Sixteen Bodhisattvas Enter the Bath

Engo's commentary on the case

In the Śūraṅgama assembly, Bodhisattva Bhadrapāla and sixteen bodhisattvas practiced pure conduct and each stated the cause of the Dharma gate of complete penetration they had realized. This is counted among the twenty-five complete penetrations. At bathing time they entered according to custom and suddenly awakened through water. Since they washed neither dust nor body, tell me: what did they wash? Understand this and you rest peacefully in the middle, obtaining nothing at all; a thousand or ten thousand cannot come near. Having nothing attained is true prajñā. Having something attained is resemblance-prajñā. Bodhidharma told the Second Patriarch, “Bring me your mind and I will pacify it.” The Second Patriarch said, “I have sought the mind and cannot obtain it.” This small point is the root of a patch-robed monk's life. No mass of entangling vines is needed; “suddenly awakened through water” naturally settles it. If neither dust nor body is washed, what is awakened to? At this field not one point can be attached. Even the word “Buddha” must be avoided. They said, “Wondrous touch became manifest and bright; we took our abode as children of Buddha.” “Manifest” means revealed; wondrous touch is brightness. Awakening to it is dwelling on buddha-ground. People now also bathe, encounter water, and feel such touch. Why do they not awaken? They are confused and obstructed by sensory objects, stuck to skin and attached to bone, so they cannot become lucid at once. Here washing cannot be attained, touch cannot be attained, and the water-condition cannot be attained. Is this wondrous touch manifest and bright, or is it not? See directly here and it is precisely that. Ordinary touch is not wondrous touch. When what is touched and the toucher join, there is touch; separated, there is none. Gensha struck his toe crossing a ridge, and Tokusan used his staff—are these not wondrous touch? Even so, one must pierce through seven and break through eight. Merely groping over one's body has no connection. Penetrate thoroughly and there is no need to enter a bath. On the tip of a hair a precious royal realm appears; within a mote of dust the great Dharma wheel turns. Penetrate one place and a thousand and ten thousand places penetrate at once. Do not guard one nest or cave. Every place is Guanyin's gate for entering principle. Ancients awakened through sound or clarified mind through form. Why did sixteen awaken together rather than one? The ancients practiced, realized, awakened, and understood together. Setchō lifts the doctrinal intent so people will understand at wondrous touch. His verse displays the eye of doctrine while preventing people from being trapped, half drunk and half awake, in its net. He wants immediate freedom. “For a monk who has settled the matter, one is enough.” Tell me: what matter has he settled? An adept Zen traveler merely hears it raised, lifts himself, and acts. One such monk is enough; why form a crowd? “On the long communal platform, stretch out your legs and sleep.” An ancient said: “Clearly there is no Dharma of awakening; awakening instead confuses people. Stretch both legs and sleep—neither false nor true.” With no affair in the breast, eat when hungry and sleep when tired. Setchō means that if you say entering the bath awakened you to wondrous touch, then for such an affairless monk it resembles recounting a dream within a dream. Thus: “In a dream he once spoke of awakening to complete penetration.” “Washed with fragrant water—spit straight in his face.” Such talk is only foul water poured over the head; why speak of complete penetration? Setchō says a fellow like this deserves a spit over head and face. This mountain monk says: that adds yet another layer of mud to soil.