Jōshū's “Where Is the Picking and Choosing?”

Engo's commentary on the case

A monk asked Jōshū, “‘The utmost Way is not difficult; it only detests picking and choosing.’” The Inscription on Trusting Mind, attributed to the Third Patriarch, begins straightaway with these two lines. How many people have misunderstood them! Why? The utmost Way is fundamentally not difficult, and it is also not not difficult; it simply “detests picking and choosing.” If you understand it this way, you will not dream of it even in ten thousand years.³ Jōshū often used these words to question people. This monk took the words and reversed them to question Jōshū. If you seek upon the words, this monk's question shakes heaven and moves earth. If it is not in words and phrases, what then? Investigate for another thirty years. You must be able to turn this small pivot before you understand. To stroke a tiger's whiskers, you must possess the means proper to your original share. This monk, disregarding danger and death, dared to stroke the tiger's whiskers and said, “This is still picking and choosing.” Jōshū immediately stopped his mouth: “You field-storehouse slave! Where is the picking and choosing?” If the monk had questioned anyone else, you would have seen hands and feet in confusion. But this old fellow was an adept: he moved where movement is impossible and turned where turning is impossible. If you penetrate all malicious words and phrases—even the thousand differences and ten thousand forms of worldly idle theories—they are all the finest flavor of ghee. Only when you reach the place of solid actuality do you see Jōshū's sincerity in every piece. “Field-storehouse slave” is Futang regional speech used to insult someone, as if calling them devoid of sense or intelligence. The monk said, “This is still picking and choosing.” Jōshū said, “You field-storehouse slave! Where is the picking and choosing?” The eye of a lineage teacher must reach this point—like the golden-winged bird parting the sea, seizing a dragon directly, and swallowing it. Setchō's verse says: Setchō appends two lines: “Deep as the sea; solid as a mountain.” The monk said, “This is still picking and choosing.” Setchō says this monk is just like mosquitoes and gnats toying with a fierce wind in empty space, or mole crickets and ants shaking an iron pillar. Setchō commends his great courage. Why? This is something employed by a person on the summit, and the monk dares to speak this way. Jōshū, the adept, does not let him pass, but immediately says, “You field-storehouse slave! Where is the picking and choosing?” Is this not the fierce wind and iron pillar? “Picking! Choosing! A cloth drum displayed before the hall.” At the end Setchō raises it so as to make it live. If you recognize it clearly, you yourself have brought it all the way through. Why? Have you not heard it said, “If you want intimacy, do not bring a question to ask”? Therefore: “A cloth drum displayed before the hall.”