Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings (47 page)

Yunyan said, “Why don’t you let him make it himself?”

Yunyan said, “Fortunately, I’m here to do it.”

Once, when Yunyan was sweeping, Daowu said to him, “Too hurried!”

Yunyan said, “You should know that there is a something that is not hurried.”

Daowu said, “In that case, is there a second moon?”

Yunyan held up the broom and said, “What moon is this?”

Daowu then went off. (Xuansha heard about this and said, “Exactly the second moon.”)

After becoming an abbot, Yunyan addressed the monks, saying, “There is the son of a certain household. There is no question that he can’t answer.”

Dongshan came forward and asked, “How many classic books are there in his house?”

Yunyan said, “Not a single word.”

Dongshan said, “Then how can he be so knowledgeable?”

Yunyan said, “Day and night he has never slept.”

Dongshan said, “Can he be asked about a certain matter?”

Yunyan said, “What he answers is not spoken.”

Zen master Yunyan asked a monk, “Where have you come from?”

The monk said, “From Tianxiang [‘heavenly figure’].”

Yunyan said, “Did you see a buddha or not?”

The monk said, “I saw one.”

Yunyan said, “Where did you see him?”

The monk said, “I saw him in the lower realm.”

Yunyan said, “An ancient buddha! An ancient buddha!”

During [the year 841] Yunyan became ill. After giving orders to have the bath readied he called the head of the monks and instructed him to prepare a banquet for the next day because a monk was leaving. On the evening of the twenty-seventh of the month he died. His cremated remains contained more than a thousand sacred relics that were placed in a stone stupa. Yunyan received the posthumous title “Great Teacher No Abode.”

CHUANZI DECHENG

CHUANZI DECHENG (805–81), also known as the “Boatman” or “Boat Monk,” was a disciple and Dharma heir of Yaoshan. His lay home was located in Suining (now a place in modern Sichuan Province). Decheng studied with Yaoshan for thirty years and received the mind seal. Later, he lived in relative seclusion at Huating, on the bank of the Wu River (in the area of modern Shanghai), where he used a small boat to ferry people across the river.

Zen master Chengzi Decheng of Huating in Xiuzhou possessed great integrity and unusual ability. At the time when he received Dharma transmission from Yaoshan he intimately practiced the Way with Daowu and Yunyan. When he left Mt. Yao he said to them, “You two must each go into the world your separate ways and uphold the essence of our teacher’s path. My own nature is undisciplined. I delight in nature and in doing as I please. I’m not fit [to be head of a monastery]. But remember where I reside. And if you come upon persons of great ability, send one of them to me. Let me teach him and I’ll pass on to him everything I’ve learned in life. In this way I can repay the kindness of our late teacher.”

Then Decheng departed and went to Huating in Xiuzhou. There he lived his life rowing a small boat, transporting travelers across the river. People there didn’t know that he possessed farreaching knowledge and ability. They called him the “Boat Monk.”

Once at the boat landing at the side of the river an official asked him, “What do you do each day?”

Decheng held the boat oar straight up in the air and said, “Do you understand?”

The official said, “I don’t understand.”

Decheng said, “If you only row in the clear waves, it’s hard to find the golden fish.”

Decheng composed a verse that said:

Thirty years on the river bank,
Angling for the great function,
If you don’t catch the golden fish, it’s all in vain.
You may as well reel in and go back home.

Letting down the line ten thousand feet,
A breaking wave makes ten thousand ripples.
At night in still water, the cold fish won’t bite.
An empty boat filled with moonlight returns.

Sailing the sea for thirty years,
The fish seen in clear water won’t take the hook.
Breaking the fishing pole, growing bamboo,
Abandoning all schemes, one finds repose.

There’s a great fish that can’t be measured.
It embraces the astonishing and wondrous!
In wind and thunder transformed,
How can it be caught?

Others only seek gathering lotus flowers,
Their scent pervading the wind.
But as long as there are two shores and a lone red boat,
There’s no escape from pollution, nor any attainment of
emptiness.

If you asked, “Is this lone boat all there is in life?”
I’d say, “Descendants will each see the results.”
Not depending on earth or heaven,
When the rain shawl is removed, nothing’s left to pass on.

[Later,] Daowu went to Jingkou where he happened to see Jiashan Shanhui give a lecture. A monk attending the talk asked Jiashan, “What is the dharmakaya?”

Jiashan said, “The dharmakaya is formless.”
⁹⁸

The monk asked, “What is the Dharma eye?”

Jiashan said, “The Dharma eye is without defect.”

When he heard this, Daowu laughed loudly in spite of himself.

Jiashan got down off the lecture platform and said to Daowu, “Something I said in my answer to that monk was not correct and it caused you to laugh out loud. Please don’t withhold your compassionate instruction about this!”

Daowu said, “You have gone into the world to teach, but have you not had a teacher?”

Jiashan said, “I’ve had none. May I ask you to clarify these matters?”

Daowu said, “I can’t speak of it. I invite you to go see the Boat Monk at Huating.”

Jiashan said, “Who is he?”

Daowu said, “Above him there’s not a single roof tile, below him there’s no ground to plant a hoe. If you want to see him you must change into your traveling clothes.”

After the meeting was over, Jiashan packed his bag and set out for Huating.

When Decheng saw Jiashan coming he said, “Your Reverence! In what temple do you reside?”

Jiashan said, “I don’t abide in a temple. Where I abide is not like…”

Decheng said, “It’s not like? It’s not like what?”

Jiashan said, “It’s not like the Dharma that meets the eye.”

Decheng said, “Where did you learn this teaching?”

Jiashan said, “Not in a place which the ears or eyes can perceive.”

Decheng said, “A single phrase and you fall into the path of principle. Then you’re like a donkey tethered to a post for countless eons.”

Then Decheng said, “You’ve let down a thousand-foot line. You’re fishing very deep, but your hook is still shy by three inches. Why don’t you say something?”

As Jiashan was about to speak Decheng knocked him into the water with the oar. When Jiashan clambered back into the boat Decheng yelled at him, “Speak! Speak!”

Jiashan tried to speak but before he could do so Decheng struck him again. Suddenly Jiashan attained great enlightenment. He then nodded his head three times.

Then Chuanzi said, “Now you’re the one with the pole and line. Just act by your own nature and don’t defile the clear waves.”

Jiashan asked, “What do you mean by ‘throw off the line and cast down the pole’?”

Chuanzi said, “The fishing line hangs in the green water, drifting without intention.”

Jiashan said, “There is no path whereby words may gain entry to the essence. The tongue speaks, but cannot speak it.”

Chuanzi said, “When the hook disappears into the river waves, then the golden fish is encountered.”

Jiashan then covered his ears.

Chuanzi said, “That’s it! That’s it!” He then enjoined Jiashan, saying, “Hereafter, conceal yourself in a place without any trace. If the place has any sign don’t stay there. I stayed with Yaoshan for thirty years and what I learned there I’ve passed to you today. Now that you have it, stay away from crowded cities. Instead, plant your hoe deep in the mountains. Find one person or one-half a person who won’t let it die.”