and desireless matter; and the arūpadhātu (), the realm of formlessness or pure consciousness.

  This line is found in the Preface of Lu Qiuyin to the Collected Poems of Cold Mountain , where Lu says of the poet Hanshan:

  Thus this man of accomplishment hid his true form, presenting himself as an ordinary man even as he guided others. At times he stood in the hallway singing, “Hey! Hey! You’re caught in the cycle of the Three Realms!”

  Case 269 A Clear-Eyed Person Falls into a Well1

  A monk asked Baling Haojian, “What is the Way?”

  Baling said, “A clear-eyed person falls into a well.”

  1.Also Blue Cliff Record 13, Commentary on the Main Case.

  Case 270-1 Shoushan’s Principles of the Teaching1

  Shoushan Shengnian said to the assembly, “Hey, skillful weaver-woman! Though your shuttle moves back and forth, you’ve never woven.2 Those fellows watching the cockfights, they know nothing of the water buffalo.3

  “Hey, clumsy guy! No one knows your true skill. Breaking through the Fenglin Barrier,4 you put on shoes and stood on water.”5

  1.This case, both as a text and as a koan, is one of the most difficult in the Kattōshū. Several of the expressions, such as “skillful weaver-woman,” are found nowhere else in the Zen literature. The present translation relies upon Dōmae and traditional Zen monastic interpretations.

  2.The skillful weaver-woman can be equated with Śākyamuni, who capably taught for forty-nine years and yet “never preached a word” (see Case 72, above).

  3.“Those fellows watching the cockfights” are likened to those of Śākyamuni’s disciples who are absorbed in their practice of the Dharma and concerned only with results. The buffalo is a common metaphor for self-nature; thus to know nothing of the water buffalo is to be unaware of one’s own true nature.

  4.The Fenglin Barrier was an important checkpoint between Jingnan and Henan , guarding entrance into the central region of China.

  5.Commentators identify the “clumsy guy” with Bodhidharma, whose “true skill”—his message of “seeing self-nature and attaining buddhahood”—was not understood by Emperor Wu (see Case 64, above) or by anyone else; who, after his unsatisfactory meeting with Emperor Wu, crossed the Yangzi (his “breaking through the Fenglin Barrier”); and who thereafter meditated at Shaolin (his “putting on shoes and standing on water,” with “putting on shoes and standing on water” being one of the supernatural powers traditionally ascribed to the buddhas and bodhisatt
vas, signifying their ability to be in the world and remain undefiled).

  Case 270-2 Filthy, Stagnant Water

  Xutang commented, “Shoushan claimed to have received the true transmission of Linji’s Dharma, but actually he was just uttering wild fox cries and causing students everywhere to be doused with filthy, stagnant water.”

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

  One day when Xingjiao Hongshou1 was in the assembly under Tiantai Deshao he was working with the monks. Hearing some firewood fall to the ground, he had a clear awakening. He said:

  The sound of the wood isn’t separate from me;2

  My surroundings aren’t outside things.3

  Mountains, rivers, and the great earth

  All manifest the Dharma King’s body.4

  Xutang commented, “Like a penniless scholar given use of the Imperial Library, Xingjiao has all he desires and is utterly content.5 But in his verse there’s a word that still isn’t quite right!”

  1.Although the Kattōshū identifies the protagonist as Yongming Yanshou, this episode is in fact from the biography of Xingjiao Hongshou, a fellow disciple of Yongming under Tiantai Deshao.

  2.“Not separate from me” translates , literally, “not something other.”

  3.“Outside objects” translates (dust), which means here the phenomena of the everyday world but which can also indicate defilements or kleśa.

  4.Wu translates the verse with a more metaphysical flavor: “Plop, there it is! Nothing else than That which / Devoid of Matter, fills all corners of the universe! / Mountains, rivers, the entire world / One and all, they manifest the Body of the Dharma King” (1996, p. 243).

  5.The Imperial Library was called the Storehouse of a Thousand Jewels . An impoverished scholar lacked the means to purchase books, so access to the Imperial Library would be the greatest satisfaction.

  Case 272 Nanquan’s Death

  Sansheng Huiran had the head monk Xiu ask Changsha Jingcen, “When Nanquan Puyuan died, where did he go?”1

  Changsha replied, “When Shitou Xiqian was a novice, he spoke with the Sixth Patriarch.”

  Xiu said, “I didn’t ask about when someone was a novice. When Nanquan Puyuan died, where did he go?”

  Changsha said, “The Sixth Patriarch told Shitou, ‘Investigate.’”2

  Xiu said, “You’re a thousand-foot winter pine,3 not a rock-moving bamboo.”4 Changsha was silent. Then Xiu said, “Thank you for your answer.” Changsha remained silent.

  Xiu went back and reported this to Sansheng, who responded, “If that’s the way he responded, Changsha is seven steps beyond Linji. But tomorrow I’ll go check for myself.”5

  The next day he went to Changsha and said, “I heard your answer concerning where Nanquan went when he died. There has been nothing to compare to it before this, and there will be nothing to equal it later. It is truly something rarely heard at any time.”

  Changsha was again silent.

  1.Changsha Jingcen was a successor of Nanquan Puyuan. The question about Nanquan’s death refers to Nanquan’s response when asked where he would go after he died. “I’ll be reborn as a water buffalo at the foot of the hill,” he replied (see Nanquan Puyuan in the Biographical Notes). That an enlightened Zen master would be reborn in the realm of the animals was thought shocking at the time. According to the Compendium of the Five Lamps, Changsha, when asked about this on another occasion, answered, “In the household to the east he was reborn as a donkey; in the household to the west he was reborn as a horse…. If you want to ride, get on, if you want to dismount, get off” (X 80:95a).

  2.Commentaries on this koan customarily mention the fact that the Sixth Patriarch’s answer can be taken in two ways. According to the Jingde-Era Record of the Transmission of the Lamp, when Shitou was a novice at the Sixth Patriarch’s temple he asked the Patriarch (then nearing the end of his life) how he should study later on. The Patriarch said, “Xunsiqu” , which Shitou took to mean, as it literally does, “examine” or “investigate.” Thus Shitou meditated assiduously. When the head monk asked Shitou the reason for his sitting, Shitou repeated Huineng’s advice, . The head monk said, “You have an affinity with Master Qingyuan Xingsi . You misunderstood the Patriarch when he said ‘Xunsiqu’ . What he meant was, ‘Go call upon Master Si .”

  3.The image is of a great pine tree enduring the long winter, connoting rectitude and fortitude.

  4.The image is of a bamboo shoot pushing out from under a rock, connoting vigor and adaptability.

  5.“I’ll go check for myself” translates . The Kattōshū version has , “tomorrow I’ll see through him myself.” The text has been emended in accordance with the Compendium of the Five Lamp version (X 80:95c).

  Reference Materials

  Biographical Notes

  Chart of Names in Pinyin

  Chart of Names in Wade-Giles

  Chart of Names in Japanese

  Bibliography

  Index

  Biographical Notes

  This section contains information from the traditional Zen biographies on the figures mentioned in the Kattōshū koans. The material, intended primarily to provide context for the events related in the koans, is often legendary in nature. Cross-references are italicized.

  A

  Ānanda (Anan , A-nan, Anan; Cases 45 n., 114 n., 136, 204, 213 n.), a cousin of the Buddha and the younger brother of Devadatta, was one of the ten major disciples of the Buddha. Remembered for his humility and gentle disposition, he served as Śākyamuni’s personal attendant. Owing to his constant presence at the Buddha’s side as well as to his phenomenal memory, he is said to have remembered more of the Dharma teachings than any other disciple. He was thus a central figure in the compilation of the Buddhist canon at the time of the First Buddhist Council, held just after the Buddha’s passing. Zen legend has it that he failed to reach enlightenment during the Buddha’s lifetime, but was finally awakened under Mahākāśyapa, the first Indian Zen ancestor; the circumstances of his awakening are related in Case 136.

  Aṅgulimāla (Yangjue Moluo , Yang-chüeh Mo-lo, Ōkutsu Mara; Case 165) was a mass murderer who later became one of Śākyamuni’s greatest students. According to all accounts he was earnest, intelligent, and immensely strong as a young man. According to one version of his story he had nearly completed a course of studies under an eminent teacher when the teacher, jealous of Aṅgulimāla’s abilities, demanded as a final task the little fingers from the right hands of a thousand victims. Aṅgulimāla went to a forest and started killing travelers to obtain the needed fingers, which he strung on a long necklace (the Skt. aṅgulimāla means “finger-garland”). He had accumulated 999 fingers when Śākyamuni happened to walk through the forest in which he dwelled. When he attempted to overtake the Buddha he found himself unable to catch up, even though Śākyamuni was walking at a normal pace. Śākyamuni then convinced him to abandon violence, and Aṅgulimāla, realizing the suffering he had caused, became a member of the sangha and eventually attained arhathood.

  In another version of the story his teacher’s wife, attracted to the handsome Aṅgulimāla but spurned by him, maligns him to her husband, who then tells Aṅgulimāla that if he cuts the fingers off one hundred travelers he will be reborn in the Brahma Heaven. The final person was not Śākyamuni but Aṅgulimāla’s mother; Śākyamuni, seeing this with his supernatural powers, substitutes himself for the mother and is able to instruct Aṅgulimāla on the true Way.

  Āryadeva (Tipo , Ti-p’o, Daiba; n.d.; Case 228), also known as Kānadeva (Jianatipo , Chia-na Ti-p’o, Kanadaiba) because he had only one eye (kāna means “one-eye”). Honored as the fifteenth ancestor of the Indian Zen lineage, Āryadeva is said to have been exceptionally eloquent. When he met the great Buddhist philosopher Nāgārjuna, Nāgārjuna had a bowl of water filled to the brim placed in front of Āryadeva, who put a needle into the bowl without spilling a drop. Nāgārjuna was pleased and accepted Āryadeva as his student.

  Under Nāgārjuna
, Āryadeva went on to master the śūnyatā teachings of the Madhyamaka school. His understanding and skill in debate enabled him to defeat a number of non-Buddhist teachers; according to some accounts, he was murdered by one of the defeated teachers’ disciples. Āryadeva is credited with several important treatises, including the Catuḥśataka (Four hundred verses; Guangbai lun ) and the Śata-śāstra (One hundred verses; Bai lun ). He is also honored as the founder of the Tipo school.

  Āryasiṁha (Shizi Puti , Shih-tzu P’u-ti, Shishi Bodai; n.d.; Case 168), honored as the twenty-fourth ancestor of the Indian Zen lineage, was a Brahman scholar from central India who later became a disciple of Haklenayaśas (n.d.), the twenty-third ancestor. The story of his transmission is as follows:

  Āryasiṁha said, “I wish to pursue the Way. To what must I apply my mind?” Haklenayaśas replied, “In seeking the Way there is no striving with the mind.” Āryasiṁha asked, “If there is no striving with the mind, what performs the work of the buddhas?” Haklenayaśas answered, “If there is striving, this is not virtue. Nondoing is the true work of the buddhas. A sutra says, ‘The virtue I attain is free of self.’” At these words Āryasiṁha understood the wisdom of the buddhas.

  Later in his life Āryasiṁha lived in Kashmir, where he united under Buddhism five groups of contemplatives: those who practiced samadhi, those who stressed intellectual speculation, those who held to form, those who rejected form, and those who maintained silence. Āryasiṁha’s death is traditionally thought to have been a violent one. According to the Jingde-Era Record of the Transmission of the Lamp , Āryasiṁha’s teacher Haklenayaśas prophesied troubles for his student in the future. Fifty years later, when Āryasiṁha was teaching in Kashmir, he sensed the coming troubles and, realizing that they could not be avoided, transmitted his Dharma to his disciple Basiasita. There were two sorcerers, Mamokuta and Torakusha, who dressed in Buddhist robes and attempted to assassinate the king, thinking the Buddhists would be blamed. Although the assassination attempt failed, the Buddhists were indeed held responsible. The outraged king had the monasteries destroyed and the monks and nuns expelled, and he himself took a sword and confronted Āryasiṁha. “Have you grasped the fundamental emptiness of all forms?” he asked. “I have,” answered Āryasiṁha. “Have you left behind birth-and-death?” the king asked. “I have,” answered Āryasiṁha. “If you have left behind birth-and-death,” the king replied, “then give me your head!” “This body is not mine—how can I refuse you my head?” answered Āryasiṁha. At this the king decapitated him. Milk, not blood, flowed from the severed neck, while the king’s arm fell off and the king himself died seven days later.