Kapimala and the Wind Nature

Keizan's commentary

The teacher was from Pāṭaliputra. At first he followed an outside path, led three thousand disciples, and understood many rival doctrines. When Venerable Aśvaghoṣa turned the wondrous Dharma wheel in Pāṭaliputra, a solitary old man suddenly collapsed before his seat. Aśvaghoṣa told the assembly, “This is no ordinary fellow. There will be an extraordinary sign.” As soon as he spoke, the man disappeared. A golden person suddenly surged up from the earth, transformed into a woman, pointed at Aśvaghoṣa with her right hand, and spoke a verse: I bow my head to the venerable elder. You will receive the Tathāgata's prediction. Here upon this ground today, Proclaim and pass through the ultimate meaning. After speaking, she disappeared. Aśvaghoṣa said, “A demon is about to come and test his strength against mine.” After a short while, violent wind and rain arrived. Heaven and earth went dark. Aśvaghoṣa said, “The demon's coming has been confirmed. I will remove him.” He pointed into the sky, and a great golden dragon appeared. It exerted awesome spiritual force and shook the mountains, while Aśvaghoṣa sat immovable. The demonic disturbance vanished. Seven days later, a minute insect appeared, no larger than the tiniest gnat. Concealing its form, it hid beneath Aśvaghoṣa's seat. Aśvaghoṣa picked it up and showed the assembly: “This is a transformation made by the demon. He is stealing a hearing of my Dharma.” He released it and told it to go, but the demon could not move. Aśvaghoṣa told him, “If you take refuge in the Three Treasures, you will regain your spiritual power.” The demon resumed his original form, bowed, and repented. Aśvaghoṣa asked, “What is your name, and how many followers do you have?” He answered, “My name is Kapimala. I have three thousand followers.” Aśvaghoṣa asked, “If you exhaust all your spiritual power, what can you transform?” Kapimala said, “Transforming a vast ocean is a very small matter.” Aśvaghoṣa asked, “Can you transform the ocean of nature?” Kapimala said, “What is the ocean of nature? I have never known it.” Aśvaghoṣa explained it: “Mountains, rivers, and the great earth are all established upon it. The three knowledges and six spiritual powers manifest from it.” The teacher heard this, trusted it, and awakened.² From the old man collapsing through the transformation into a minute insect, Kapimala displayed truly countless powers. He said that transforming a vast ocean was a very small matter. Though he could transform ocean into mountain, mountain into ocean, and display spiritual power without limit, he did not yet know even the name of the ocean of nature. How much less could he transform it? He had never considered what transformation produced mountains, rivers, and the great earth. Aśvaghoṣa therefore told him: they are transformations of the ocean of nature. Not only that—the three knowledges and six powers are transformed from it. The samādhis meant here include the Śūraṅgama and measureless other concentrations. The six powers, including the divine eye and divine ear, have no first limit or final limit. “Three before and three behind” is precisely this.³ When mountains, rivers, and earth are established, samādhi transforms as earth, water, fire, and wind, and transforms as mountains, rivers, grasses, and trees. It transforms as skin, flesh, bones, and marrow and as the five parts of the body. Not one event or dharma comes from outside your own share. Thus, through all twelve hours, no effort is discarded into emptiness, and through measureless births and deaths no appearance is manifested in vain. Seeing through the eyes has no limit; hearing through the ears has no limit. I doubt even buddha-wisdom could measure such seeing and hearing. How could this not be the transforming activity of the ocean of nature? Every dharma and every dust-mote is a dharma without boundary and does not fall within number. This is the ocean of nature. Thus to see this body now is to see heart; to know heart is to realize body. Body and heart are not two at all. How could nature and appearance be divided? Even when Kapimala followed an outside way and displayed supernatural transformations, this too was not outside his own share. Yet he did not know that it was the ocean of nature. He therefore doubted himself and doubted others. Because he did not know all that he possessed, someone who had not reached the root could not bear a comparison of strength. His demonic power was finally exhausted and transformation became impossible. At last he abandoned himself and returned to another, stopped contending, and disclosed what is right. So even if you understand mountains, rivers, and the great earth, do not remain bound amid sound and form. Even if you clarify your own original nature, do not remain in conscious knowing. Conscious knowing too is one or two faces of buddha and ancestor—walls, tiles, and rubble are just this. Original nature is not involved with seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing and does not depend upon movement and stillness. Yet when it establishes the ocean of nature, movement and stillness, going and coming, never cease. Skin, flesh, bones, and marrow appear together with the time. If we discuss the root, even when it appears as seeing and hearing, sound and form, it cannot be made for the sake of another. Strike empty space and it gives an echo; thus the many sounds appear. Transform empty space and all things appear; thus forms divide into their kinds. Do not therefore assume that empty space lacks form or sound. When you reach this place and investigate closely, it cannot be made into emptiness and cannot be made into existence. It cannot be made into a dharma of hidden and manifest, or a dharma of self and other. What would you call other? What would you call self? It is exactly like open sky without one thing, or the great ocean displaying all its waters. It has never changed through ancient and present. Could going and coming have different roads? When it appears, not one point is added. When it hides, not one hair is lost. The many dharmas combine to make this body. The ten thousand dharmas are extinguished and it is further called one heart. Therefore, in clarifying the way and realizing heart, do not seek toward anything outside your share. When the scenery of your own original ground appears, others provisionally call it human, ghost, or animal face. Seppō said, “If you wish to understand this matter, my place is like one ancient mirror: a foreigner comes and a foreigner appears; a Han person comes and a Han person appears.”⁴ It is entirely illusion-like samādhi. Thus it has no first or final limit. Mountains, rivers, and the great earth are established upon it, and the three knowledges and six powers manifest from it. Therefore do not see an inch of earth outside your own heart or make one drop of river water outside nature itself. This morning, because of the encounter, I want to append humble words. Do you wish to hear them? After a long pause, Keizan said: