Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings (40 page)

A monk asked, “Where will you flee to if Huang Chao’s troops come?”
⁹¹

Da’an said, “Inside Skandhas Mountain.”

The monk said, “When they suddenly grab you, then what?”

Da’an said, “Commander Distress.”

Da’an taught in Fuzhou. He later returned to Mt. Huangbo and died there. His stupa was constructed on Mt. Lanka and he received the posthumous title “Zen Master Perfect Wisdom.”

BAIZHANG NIEPAN, “FAZHENG”

BAIZHANG NIEPAN (n.d.) was a student of Baizhang Huaihai. Little is recorded of Baizhang Niepan’s life. It is known that upon the death of his teacher, he assumed the abbacy of his temple. The
Wudeng Huiyuan
offers this short story concerning this teacher.

One day, Zen master Baizhang Niepan spoke to the congregation, saying, “If all of you go and till the field, then I’ll lecture on the great meaning.”

When the monks had finished plowing the field they returned and asked the master to expound on the great meaning.

Niepan held up his hands before the monks.

The monks were dumbfounded. (In the Song dynasty, Zen master Juefan Hongzhi compiled a text known as
The Record of the Monasteries
. In that record it says, “Fazheng [Baizhang Niepan], a second-generation teacher beneath Baizhang Huaihai, was a great wisdom ancestor. He originally studied the Nirvana Sutra. People did not call him by his name, instead referring to him as ‘Zen Master Nirvana.’ When he ascended the Dharma seat his merit was very great. He was the master who told the monks to first plow the field, and then he would tell them the great meaning.” Zen masters Huangbo, Guling, and others all honored him.
⁹²
The Tang dynasty literary figure Huang Wufan recorded the details inscribed on his stupa monument that were originally written by Yang Gongquan, [which revealed the master’s] timeless wisdom. The monk Baizhang Weizheng is listed incorrectly in the lamp records as an immediate descendant of Mazu. In the lamp record entitled
The Record of the True School
there are the two names Wei Zheng and Fazheng listed in the generation of Baizhang Huaihai. [The compiler of that record] Zen master Mingzhao did not realize that these two names were the same person and thus saved them both. Now we correct this error in accordance with the record of Yang Gongquan.)

GUISHAN LINGYOU

ZEN MASTER GUISHAN LINGYOU (771–853) was a disciple of Baizhang Huaihai. Along with his student Yangshan, he founded what later generations called the Guiyang school, the first of the five traditional “houses” of Zen. Many kōans in the Zen tradition consist of dialogues between Guishan and Yangshan. Some of these kōans, and the teachings of this school in general, are characterized by the use of symbols, symbolic actions, and metaphors. Although Zen’s use of such devices was well established prior to the Guiyang school, there they found their foremost expressions to date within the Chinese Zen tradition. Among the traditional Zen houses, the Guiyang’s use of symbols aligned its teaching methods most closely to the practices of Buddhism’s esoteric schools.

The
Wudeng Huiyuan
provides this traditional account of Guishan’s enlightenment and his subsequent assignment to become the abbot on Mt. Gui.

Zen master Guishan Lingyou had the surname Zhao. He came from the village of Changxi in Fuzhou. He left home to enter Build Goodness Temple in his native province at the age of fifteen. There, he studied under the Vinaya master Fa Chang. Later, Guishan received full ordination at Longxing Temple in Hangzhou, where he also studied the Mahayana and Hinayana scriptures. At the age of twenty-three he traveled to Jiangxi, where he studied under Baizhang Huaihai. Baizhang permitted Guishan to become his disciple upon their first meeting. Later, Guishan attained the position of head of practice among the monks.

Once, while Lingyou was acting as attendant to Baizhang, Baizhang asked him, “Who’s there?”

Lingyou said, “Me.”

Baizhang then said to him, “Stick a poker in the fire and see if there is any fire left in it.”

Lingyou did so and said, “There’s no fire left.”

Baizhang then took the poker himself and, sticking it deep into the stove, pulled out some hot embers. Showing them to Lingyou he said, “You said there was no fire left, but what about this?”

Upon hearing these words Guishan experienced great enlightenment. He then bowed and made his realization known to Baizhang.

Baizhang said, “What you’ve experienced is a temporary fork in the road. In the scripture it says, ‘If you want to understand the meaning of buddha nature, then you should look in the realm of temporal causation.’ When it expresses itself, it is like delusion suddenly turning into enlightenment, like remembering something that was forgotten, and realizing that the self and other things do not come from someplace else. Thus, an ancient teacher said, ‘Enlightenment is but the same as nonenlightenment, without mind and without dharmas.’ It is just this mind that does not hold to ideas of emptiness, delusion, mundane, or sacred. It is the original mind-Dharma that is, of itself, perfect and complete. Having arrived at this, you must uphold and sustain it.”

The next day Lingyou accompanied Baizhang to do work on the mountain. Baizhang said, “Did you bring fire?”

Lingou said, “I brought it.”

Baizhang said, “Where is it?”

Guishan then picked up a piece of firewood and whistled twice, then handed the piece of wood to Baizhang.

Baizhang said, “Like a termite eating wood.”

A Buddhist pilgrim named Sima came from Hunan. He spoke to Baizhang, saying, “Recently at Hunan, I came upon a mountain named Big Gui where fifteen hundred Buddhist worthies reside.”
⁹³

Baizhang said, “Should I go there [as abbot]?”

The pilgrim said, “It is not where Master Baizhang should reside.”

Baizhang said, “Why is that?”

The pilgrim said, “The master is a teacher of bone. That place is the flesh.”

Baizhang said, “Is there anyone in my congregation here who could assume that position?”

The pilgrim said, “Let me examine them and see.”

At that time the monk Hua Linjue had the position of head monk. Baizhang asked his attendant to summon Hua.

When Hua arrived, Baizhang said to the pilgrim Sima, “How about this fellow?”

Sima asked Hua to speak a few words and walk back and forth. Then he said to Baizhang, “He won’t do.”

Baizhang then summoned Lingyou. At that time Lingyou served as head cook.

Sima took one look at Guishan and said, “This is the abbot of Mt. Gui.”

That night Baizhang summoned Guishan to his room and instructed him, “My fate lies here, but as for glorious Mt. Gui, you will go there as abbot and carry on my teaching for future generations.”

When Hua Linjue heard of this, he said to Baizhang, “I’m the one who was promoted to the position of head monk. Why is the chief cook going to attain the position of abbot?”

Baizhang said, “If you can say a special word before all the monks, then I’ll appoint you to the position of abbot.”

Baizhang then pointed at a water pitcher and said, “Without saying it’s a water pitcher, what is it?”

Hua said, “You can’t call it a wooden stool.”

Baizhang then asked Lingyou the same question.

Lingyou then kicked over the water pitcher and went out.

Baizhang laughed and said, “The head monk loses.”

Lingyou then left to travel to Mt. Gui.