Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings (144 page)

Sixin addressed the monks, saying, “Great monks on pilgrimage open their cloth bags and take out their bowls and cloths, and thus remove all delights and vexations. They must know the place of ‘person.’ They must reach the place of ‘half person.’ And they also must intimately see the place of ‘no person.’”

Near death, Sixin recited a verse:

When speaking, everything is overturned.
When silent, a second thing falls, a third thing falls.
I say to Zen practitioners everywhere,
Sovereign mind is where practice ceases.

The master’s stupa was built north of the abbot’s room at Huitang Monastery.

WUZU FAYAN, “QINGYUAN”

WUZU FAYAN (1024–1104), also known as “Qingyuan,” was a disciple of Baiyun Shouduan. He came from Baxi City in Mianzhou (now the city of Mianyang in Sichuan Province). A great transmitter of the Yangqi line of Linji Zen, Wuzu’s teaching exerted profound influence on subsequent generations of Zen teachers and on wider Song dynasty society. Leaving home to become a monk at the relatively late age of thirty-five, he traveled to Chengdu to study the doctrines of the Consciousness-Only school of Buddhism. However, Wuzu was troubled by the proposition that when a bodhisattva enters the Way, wisdom and principle are eclipsed, and though environment and mind are reportedly realized as fully united, no evidence can be offered to affirm the truth of this unity.

With this doubt in mind, Wuzu made inquiries to a
Tripitaka
master about the nature of knowledge.
²⁰⁶
To his question he received the reply, “If a person drinks water, he personally knows hot and cold.”

While this helped to clarify Wuzu’s understanding, he still said, “Then hot and cold can be known, but what about knowledge of the self?”

Wuzu then asked (the teacher) Zhiben Jiang, “If one does not know the self, how can one understand principle?” But Jiang did not answer, and merely told him, “If you want to be clear on this, then go to the South and attach yourself to a teacher of the buddha mind doctrine.” Wuzu then left to seek out such a teacher.

Wuzu’s arduous journey led him to seek out Zen masters Yuanzhao and Fushan Fayuan, but neither of these teachers brought Wuzu to a full awakening.
²⁰⁷
Before Fushan died, he directed Wuzu to travel to Baiyun Shouduan’s temple to gain instruction.

Upon meeting Baiyun, Wuzu inquired to him about a story concerning Nanquan and the Mani Jewel.
²⁰⁸
Just when he finished asking this question, Baiyun shouted at Wuzu, causing him to instantly attain enlightenment. Wuzu then thanked Baiyun by offering the following verse:

Before the mountain spreads the plain.
Repeatedly, with folded hands, I asked the elders.
They sold to me so many times, and yet I purchased more,
Just to know that pine and bamboo bring forth the cloudless
wind.

Wuzu’s fame as a teacher spread widely and students gathered from throughout China to study under him. He first taught at Simian Shan (“Four Face Mountain”), and then moved to Mt. Baiyun. Later he moved to the Dongchan (“East Zen”) Temple on Wuzu Mountain.
²⁰⁹
Among Wuzu’s twenty-two Dharma heirs were the acclaimed “Three Buddhas,” the monks Foyan Qingyuan, Foguo Keqin, and Fojian Huiqin. The following passages appear in
The Record of Fayan
.

A monk asked Zen master Wuzu Fayan, “What is one drop of Baiyun?”

Fayan said, “Pounding. Grinding.”

The monk asked, “How about those who drink it?”

Fayan said, “I teach of a place where no face appears.”

A monk asked, “Baiyun cut off the tongues of everyone beneath heaven. But as for Baiyun’s tongue, who will cut it off?”

Wuzu said, “Old Wang in East Village.”

Wuzu then said, “It’s nothing other than ordinary affairs. But according to your thinking it’s something different. If you think you can understand through speech, then know you haven’t penetrated the truth. If you think you can’t understood through speech, then your head and mind are like a raging fire. So, just pass through Zhaozhou’s gate and cut off Baiyun’s tongue yourself. Don’t betray the ancient sages’ compassion.”

Fayan entered the hall. He recited the example of when a monk asked Baling Haojian, “Is the meaning of the ancestors and the meaning of the scriptures the same or different?” Baling said, “The cold fowl flies up into the tree. The cold duck dives into the water.”

Fayan said, “Old Baling! He only said one-half. Baiyun didn’t go along with his answer. Hold the water in your hands and possess the moon. Brush against the flowers and the fragrance fills your clothes.”

Wuzu addressed the monks, saying, “Yesterday when I went into town I noticed a puppet show going on. I couldn’t help going over there and taking a look. The puppet was really something to see! At first sight it seemed to move its limbs, walk around, and sit down all on its own. But when you looked closer, you could see that there was someone behind the blue curtain.

“I couldn’t help but call out, ‘Sir! What’s your name?’

“The man replied to me, ‘Honored Priest! Just watch the show. Why ask for names?’

“Brethren! When I heard him say this, I didn’t have a single word to say in reply, nor a single idea to espouse. Can any of you say anything in my place? Yesterday, that single instance of embarrassment has uprooted all my ideas now.”

Wuzu addressed the monks, saying, “When hearing is shallow, the realization is deep. When hearing is deep, there’s no realization. What can be done? What can be done? Making a true offering to Buddha doesn’t mean giving more incense.”

Fayan brought up for consideration the story of when a monk asked Yunmen, “What is the talk that is beyond the buddhas and ancestors?“

Yunmen replied, “Cake.”

Fayan said, “I don’t answer that way. If someone suddenly asks me, ‘What is the speech that is beyond the buddhas and ancestors?’ I’d just reply to him, ‘Donkey shit is like horse shit.’ Or I’d say, ‘Worn-out reed sandals.’ Or I might say, ‘The Tortoise God drags his tail.’ So now I ask you, are my answers the same or different than Yunmen’s? Consider this question.”