Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings (139 page)

Baoning addressed the monks, saying, “Look! Look! I’ve fallen into ‘Plucking Tongue Hell’ [a hell where persons who have spoken deceptively have their tongues yanked out]!”

Baoning then pinched his own tongue and cried out, “Aiya! Aiya!”

Baoning said, “There’s no Maitreya Buddha up in heaven and there’s no Maitreya Buddha in the earth. Why is it that even if you bust open emptiness you still can’t find him?”

Baoning then hung a foot down off of his seat and said, “Everyone! Where are you going?”

Baoning said, “If you say that the Buddhadharma supports all beings, you won’t avoid having your eyebrows fall out. If you say that the worldly dharmas support all beings, you shoot straight into hell like an arrow.

“But aside from these two ways of speaking, what can I say today? There’s no use for the three-inch tongue. The two empty hands can’t make a fist!”

A monk asked Baoning Renyong, “What is Buddha?”

Baoning said, “Add wood to the fire.”

The monk asked, “What is the Way?”

Baoning said, “There are thorns in the mud.”

The monk asked, “Who are people of the Way?”

Baoning said, “Those that hate walking there.”

A monk asked, “An old worthy said, ‘Though the cold wind withers the leaves, it is still a joy when an ancient returns.’ Who is an ‘ancient’?”

Baoning said, “Master Yangqi is long gone.”

The monk said, “Right here and now, is there someone who can comprehend this?”

Baoning said, “The eyeless old villager secretly taps his head.”

A monk asked, “What is Buddha?”

Baoning said, “You’re not aware of the stink of your own shit.”

Baoning recited a verse to the monks:

A cold autumn wind.
The wind drones in the pines.
The wayward traveler
Thinks of his home.

Then Baoning said, “Who do you say is the traveler? Where is his home?”

A monk asked, “What is Baoning’s domain?”

Baoning said, “The king of the mountain falls down.”

The monk asked, “What is a person in Baoning’s domain?”

Baoning said, “One can’t have a single nostril.”

A monk asked, “What is Buddha?”

Baoning said, “An iron mallet with no holes.”

The monk then asked, “What is the great meaning of the Buddhadharma?”

Baoning said, “A hot soup pot has no cold place.”

A monk asked, “Lingshan pointed to the moon. The Sixth Ancestor spoke of the moon. But I, as yet, don’t know what is beneath Baoning’s gate.”

Baoning yelled, “Ah!”

The monk said, “There are flowers stuck to your face.”

Baoning shouted.

The monk asked, “I don’t ask about picking leaves or seeking branches. I just ask, ‘What is it that directly cuts off the source root?’”

Baoning said, “A mosquito on an iron ox.”

The monk said, “For those who are clear about cutting off the source, how do you point out the flow?”

Baoning said, “The stone man’s back streams with sweat.”

DAGUI MUCHE, “GUISHAN ZHE”

DAGUI MUCHE (d. 1132) was a disciple of Cuiyan Zhen. He came from Linchuan in Fuzhou.

A monk asked Dagui, “What is the meaning of Zhaozhou’s cypress tree in the garden?”

Dagui said, “The solitary guest, already cold, felt the piercing sensation of the night wind.”