Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings (101 page)

BALING HAOJIAN

BALING HAOJIAN (n.d.) was a disciple of Yunmen Wenyan. The record of Baling’s life is sketchy. He taught at Xinkai Temple in ancient Baling City in Yuezhou (now the city of Yueyang in Hunan Province).

At their first meeting, Yunmen asked Baling, “Master Xuefeng said, ‘Open the gate and Bodhidharma comes.’ I ask you, what does this mean?”

Baling said, “Blocking the master’s nostrils.”

Yunmen said, “The Spirit King of the earth unleashes his evil! A demon leaps from Mt. Sumeru up to Brahma Heaven and pinches the nostrils of the Heavenly Emperor! Why have you concealed your body in Japan?”

Baling said, “Better that the master not deceive people.”

Yunmen said, “Pinching this old monk’s nostrils, how will you do it?”

Baling was silent.

Yunmen said, “Now I know you’re just studying the flow of words.”

[Baling’s teacher] Yunmen said, “In the future, on my remembrance day, just restate these three turning phrases, then you will have repaid my benevolence.” Later, when Yunmen’s memorial occurred, it was in accordance with his instructions.

[Later,] when Baling took up residence as a teacher, he did not create a document of succession for his students. He only used three turning phrases as the way to attain the essence of the Yunmen school.

A monk asked, “What is Tao?”

Baling said, “A clear-sighted person falls in a well.”

A monk asked, “What is the ‘blown feather sword’?”

Baling said, “Coral branches hold up the moon.”

A monk asked, “What is old-lady Zen?”

Baling said, “Fresh snow in a silver bowl.”

A monk asked, “The meaning of the ancestors and the meaning of the scriptural teachings, are they the same or different?”

Baling said, “The cold fowl flies up in the tree. The cold duck dives into the water.”

The monk asked, “I don’t doubt the three vehicles and the twelve divisions. What is the main affair of our school?”

Baling said, “It’s not an affair of patch-robed monks.”

The monk asked, “What is the affair of patch-robed monks?”

Baling said, “While eating, seeing the white waves. Losing the hands and forearms.”

Baling asked a monk, “Did you come to walk on the mountain? Or did you come for the Buddhadharma?”

The monk said, “In the vast, peaceful world, what Buddhadharma can be spoken?”

Baling said, “A good Zen guest, without affairs.”

The monk said, “There have always been affairs.”

Baling said, “Didn’t you spend the summer here last year?”

The monk said, “No.”

Baling said, “In that case, you’ve come here before but we didn’t meet.”

When Baling was leaving the mountain, he gave his whisk to a monk. The monk said, “Originally there is only purity. Of what use is a whisk?”

Baling said, “Once you have known purity, nothing can be forgotten.”

DESHAN YUANMING, “YUANMI”

DESHAN YUANMING (908–87) was a disciple of Yunmen. Almost nothing is recorded of this teacher’s personal life in the ancient texts. He taught at Mt. De, located south of the modern city of Changde in Hunan Province. In case 46 of the
Book of Serenity
, Wansong provides a brief introduction to this teacher, saying that of all of Yunmen’s students, it was Deshan who developed the largest group of followers.