Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings (68 page)

Xita said, “Do you hear it?”

A monk asked, “Is the meaning of the ancestors the same as the meaning of the scriptural teaching or not?”

Xita said, “Putting aside ‘same’ or ‘different,’ can you say what it is that goes in and out of the mouth of a water pitcher?”

A monk asked, “What’s the essential meaning of Zen?”

Xita replied, “You don’t have buddha nature.”

The monk said, “What is sudden enlightenment?”

Xita drew a circle on the ground for the monk to see.

The monk asked, “What is gradual enlightenment?”

Xita poked the middle of the empty space three times with his hand.

NANTA GUANGYONG

NANTA GUANGYONG (850–938) was a disciple of Yangshan Huiji. He came from ancient Fengcheng City (still called Fengcheng and located in modern Jiangxi Province). According to legend, as his mother nursed the infant Nanta, the room filled with a spiritual light, scaring some nearby horses. As a youth he was handsome and clever, mastering the Confucian classics at the age of thirteen. In his late teens, he studied the Vimalakirti Sutra at Kaiyuan Temple. Subsequently, Nanta went to Shiting Temple in Hongzhou where Yangshan served as abbot. There he took up residence as a novice monk. At nineteen, he underwent ordination and then went to study under the great teacher Linji Yixuan. Linji later directed him back to Yangshan, and he went on to become Yang-shan’s attendant, student, and eventual Dharma heir.

When Nanta returned to Yangshan, Yangshan said, “Why have you come?”

Nanta said, “To pay respects to the master.”

Yangshan said, “Do you still see me?”

Nanta said, “Yes.”

Yangshan said, “Do I look like a donkey?”

Nanta said, “When I observe the master, you don’t look like a buddha.”

Yangshan said, “If I don’t look like a buddha, then what do I look like?”

Nanta said, “If I must compare you to something, then how do you differ from a donkey?”

Yangshan cried out excitedly, “He’s forgotten both ordinary and sacred! The passions are exhausted and the body is revealed. For twenty years I’ve tested them in this way and no one has gotten it. Now this disciple has done it!”

Yangshan would always point to Nanta and say to people, “This disciple is a living buddha.”

A monk asked Zen master Nanta, “Manjushri was the teacher of seven buddhas. Did Manjushri have a teacher or not?”

Nanta said, “Manjushri was subject to conditions, and therefore had a teacher.”

The monk said, “Who was Manjushri’s teacher?”

Nanta held up his whisk.

The monk said, “Is that all?”

Nanta put down the whisk and clasped his hands.

A monk asked, “What is a sentence of mystic function?”

Nanta said, “The water comes and the ditch fills up.”

A monk asked, “Where does the real Buddha reside?”

Nanta said, “It doesn’t appear in words, nor anywhere else, either.”

YUNJU DAOYING

YUNJU DAOYING (d. 902) was a disciple and Dharma heir of Dongshan Liangjie. He came from ancient Youzhou (located in modern Hubei Province). At the age of twenty-five he took the monk’s vows at Yanshou Temple in Fanyang (now in Zhuo County, Hebei Province). It is recorded that as a young man he was versed in the Vinaya. Later he made his way to Mt. Nan where he studied under Zen master Cuiwei Wuxue. Hearing of Dongshan’s reputation, he proceeded to Mt. Dong to study with him. Dongshan later allowed him to lead other monks of the temple. After leaving Dongshan, he first lived at “Three Peak Hermitage,” and later established Jenru (“True Thusness”) Temple on Mt. Yunju (northwest of modern Nanchang City in Jiangxi Province). He taught at this site for more than thirty years, and his congregation’s size reached up to fifteen hundred people.

Dongshan asked Yunju, “Where have you come from?”

Yunju said, “From Cuiwei.”

Dongshan said, “What teaching does Cuiwei convey to his disciples?”

Yunju said, “Once, when Cuiwei was making offerings to the sacred images, I asked him, ‘If you make offerings to the arhats, will they come or not?’

“Cuiwei said, ‘Aren’t you able to eat every day?’”

Dongshan said, “Did he really say that or not?”

Yunju said, “Yes.”

Dongshan said, “Don’t dismiss it when a great man appears!”

Then Dongshan asked Yunju, “What is your name?”