Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings (114 page)

A monk asked, “What is it when a student is not yet enlightened?”

Fenyang said, “No one is enlightened.”

The monk asked, “How about after he is enlightened?”

Fenyang said, “There’s no fooling a clear-headed one.”

Duke Li of Longdehou Township was an old friend of the master. Because Xu Chengtian Temple became vacant there, Li wanted to invite the master to come there and expound the Dharma. An emissary from the Duke came to Fenyang three times, but each time Fenyang refused to leave the mountain. The emissary was threatened with severe punishment by Duke Li, so he came to the mountain yet another time and said, “I must insist that the master accompany me. Otherwise I’ll be put to death!”

Fenyang laughed and said, “I haven’t left the mountain because I’ve been quite sick. But, if I must do so, then must we go together? Should I go first or should you go first?”

The emissary said, “It only matters that you agree to go. It doesn’t matter who goes first.”

Fenyang then ordered that a banquet be prepared.

Taking up his traveling bag, he said, “I’ll go first.”

Upon saying these words he passed away. His disciples cremated the master, retrieved his relics, and built a stupa to house them.

SHEXIAN GUIXING

SHEXIAN GUIXING (n.d.) was a disciple of Shoushan Xingnian. He came from ancient Jizhou (located southwest of Shijiazhuang in Hebei Province). As a novice monk he lived in Baoshou Monastery. After taking ordination he traveled widely, finally studying under Shoushan. Later, he lived and taught at Guangjiao Monastery in Ruzhou.

One day Shoushan held up a bamboo comb and asked, “If you call it a bamboo comb you commit an offense. If you don’t call it a bamboo comb then you’ve turned away from what you see. What do you call it?”

Shexian grabbed the comb out of Shoushan’s hand, threw it to the floor and said, “What is it?”

Shoushan said, “Blind.”

At these words Shexian suddenly experienced unsurpassed awakening.

When Shexian began teaching, a monk asked him, “All the ancestors have one after the other passed on the ancestral seal. Whose heritage have you now attained?”

Shexian said, “At the center of the realm, an emperor. Beyond the frontier, a general.”

A monk asked, “What is ‘within the dust, a single revealed body’?”

Shexian said, “In the cold north, a thousand people’s flags. South of the river, ten-thousand-ton ships.”

The monk said, “In that case, it isn’t the dust.”

Shexian said, “If you study the flow of words, a single page has ten thousand lines.”

Shexian entered the hall and addressed the monks, saying, “The blood and marrow of the teachers of our school; what is mundane and holy; Longshu and Maming [names of famous Buddhists of earlier times]; heaven and hell; the scalding cauldron and furnace embers [tortures of hell]; the ox-headed jailers [demons in hell]; the myriad phenomena of the universe; heavenly bodies; all things of the earth, animate and inanimate…” Shexian drew a circle in the air with his hand and then continued,“…all of them enter this essential teaching. Within this teaching people can be killed and they can be given life. Those who die endure the killing knife. Those who live must attain the life-giving phrase. What are the killing knife and the life-giving phrase? Can you answer me? Come out of the congregation and we’ll test you. If you can’t speak, then you’ve betrayed your life! Take care!”

A monk asked, “I’m confused about my self. How should I examine it?”

Shexian said, “In the bustling market, beat the silent hammer.”

A monk asked, “Vimalakirti’s room did not use the sun or moon for light. What does the master’s room use for light?”

Shexian said, “Eyebrows separate the ‘eight’ words.”

The monk said, “I don’t understand your meaning.”

Shexian said, “Your ears hang down to your shoulders.”

A monk asked, “What is the work that goes beyond the teacher?”

Shexian said, “Look how long my eyebrows have gotten!”

A monk asked, “What is the pure dharmakaya?”

Shexian said, “Toilet paper by the latrine.”

The monk asked, “What is wisdom?”

Shexian said, “Breaking furniture.”