It’s funny you are setting up a fishing pole on the sand.
Suppose there is a game of go; who are the two players? If you say that you and I are playing go, it means you have a handicap of eight stones. If you have a handicap of eight stones, it is no longer a game.
What is the meaning of this? When you answer, answer this way: You play go with yourself; the opponents become one. Thus, steadying your mind and turning your body, examine Hongzhi’s words, If you do not respond to my move. That means you are not yet you. Do not neglect the words, I’ll swallow you up. Mud is within mud. Wash your feet, wash the tassel on your hat. A jewel is within a jewel, illuminating other, illuminating the self.
Keqin, Zen Master Yuanwu of Mount Jia, is an heir of Fayan, of Mount Wuzu. About this case he said:
A board rolls on a pearl and a pearl rolls on a board.
Differentiation within oneness; oneness within differentiation.
A mountain goat hangs by its horns on a branch, leaving no trace.
A hunting dog runs in the forest, taking empty steps.
The words A board rolls on a pearl appear before the light and cut off the future—rarely heard in the past and present. Until now it has only been said that things do not abide, like pearls rolling on a board. However, now a mountain goat hangs by its horns in emptiness. The forest runs around the hunting dog.
Xuedou, Zen Master Mingjiao of the Zisheng Monastery on Mount Xuedou, Qingyuan Prefecture, is an heir of Beita Guangzuo. (His priest name is Zhongxian.) Once, he said:
Reaching out your arms is climbing the ten-thousand-foot cliff.
Oneness and differentiation are not necessarily fixed.
The old lapis lazuli hall brightly illuminates the moon.
A fierce dog tiptoes up the stairs of emptiness.
Xuedou is a third-generation dharma descendant of Yunmen. He should be called a mature skin bag. By saying Reaching out your arms is climbing the ten-thousand-foot cliff, he seems to show an extraordinary mark, but it is not necessarily so. The matter discussed between the monk and Dongshan is not necessarily limited to extending the arms, not extending the arms, going into the world, or not going into the world. Furthermore, why did he emphasize the words differentiation and oneness? It seems that Xuedou could not deal with this matter without the view of differentiation and oneness. The reason he does not grasp this study by the nose is that he has not reached the neighborhood of Dongshan and does not see the great house of buddha dharma. He should take up his sandals and inquire further. Do not mistakenly say that Dongshan’s buddha dharma is the Five Ranks of oneness and differentiation.
Tianning, Zen Master Changling, Shouzhuo of the Tianning Monastery in Dongjing, wrote a poem on this case:
Within differentiation there is oneness.
Within oneness there is differentiation.
Drifting in the human world hundreds and thousands of years,
again and again we want to depart but cannot.
In front of the gate just as before, weeds abound.
Although he talks about differentiation and oneness, somehow he has touched it. Indeed there is something he has touched. What is within differentiation?
Fuxing of Mount Gui, Tan Region, is an heir of Yuanwu.(His priest name is Fatai.) He said:
The place where there is no cold or heat leads to you.
A decayed tree brings forth blossoms once again.
It’s like looking at the mark on the boat for the sword dropped into the water.
Even now you are in the midst of cold ash.
These words have some power of crushing the fundamental point underfoot while raising it overhead.
Letan Zhantang, Zen Master Wenzhun, said:
When it is hot, heat prevails; in cold, cold prevails.
From the beginning, cold and heat do not interfere with each other.
Moving through the heavens, you become well versed in worldly affairs.
On your honorable head you wear a wild boar hat.
Now, I [Dogen] ask you, “What is not-interfering?” Answer quick, quick!
Heshan, Zen Master Fudeng of Mount He, Hu Region (whose priest name is priest Shouxun), is an heir of Taiping Huiqin, Zen Master Fujian. He said:
“Where there is no cold or heat” is Dongshan’s phrase.
This place is where a number of Zen persons get lost.
Go for fire when it is cold, and cool yourself when it is hot.
All your life you can avoid cold and heat.
Although Heshan is a dharma descendant of Wuzu Fayan, his words appear to be child’s talk. However, All your life you can avoid cold and heat hints at his later maturity as a great old master. All your life is your entire life; avoid cold and heat is nothing other than dropping away body and mind.
Various masters of different generations smacked their lips in presenting their capping verses, but they did not even come close to Dongshan. The reason is that they mistakenly talked about cooling off and warming up without understanding cold or heat in the everyday activities of buddha ancestors. This is most pitiful. What did they learn about cold or heat from their old masters? How sad that the ancestral way has declined!
Only after you understand the meaning of cold and heat, permeate the moment of cold and heat, and activate cold and heat, should you add a capping verse to explain the words of Dongshan. Otherwise, you are not as good as those who know nothing. Even in the secular world the understanding of sun and moon, and how to abide with all things, varies according to sages, learned people, virtuous people, and ignorant people. Don’t think that cold and heat in the buddha way are the same as the cold and heat that ignorant people talk about. Investigate this directly.
Presented twice to the assembly in a deep mountain of Echizen in the second year of the Kangen Era [1244]. At the moment of meeting Buddha, the Unicorn Sutra is expounded. An ancestor [Qingyuan commenting on Shitou] said, “Although there are many horns, a single horn is sufficient.”
67
THE MEANING OF BODHIDHARMA’S COMING FROM INDIA
XIANGYAN, GREAT MASTER Xideng of the Xiangyan Monastery, whose priest name was Zhixian, was a dharma heir of Guishan.
He once said to the assembly, “What if you are hanging by your teeth from a tree branch on a one-thousand-foot cliff, with no place for your hands or feet to reach. All of a sudden someone under the tree asks you, ‘What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India?’ If you open your mouth to respond, you will lose your life. If you don’t respond, you don’t attend to the question. Tell me, what would you do?”
Then, senior monk Zhao from Hutou came out and said, “Master, I will not ask you about being in a tree. But tell me, what happens before climbing the tree?”
Xiangyan burst into laughter.
Many people have investigated and discussed this case, but few have spoken penetrating words about it. Most have been dumbfounded.
However, if we think about this case by taking up not-thinking and beyond thinking, we can have the experience of sharing a cushion with Old Man Xiangyan. If you sit steadfastly together with Xiangyan on the same cushion, you must understand this case thoroughly before he opens his mouth. Seeing it thoroughly, you will not only steal Xiang-yan’s eyeball, but also take up Shakyamuni Buddha’s treasury of the true dharma eye.
Now, quietly examine the words What if you are hanging by your teeth from a tree branch on a one-thousand-foot cliff? What is you?
Do not see a pillar as separate from a stake. Do not miss encountering self and other in the smile of a buddha face, an ancestor face. The tree from which you are hanging is neither the entire great earth nor the top of a one-hundred-foot pole. It is a one-thousand-foot cliff. You drop away within the one-thousand-foot cliff.
There is time to fall from the tree as well as to climb it. What if you are hanging by your teeth from a tree branch on a one-thousand-foot cliff? Know that there was the time you climbed it.
Thus, going up is one thousand feet, going down is one
thousand feet. Going toward the left is one thousand feet, going toward the right is one thousand feet. Here is one thousand feet, there is one thousand feet. You are one thousand feet, climbing is one thousand feet. The one thousand feet spoken of is just like this.
Let me ask you: what is the size of one thousand feet? Let me say it is just like the size of an old mirror, a furnace, or a seamless tower.
By your teeth from a tree branch. What are the teeth? Even if you don’t know the entire mouth opening, you should first look for the branch, check its leaves, and know where your mouth is. What grasps the branch are the teeth. Thus, the entire teeth are the branch, the entire branch is the teeth. The whole body is the mouth. The whole mouth is the whole body.
The tree steps on the tree. Thus, it is said that the feet don’t step on the tree; the feet step on themselves. The branch climbs on itself. Thus, it is said that the hands do not climb on the branch; the hands climb on themselves. This being so, the heels step forward and backward; the hand makes a fist and opens.
People here and there think that this case is about hanging in emptiness. But is hanging in emptiness the same as hanging from a tree by your teeth?
All of a sudden someone under the tree asks you, “What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India?” This line may suggest that there is someone under the tree. It may be a person tree. There is a person under a person. Thus, the tree questions the tree. The person questions the person. The entire tree is the entire question. This is taking up the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India by inquiring, What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India?
The one who is inquiring also hangs from the tree by the teeth and questions. Without hanging from the tree by the teeth, the questioning is not possible, the voice does not fill the mouth, and the mouth is not filled with words. When you ask the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India, you ask, while hanging by your teeth, the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India.
If you open your mouth to respond, you will lose your life. Now, examine intimately the words if you open your mouth to respond. It is said that there is a way to respond by not opening your mouth. Then you will not lose your life.
Opening or not opening your mouth does not hinder hanging by your teeth from a tree branch. Opening and closing are not necessarily the activity of the entire mouth. But the entire mouth opens or closes. Thus, hanging by your teeth is the entire mouth’s everyday activity. Opening or closing does not hinder the entire mouth.
Does open your mouth to respond mean to respond by opening the branch or by opening the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India? If the response does not open the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India, it does not respond to the question. The entire body maintains life, and we cannot say you will lose your life. If you have already lost your life, you cannot respond.
However, what Xiangyan meant was that you should dare to respond and just lose your life.
Know that when you don’t respond, you maintain life; when you respond, you twirl your body and vitalize life. From this we see that each person filling the mouth is expression. Respond to another, respond to yourself. Ask another, ask yourself. This is hanging on expression by the teeth. Hanging on expression by your teeth is hanging by your teeth from a tree branch. Responding to another is opening the mouth in the mouth. Not responding to another does not attend to the other’s question, but it does attend to your own question.
Thus, know that buddhas and ancestors who respond to the question, What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India? all respond at the very moment of hanging by their teeth from a tree branch. Buddhas and ancestors who ask, What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India? all ask the question at the very moment of hanging by their teeth from a tree branch.
Xuedou, Priest Zhongxian, also called Zen Master Mingjiao, said, “Speaking in a tree is easy, but speaking under the tree is difficult. I am already in a tree. Bring me your question.”
Regarding bring me your question, however hard one tries, it is regrettable that the question comes slowly and that it comes after the answer.
Let me ask the old gimlets throughout past and present: Xiangyan’s bursting into laughter—is it speaking in the tree or speaking under the tree? Is it or is it not responding to the question, What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India? Tell me, how do you see it?
Presented to the assembly in a deep mountain of Echizen Province on the fourth day, the second month, the second year of the Kangen Era [1244].
68
UDUMBARA BLOSSOM
AT THE ASSEMBLY of a million beings on Vulture Peak, the World-Honored One held up an udumbara blossom and blinked. Then, Mahakashyapa smiled. The World-Honored One said, “I have the treasury of the true dharma eye, the wondrous heart of nirvana. I entrust it to Mahakashyapa.”
The Seven Original Buddhas and all buddhas equally hold up this flower. They realize and manifest holding up the flower of going beyond. They break open and clarify holding up the flower right at this moment. This being so, going beyond and going within, self and other, and the going forward and going back of holding up the flower are altogether holding up the entire flower. This is flower dimension, buddha dimension, mind dimension, and body dimension.
No matter how many times a flower is held up, it is transmission and entrusting [of the dharma] face to face, heir to heir. The World-Honored One’s holding up the flower has not been abandoned. Your holding up the flower that the World-Honored One held up is your inheriting the World-Honored One. As the moment of holding up the flower is throughout time, you are with the World-Honored One, holding up the flower.
Holding up a flower means a flower holding up a flower. The flower can be a plum blossom, spring blossom, snow blossom, or lotus. The five petals of a plum blossom are three hundred sixty or more assemblies, five thousand forty-eight fascicles [of sutras], Three Vehicles and Twelve Divisions [of the Buddha’s teaching], as well as three types and ten stages of bodhisattvas. And yet, it is beyond the understanding of three types and ten stages of bodhisattvas.
In this flower, there is a great basket [of scriptures], there is something extraordinary. This is called “the world of blossoming flowers arises.”
“One flower opens five petals. The fruit matures of itself” [from a verse by Bodhidharma] means the entire body upholds the entire body. Seeing peach blossoms and smashing the eyeball, or hearing the sound of green bamboo and obscuring the ear consciousness, is the right now of holding up the flower. Cutting the arm in deep snow, or bowing and attaining the marrow, is the unfolding of the blossom of itself. Husking rice in the stone mortar and having a robe transmitted deep in the night is the flower holding up itself. All these are the life root in the hand of the World-Honored One.
Now, holding up a flower existed before the World-Honored One attained enlightenment. It took place at the same time that the World-Honored One attained enlightenment. It has taken place after he attained enlightenment. In this way the flower attains enlightenment. Holding up the flower goes beyond these times. Arousing the aspiration for enlightenment and receiving initiation, as well as practice, realization, and continuation, all stir up the spring wind of holding up the flower.
Thus, Gautama, the World-Honored One, entered the flower and hid in emptiness. He must have held up the nostrils. He did hold up the void and called it holding up the flower. Holding up the flower is holding it up with the eyeball, with mind consciousness, with the nostrils, and with holding up the flower.
Mountains, rivers, sun, moon, wind, and rain, as well as humans, animals, grass, and trees—each and all has been held up. This is holding up the flower. The coming and going of birth and death is a variety of blossoms and their colors. For us to study in this way is holding up the blossom.
The Buddha said [in the Lotus Sutra], “It is like an udumbara blossom. All beings love and enjoy it.”
All beings here means buddha ancestors who manifest or hid
e their bodies. Grass, trees, and insects all have radiant light. Love and enjoy it means that the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow of each one of them is vital now. Thus, all are the udumbara blossom. That is why it is so extraordinary.
Blinking takes place when the Tathagata sits through under the tree and replaces his eyeball with the morning star. At that moment Mahakashyapa smiles. His face immediately changes and is replaced with the face of taking up the flower.
When the Tathagata blinks, our eyeball is immediately smashed. This blinking of the Tathagata is itself taking up the flower. It is the udumbara flower opening of itself.
At the very moment of taking up the flower, all Gautamas, all Mahakashyapas, all sentient beings, all of us hold up a single hand and together take up the flower. This has never ceased till now. Within this hand is the samadhi of hiding the body, which is called the four great elements and the five skandhas.
I have is entrusting. Entrusting is I have. Entrusting is always immersed in I have. I have is the head top. You study I have by grasping the measurement of the head top. When you take up I have and replace it with entrusting, you uphold the treasury of the true dharma eye.
Treasury of the True Dharma Eye Page 77
