This being so, the morning star appears, the Tathagata appears, the eye appears, and holding up a flower appears. Each is time. If it were not time, it could not be thus.
Shexian, Zen Master Guixing, is an heir of Shoushan and a dharma descendant of Linji. One day he taught the assembly:
For the time being, mind arrives, but words do not.
For the time being, words arrive, but mind does not.
For the time being, both mind and words arrive.
For the time being, neither mind nor words arrive.
Both mind and words are the time being. Both arriving and not-arriving are the time being. When the moment of arriving has not appeared, the moment of not-arriving is here. Mind is a donkey [that has not yet left], words are a horse [that has already arrived]. Having already-arrived is words and not-having-left is mind. Arriving is not “coming,” not-arriving is not “not yet.”
The time being is like this. Arriving is fulfilled by arriving, but not by not-arriving. Not-arriving is fulfilled by not-arriving, but not by arriving. Mind fulfills mind and sees mind; words fulfill words and see words. Fulfilling fulfills fulfilling and sees fulfilling. Fulfilling is nothing but fulfilling. This is time.
As fulfilling is caused by you, there is no fulfilling that is separate from you. Thus, you go out and meet someone. Someone meets someone. You meet yourself. Going out meets going out. If these do not actualize time, they cannot be thus.
Mind is the moment of actualizing the fundamental point; words are the moment of going beyond, unlocking the barrier. Arriving is the moment of casting off the body; not-arriving is the moment of being one with just this, while being free from just this. In this way you must endeavor to actualize the time being.
The old masters have thus uttered these words, but is there nothing further to say? You should say:
Mind and words arriving partially are the time being.
Mind and words not arriving partially are the time being.
Further, you should examine the time being:
To have him raise the eyebrows and blink is half the time being.
To have him raise the eyebrows and blink is the time being missed.
Not to have him raise the eyebrows and blink is half the time being.
Not to have him raise the eyebrows and blink is the time being missed.
Thus, to study thoroughly, coming and going, and to study thoroughly, arriving and beyond arriving, are the time being of this moment.
On the first day of winter [the first day, the tenth month], the first year of the Ninji Era [1240], this was written at the Kosho Horin Monastery.
13
POWER OF THE ROBE
BODHIDHARMA, THE HIGH Ancestor of Mount Song, alone transmitted the authentic teaching of the robe to China. He is the twenty-eighth-generation ancestor from Shakyamuni Buddha. In India twenty-eight generations of ancestors transmitted this teaching from heir to heir. The Twenty-eighth Ancestor entered China and became the First Ancestor there. After transmission of the teaching through five generations in China, Huineng of Caoxi became the thirty-third-generation ancestor. He is called the Sixth Chinese Ancestor.
Huineng, who would later become Zen Master Dajian, received a robe from Hongren at Mount Huangmei and maintained it for the rest of his life. This robe is still enshrined at the Baolin Monastery in Mount Caoxi, where he taught.
Over the generations, one emperor after another requested that the robe be brought to the palace. When it was, people made offerings and bowed to it. Thus, the robe has been worshipped as a sacred object. Emperors Zong, Su, and Dai of the Tang Dynasty occasionally invited the robe to be brought to the palace. Each time it was brought and each time it was returned, an imperial messenger accompanied it.
Once, when Emperor Dai sent this buddha robe back to Mount Caoxi, he proclaimed: “We order Liu Chongjing, the Nation’s Chief General, to transport the robe with great respect. We regard this robe as a national treasure. You should place it in the main temple with appropriate procedures. Make sure that the monks are notified of our command and protect the robe without fail.”
There is more merit in seeing the buddha robe, hearing the teaching of it, and making offerings to it than in presiding over the billion worlds. To be the king of a nation where the robe exists is an outstanding birth among innumerable births and deaths; it is indeed the most supreme birth.
In the billion worlds where the Buddha’s teaching reaches, is there any place that has no kashaya robe? Yet, Bodhidharma alone authentically transmitted the buddha kashaya face to face, heir to heir. Teachers who were not in this lineage were not given the buddha kashaya.
A transmission in the lineage of Bodhisattva Bhadrapala, a descendant of Prajnatara, the Twenty-seventh Ancestor, reached Dharma Teacher Sengzhao, but no buddha kashaya was transmitted to him.
Daoxin, the Fourth Ancestor in China, guided Niutou, who would later become Zen Master Farong, but did not give him a buddha kashaya.
Although the power of the Tathagata’s dharma is not lacking and its benefit is broad for thousands of years, even for those who did not receive heir-to-heir transmission of kashaya, those who received authentic heir-to-heir transmission of kashaya are not the same as those who didn’t. Therefore, when humans or devas receive a robe, they should receive one authentically transmitted by the buddha ancestors.
In India and China, even laypeople received kashaya in the Ages of True Dharma and Imitation Dharma. Nowadays, in the lands remote from India when the buddha dharma is thin and declining, those who shave their heads and faces, calling themselves the Buddha’s disciples, do not maintain the kashaya. They do not believe, know, or understand that the kashaya is to be maintained. What a pity! How can they know its form, color, and measurement? How can they know the proper way to wear it?
A kashaya has been called the garment of emancipation. The hindrances of actions and defilements, and the effects of unwholesome action are all removed by it. If a dragon obtains a small piece of kashaya, it can be cured of febrile diseases. If an ox touches a kashaya with one of its horns, its past wrongdoings disappear. When buddhas attain the way, they always wear a kashaya. Know that its power is unsurpassable and most venerable.
It is regrettable that we have been born in a remote land in the Age of Declining Dharma. However, we have the joy of meeting the teaching of the robe transmitted from buddha to buddha, heir to heir. In what lineage has Shakyamuni’s teaching of the robe been transmitted as authentically as it has been in ours? Who would not show reverence and make offerings upon meeting the teaching of the robe? You should make such offerings just for one day, even if you need to give up immeasurable lives to do so. You should vow to meet, uphold, revere, and make offerings to the robe, birth after birth, generation after generation.
We are thousands of miles away from the land where the Buddha was born, on the other side of mountains and oceans. We are unable to go there, but due to the influence of our past good actions, we are no longer blocked by mountains and oceans nor excluded by our ignorance in this remote place. We have met the true teaching and are determined to practice it day and night. We maintain, uphold, and guard the kashaya continuously.
Thus, the power of the kashaya is actualized through our practice, not merely with one or two buddhas but with as many buddhas as the sands of the Ganges. Even if it is your own practice, you should revere it, rejoice in it, and wholeheartedly express gratitude for the profound gift transmitted by the ancestral teachers. Even animals repay kindness; how should humans not recognize the kind help by others? If you do not understand kindness, you are more foolish than animals.
The power of the buddha robe, the buddha dharma, cannot be known and understood except by ancestors who transmit the Buddha’s true dharma. When you follow the path of buddhas, you should joyfully appreciate the buddha robe, the buddha dharma. You should continue this authentic transmission even for hundreds and thousands of future generations. This is buddha dharma freshly actualized.
Since the tenth year of the Yongping Era [67 C.E.] of Emperor Xiaoming of the Later Han Dynasty, monks and laypeople often went back and forth between India and China. But none of them said that they had met an ancestor in India who had authentic transmission from buddha ancestors. Thus, there was no lineage of face-to-face transmission from the Tathagata. These seekers only studied with masters of sutras and treatises and brought back Sanskrit scriptures. They did not say they had met ancestors who had authentically inherited buddha dharma. They did not say there were ancestors who had transmitted the buddha kashaya. Thus, we know that those people did not enter deeply into the chamber of buddha dharma and clarify the meaning of the correct transmission of the buddha ancestors.
The Tathagata Shakyamuni entrusted the treasury of the true dharma eye, the unsurpassable enlightenment, to Mahakashyapa along with the kashaya which had been transmitted by his teacher, Kashyapa Buddha. The robe was transmitted heir to heir for thirty-three generations, to Huineng. The shape, color, and measurements were intimately transmitted. After that, dharma descendants of Qingyuan and Nanyue, transmitting the dharma, sewed and wore the ancestral dharma. The teaching of washing and maintaining the robe was not known except by those who studied in the chamber of a master who had transmitted this teaching face to face.
There are three types of kashaya: a five-panel robe, a seven-panel robe, and a great robe [sanghati robe] such as a nine-panel robe. One who is engaged in authentic practice receives only such robes as these, which are enough to offer to the body, and does not keep other types of robes. For work and traveling far or near, a five-panel robe is worn. For conducting formal activities or joining the assembly, a seven-panel robe is worn. For guiding humans and devas and arousing their respect and trust, you should wear a great robe such as a nine-panel robe. A five-panel robe is worn indoors, and a seven-panel robe is worn while with other monks. A great robe is worn when entering the palace or in town.
Also, a five-panel robe is worn when it is mild; a seven-panel robe is added on top of it when it is cold. A great robe is further added when it is severely cold. Long ago in midwinter, when it was so cold that the bamboo was cracking, the Tathagata wore a five-panel robe in the early evening. Later at night it got colder, so he added a seven-panel robe. At the end of the night when it became even colder, he further added a great robe. The Buddha then thought, “In the future when the cold is severe, good monks can use these three robes to warm the body.”
These are ways to wear the kashaya: The most common way is to leave the right shoulder uncovered. There is also a way to cover both shoulders, which is customary for tathagatas and elders. When both shoulders are covered, the chest is either covered or revealed. Both shoulders are covered when a great kashaya of more than sixty panels is worn.
When you put on a kashaya, you start by placing both ends on your left shoulder and upper arm, hanging the ends over your left elbow. If you put on a great kashaya, you start by bringing the ends over the left shoulder and letting them hang down in back. There are many other ways to put on a kashaya. You should study deeply and make inquiries of your teacher.
For hundreds of years during the Liang, Chen, Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties, a number of scholars of Mahayana and Hinayana gave up lecturing on scripture, having learned that it was not the ultimate teaching. Intending to study the authentically transmitted dharma of buddha ancestors, they would invariably drop off their old robes and receive an authentically transmitted kashaya. This is departing from the limited and turning to the genuine.
The Tathagata’s dharma is rooted in India, where teachers in the past and present have gone beyond the limited views of ordinary people. As the realms of buddhas and the realms of sentient beings are neither limited nor unlimited, the teaching, practice, practitioner, and essence of Mahayana and Hinayana cannot be contained by ordinary people’s views. However, in China, practitioners often ignore teachings from India and regard recent interpretations with limited views as buddha dharma, which is a mistake.
Those who arouse an aspiration and wish to receive a kashaya should receive an authentically transmitted one. Do not receive a kashaya with a new design. What is called an authentically transmitted kashaya is what has been transmitted from Bodhidharma and Huineng, heir to heir directly from the Tathagata, without a generation’s gap. This is the authentically transmitted kashaya worn by dharma heirs and dharma descendants. Newly designed kashayas in China are not appropriate. The kashayas worn by monks from India in the past and present are all like the buddha ancestors’ authentically transmitted kashayas. None of them wore kashayas like those newly made by monks of the Precept School in China. Those who are ignorant believe in the kashayas of the Precept School, but those who have clear understanding do not.
The power of the kashaya transmitted by buddha ancestors is clear and easy to accept. The authentic transmission has been handed down from person to person. The true form has been shown to us directly. It still exists, as this dharma has been inherited up to the present. The ancestors who received a kashaya are all teachers and students who merged their minds and received dharma. Therefore, you should make a kashaya in the manner authentically transmitted by buddha ancestors.
As this is the authentic transmission, ordinary people and sages, humans and devas, as well as dragon kings, all know it. To be born to the abundance of this dharma and to wear a kashaya even once and maintain it for a moment is no other than wearing an amulet that assures the attainment of unsurpassable enlightenment.
When one phrase or one verse permeates your body and mind, it becomes a seed of illumination for limitless kalpas, and this brings you to unsurpassable enlightenment. When one dharma or one wholesome action permeates your body and mind, it is also like this.
Moment by moment a thought appears and disappears without abiding. Moment by moment a body appears and disappears without abiding. Yet, the power of practice always matures. A kashaya is neither made nor not made, neither abiding nor not abiding. It is the ultimate realm of buddha and buddha. A practitioner who receives it unfailingly attains and experiences its power.
Those who have no wholesome past actions cannot see, wear, receive, and understand a kashaya even if they live for one, two, or innumerable lifetimes. When I look at practitioners in China and Japan, I see that there are those who are able to wear a kashaya and those who are not. Their ability to wear one does not depend on how noble or lowly they are, how wise or ignorant they are, but on their wholesome past actions. Therefore, those who have received a kashaya should rejoice in their wholesome past actions, without doubting their accumulated merit. Those who have not received a kashaya should wish for one. Try to sow a seed of a kashaya immediately in this lifetime. Those who cannot receive one because of their hindrances should repent to buddha tathagatas and the three treasures.
How strongly people in other countries wish to have the Tathagata’s authentic transmission of the dharma of the robe in their countries, just as in China! How deep their regret is and how sorrowful they are that they do not have it! With what fortune have we encountered the authentic transmission of the World-Honored One’s robe dharma! This is due to the great power of our having nurtured prajna in the past.
Now, in this unwholesome time—the Age of Declining Dharma—people have no regret that they do not have authentic transmission, but they are jealous that others do. They seem like a gang of demons. What they believe and what they practice are not g
enuine, but only bound by their past actions. They should take refuge in the authentically transmitted buddha dharma as the true place of return in studying the buddha way.
You should know that a kashaya is what all buddhas respect and take refuge in. It is the buddha body, the buddha mind. It is called the clothing of emancipation, the robe of the field of benefaction, the robe beyond form, the unsurpassable robe, the robe of patience, the Tathagata’s robe, the robe of great love and great compassion, the robe as a victorious banner, and the robe of unsurpassable, complete enlightenment. Receive it indeed with utmost respect. This is why you should not alter it.
Either silk or common cloth is used as the material for a robe, according to the situation. It is not necessarily true that common cloth is pure and silk is impure. On the other hand, it would be unreasonable and laughable to exclude common cloth and only choose silk. According to the usual practice of buddhas, the robe of discarded cloth is regarded as excellent.
There are ten types of discarded cloth, including burned cloth, cloth chewed by oxen, cloth chewed by rats, and cloth from corpses. People throughout India throw away such cloth on streets or fields, just as we do with excrement-cleaning cloth. So, a robe of discarded cloth is actually called a robe of excrement-cleaning cloth. Practitioners pick up such cloths, wash them, and repair them for use. There can be pieces of silk and common cloth among them. Give up discrimination between silk and common cloth, and study the meaning of discarded cloth. Long ago a monk washed such a robe of discarded cloth in Anavatapta Lake, when the dragon king rained down flowers in admiration and respect.
Treasury of the True Dharma Eye Page 22
