Denkōroku · PROJECT CASE 12
Punyayasas Meets the Sovereign
The Record of the Transmission of the Light
Transmission case
The Eleventh Ancestor was Venerable Puṇyayaśas. He stood with palms joined before Venerable Pārśva. Pārśva asked, “Where have you come from?” The teacher said, “My heart does not go.” Pārśva asked, “Where does it stay?” The teacher said, “My heart does not stop anywhere.” Pārśva asked, “Then are you unsettled?” The teacher said, “The buddhas are likewise.” Pārśva said, “You are not the buddhas. The buddhas are not, either.” After hearing these words, the teacher practiced for twenty-one days and obtained receptivity to the unbornness of dharmas. He told Pārśva, “The buddhas too are not the venerable one.” Pārśva accepted him and entrusted the true Dharma.1
Keizan's verse
My heart is not Buddha, and it is not you; Coming and going have always been right here.4
Footnotes 4
- The received punctuation produces a deliberately elliptical exchange. Keizan later paraphrases the teacher's last statement as 諸佛亦非尊者ナリ, supporting “the buddhas too are not the venerable one,” but a manuscript-level check remains necessary. ↩
- The golden ground and predictive verses are lineage hagiography. The narrative's point is that recognized sanctity precedes—and does not eliminate—the ensuing twenty-one days of practice. ↩
- 無生法忍 is often rendered “patience with the non-arising of dharmas.” Here “receptivity” conveys an ability to bear and accord with the unbornness of phenomena without suggesting passive waiting. ↩
- 從來 means “all along” but also echoes the preceding “coming and going.” The translation keeps both by “have always been.” ↩
About this version and its sources
- Full source citation
- Source heading: 富那夜奢尊者. Base: SAT T2585, T2585_.82.0357c07–T2585_.82.0358a27. Project Case 12 corresponds to source ancestral chapter 11.
- Method
- Direct critical-edition translation from the cited received base text. Source claims, hagiography, uncertainty, and unresolved readings remain identified in the notes and project record.
- Editorial uncertainty
- Independent philological and reader review remain pending.
- Rights
- Project translation © Tulsa Zen Center Critical Edition contributors. Source text is cited by edition; redistribution policy requires final organizational approval.
- Revision identifier
- b531c68a2e38
Keizan's commentary
The teacher was from Pāṭaliputra, belonged to the Gautama clan, and was the son of Ratnakāya. When Venerable Pārśva first reached Pāṭaliputra, he rested beneath a tree. He pointed to the ground with his right hand and told the assembly, “This ground will turn golden. A sage will enter the assembly.” As soon as he spoke, the ground turned gold. An elder's son, Puṇyayaśas, came and stood with joined palms. Pārśva spoke a verse: This ground has turned golden; I knew beforehand that a sage would arrive. He will sit beneath the tree of awakening, And awakening's flower will open to completion. Puṇyayaśas answered in verse: The teacher sits upon golden ground And constantly teaches genuine meaning. Turn your light back and illuminate me; Let me enter samādhi. Pārśva knew the teacher's intent, let him leave home, and had him receive the full precepts.2 In the encounter just given, Venerable Puṇyayaśas was originally a sage. For this reason he could say, “My heart does not go. My heart does not stop. The buddhas are likewise.” Even so, these were still two views. Why? Because he understood, “My heart is like this, and the buddhas are like this.” Venerable Pārśva therefore drove off the plowman's ox and snatched away the hungry person's food. Even someone who has genuinely reached realization has not yet finished rescuing himself. How much less could the buddhas be allowed to remain? Pārśva therefore said, “You are not the buddhas.” This cannot be known through rational nature or distinguished through non-form. It cannot be known by the wisdom of the buddhas or measured by your own consciousness. After hearing these words, Puṇyayaśas practiced and walked the way for twenty-one days without setting the matter aside. At last, one day, he directly touched it. He truly forgot “my heart” and freed the buddhas. This is called realizing receptivity to the unbornness of dharmas.3 At last he penetrated this principle. Because it had no edge or surface, inside or outside, he stated the place he had reached: “The buddhas too are not the venerable one.” In truth, the ancestral way cannot be penetrated through principle or distinguished through heart. Therefore Dharma-body, Dharma-nature, the ten thousand dharmas, and one mind are not treated as final. You cannot call it unchanging or understand it as pure. How much less could you understand it as empty and still, or distinguish it as ultimate principle? For this reason sages of every school, on arriving here, all turn their beginner's mind around. They open and illuminate the ground of heart again, open the direct road of entry, and swiftly break their private views. You can know this from the present encounter. Because Puṇyayaśas was already a sage, the ground itself changed when he arrived and the wind of his virtue had power to startle things. Yet he still practiced for twenty-one days before reaching this place. All of you, therefore, clarify and distinguish it closely. Do not determine the essential teaching with a little virtue, a little wisdom, private views, or old feelings. You must exercise very great care before you obtain it. This morning I want to meet the encounter once more with humble words. Great assembly, do you wish to hear them?