Entangling Vines Read online

  Yan, 61

  Yang Danian; bio, 276, and the problem of wealth, 120; misc., 280

  Yangqi Fanghui; bio, 276–77; visiting Ciming’s woman, 144; shakes sleeves, 152; and the unseen bird, 152; misc., 216, 219, 262, 271

  Yangqi line, 240, 276

  Yangshan Huiji; bio, 277; and Changsha the tiger, 171; and the circle-figures, 189–90, 191, 225; function and essence, 105; and Guishan’s buffalo, 73; and Guishan’s mirror, 131; lecturing at Maitreya’s place, 85; and the man in a well, 76; picking tea, 105; pushing forward his headrest, 81; and Xiangyan’s enlightenment verses, 272; misc., 108, 109, 217, 235, 245, 260, 275, 277; see also Guishan and Yangshan

  Yangzhou (town), going down to, 72, 73

  Yantou Quanhuo; bio, 277–78; and the baby, 140; death at the hand of bandits, 278; and the final word, 47, 143; and the old sail, 74; visiting Deshan with Qinshan and Xuefeng, 199–200; and Xuefeng’s enlightenment, 275; misc., 250, 258–59

  Yanyang Shanxin; bio, 278; coming to Zhaozhou with nothing, 35–36

  Yao Yuanming, 155

  Yaoshan Weiyen, 221, 225, 263

  Yellow Crane Pavilion, 167, 222; poem on, 165

  Yellow River, flows north, 74

  yin and yang, 129, 175, 203

  Ying’an Tanhua; bio, 278; and misuses of the mind, 81; and taking shelter in an old mausoleum, 72; and the True Eye of the Dharma, 53; misc., 252, 267

  Yogācāra school; philosophy of mind, 42; and the three modes of perceiving existence, 194

  Yongjia Xuanjue; bio, 278–79; on Zen practice, 279; misc., 21, 142, 245, 256

  Yongming Yanshou; bio, 279; misc., 207

  Yu Di (Governor), 258; bio, 279–80; exchange with Ziyu Daotong, 60, 279–80; and land of the rakṣasas, 60; and Layman Pang’s illness, 88

  Yuan Zhan (scholar), 61

  Yuanjian Fayuan, 271

  Yuanming; bio, 280; on Deshan, 163

  Yuanwu Keqin; bio, 280–81; being and nonbeing, 55; and the Blue Cliff Record, 95, 244; and boxwood Zen, 55; and Dahui Zonggao, 55, 92; enlightenment verse, 94; and the evening turning-phrase, 82; and the gate of misfortune, 80; and the place from which all buddhas come, 92; on the Patriarch’s coming from the West, 133; praising the Sixth Patriarch, 94; misc., 204, 217, 223, 232, 271, 278, 282

  Yuelun Shiguan, 271

  Yuezhou Qianfeng; bio, 281; and the three types of sickness, 43; and the single road to nirvana, 121; and “Take up the One,” 174

  Yun’an Puyan; bio, 281; returning Baiyun Shouduan’s vestment, 93; comment on Linji’s begging rounds, 177

  Yunfeng Wenyue, and criticism of Huanglong’s understanding, 159, 240

  Yunju Daojian; bio, 281; on Vimalakīrti as the Golden-Millet Tathāgata, 100

  Yunju Daoying, 281

  Yunju Shanwu; bio, 281; and the monk bitten by a snake, 204

  Yunmen Wenyan; bio, 282; and his attendant Xianglin, 169; and the dharmakāya eating food, 134; and East Mountain, 68; enlightenment upon breaking leg, 282; and “Exposed!” 52; and the eye of the needle, 182; hearing sound and realizing the Way, 89; and Jianfu Chenggu, 244; on killing the Buddha, 104; and loss of supernatural powers, 139; and Mount Sumeru, 35; and “one-word barriers,” 52; and the place from which all buddhas come, 92; and poking Indra with a fan, 121; and putting on one’s vestment, 130; spares Dongshan three-score blows, 158, 159; and his three statements, 91; and the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, 107; “What is that?” 169; where to repent for killing buddhas, 52; and the word hou, 132; and Yuezhou Qianfeng, 43, 174; misc., 17, 46, 159, 217, 221, 229, 246, 248, 253, 266, 272, 276, 280, 284

  Yunmen school, 275; Wuzu Fayan’s comment on, 86

  Yunmen’s Extensive Record, 70

  Yunyan Tansheng, 222, 225, 228, 245

  Zen Forest Records, 173, 245

  Zen Phrase Lexicon, 66, 107

  Zengyi ahan jing, 118

  Zhang Wujin (Prime Minister; Layman Wujin); bio, 282; and Doushuai’s “final word,” 123–24; misc., 245, 280, 284

  Zhang Zhuo; bio, 282; and the buddhanames, 165

  Zhang Zishao (Zhang Jiucheng); bio, 282–83; and Dahui, 125; and Linji’s four positions, 125

  Zhao Biaozhi (official), 55; bio, 283

  Zhao’s Treatises, 261

  Zhaozhou Congshen; bio, 283; and the blade of grass as the body of a buddha, 184; and Cui Langzhong, 40; and dog’s buddha nature, 65; and “drawing the bow after the thief has left,” 107; and dropping nothingness, 35–36; falling into hell, 40; and the Great King, 195; neither guest nor host by the fireside, 177; “Juniper Tree” koan, 37–38, 59, 70, 283; and karmic consciousness, 65; and Linji, 172, 173; and Mañjuśrī and Samantabhadra, 174; and Mount Tai, 39–40; and Nanquan Puyuan, 91, 97, 98, 174; and the stone bridge, 202; and the two hermits, 160; and washing his feet at Linji’s place, 172; and the well tower, 98; and the “Wu” koan, 65–67, 271, 283; misc., 17, 59, 234, 255, 269, 278

  Zhenjing Kewen; bio, 283; and Baiyun Shouduan’s verse on Linji, 167; and the final word, 124; and the verse on “Linji’s three-score blows of the stick,” 167; and Layman Wujin, 123; on Manora’s transmission verse, 50; as Qingsu’s teacher, 123; misc., 230, 231, 245

  Zhiyi, 268

  Zhongfeng Mingben; bio, 284–85; on the “Wu” koan, 66

  Zhuozhou Kefu; bio, 285; and Linji’s “person and surroundings,” 125

  Zilin (court monk); bio, 285; and Huizhong’s bowl of water, 205

  Ziyu Daotong; bio, 285; and Yu Di’s rakṣasas, 60; and Yu Di’s persecution of mendicant monks, 279–80

  Zutang ji, 219

  About the Translator

  THOMAS YŪHŌ KIRCHNER, a native of Connecticut who has resided in Japan since 1969, is an ordained Rinzai Zen monk and a graduate of Ōtani University in Kyoto with an M.A. in Buddhist studies. After practicing for ten years in Japanese monasteries he worked on the editorial staff at the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture in Nagoya. He presently serves as priest at the temple Rinsen-ji in the Arashiyama area of Kyoto, and is a researcher at the International Research Institute for Zen Buddhism at Hanazono University. Kirchner’s other publications include the Record of Linji and Musō Soseki’s Dialogues in a Dream.

  About Wisdom Publications

  WISDOM PUBLICATIONS is dedicated to offering works relating to and inspired by Buddhist traditions.

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  Wisdom is a nonprofit, charitable 501(c)(3) organization, and donations in support of our mission are tax deductible.

  Wisdom Publications is affiliated with the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT).

  Entangling Vines is a translation of the Shūmon Kattōshū, the only major koan text to have been compiled in Japan rather than China. Most of the central koans of the contemporary Rinzai koan curriculum are contained in this work. Indeed, Kajitani Sōnin (1914–1995).—former chief abbot of Shōkoku-ji and author of an annotated, modern-Japanese translation of the Kattōshū—commented that “herein are compiled the basic Dharma materials of the koan system.”

  A distinctive feature of Entangling Vines is that, unlike the Gateless Gate and Blue Cliff Record, it presents the koans “bare,” with no introductions, commentaries, or verses. The straightforward structure of its presentation lends the koans added force and immediacy, emphasizing the Great Matter, the essential point to be interrogated, while providing ample material for the rigors of examining and refining Zen experience.

  The present translation had its origins in the discussions between several Japanese Zen masters and Thomas Yūhō Kirchner, an American Zen monk residing in Japan. Containing 272 cases and extensive annotation, th
e collection is not only indispensable for serious koan training but also forms an excellent introduction to Buddhist philosophy. An invaluable addition to the library of Asian religions, Entangling Vines will be of interest to anyone drawn to Zen literature.

  THOMAS YŪHŌ KIRCHNER, a native of Connecticut who has resided in Japan since 1969, is an ordained Rinzai Zen monk and a graduate of Ōtani University in Kyoto with an M.A. in Buddhist studies. He presently serves as a priest at the temple Rinsen-ji in the Arashiyama area of Kyoto and is a researcher at the International Research Institute for Zen Buddhism at Hanazono University.

  NELSON FOSTER is a Dharma heir of Diamond Sangha founder Robert Aitken and succeeded him at its Honolulu temple. He now teaches mainly at Ring of Bone Zendo in the California foothills, making periodic visits to the East Rock Sangha in New England. He is the coauthor of The Roaring Stream: A New Zen Reader.