Mahākāśyapa Smiles

Keizan's commentary

Venerable Mahākāśyapa was born into the Brahmin caste. In Sanskrit his name is Kāśyapa; here it is explained as “the Venerable Victorious Drinker of Light.” When he was born, golden light filled the room and every ray entered his mouth. This is why he was called “Drinker of Light.” His body was golden and bore thirty-one marks; he lacked only the crown protuberance and white curl between the brows. He first met the World-Honored One before the Many Sons Pagoda. The Buddha said, “Welcome, monk.” At once his hair and beard fell away and a robe covered his body. The treasury of the true Dharma eye was entrusted to him. He practiced the twelve ascetic disciplines and never let one of the twelve hours pass in vain. But the whole assembly saw only his gaunt body and coarse robe and looked at him with suspicion. For that reason, whenever the Buddha taught an assembly, he divided his seat and had Kāśyapa sit beside him. From then on Kāśyapa was the senior of the community. He was not senior only in Śākyamuni Buddha's assembly. He was the irreversible senior in the assemblies of the buddhas of the past. Know that he was an ancient buddha. Do not merely line him up among the hearer disciples.² At the assembly on Vulture Peak, before eighty thousand people, the World-Honored One held up a flower and blinked. No one knew his mind. All remained silent. At that moment Mahākāśyapa alone broke into a faint smile. The Buddha said, “I have the treasury of the true Dharma eye, the wondrous heart of nirvana, the perfectly bright, markless Dharma gate. I entrust it all to Great Kāśyapa.” The flower held up at that time has been transmitted directly from ancestor to ancestor and never carelessly disclosed to outsiders. It is beyond the knowledge of scripture teachers, treatise teachers, and a great many Zen teachers. This proves that they do not know its actual place. Even so, this case is not a case from the assembly on Vulture Peak. These were the words used when the entrustment took place before the Many Sons Pagoda. The Transmission of the Lamp, the Universal Lamp, and other records are wrong to call them words spoken at Vulture Peak. This form was already present when the Buddha-Dharma was first entrusted.³ Unless you are an ancestral teacher who transmits the seal of the Buddha mind, you will not know the occasion of the flower or clarify what it means. Zen worthies, investigate closely and see closely. Know Kāśyapa as Kāśyapa. Clarify Śākyamuni as Śākyamuni. Directly transmit the profound path of perfect brightness. Set the flower aside for the moment. Each of you must clarify the place where the Buddha blinked. Your ordinary raising of the brows and blinking does not differ by a single hair from Gautama holding up the flower and blinking. Your ordinary speaking and smiling does not differ by a single hair from Mahākāśyapa's face breaking into a smile. But if you do not clarify the one who raises the brows and blinks, then there is a Śākyamuni and a Kāśyapa far away in India, while in your own mind there are skin, flesh, bones, and marrow. So many eye-flowers; so much drifting dust. You have never been liberated through measureless ages, and in ages to come you will sink again.⁴ Recognize that master once, and Mahākāśyapa will be beneath your soles, able to move his toes. Do you not know? Where Gautama raised his brows and blinked, Gautama was extinguished. Where Kāśyapa's face opened, Kāśyapa came to awakening. Is this not precisely “I have”? The treasury of the true Dharma eye has instead been entrusted to the self. So do not call it Kāśyapa. Do not call it Śākyamuni. No single dharma is given to another, and no single dharma is received from anyone. This is what we call the true Dharma. To disclose it, the Buddha held up the flower and made known what does not change. Kāśyapa's face opened and made known a life without end. Teacher and heir meet in this way, and the lifeline circulates. Perfectly bright knowing does not pass through thought. Kāśyapa cut off the root of intention, entered Mount Cockfoot, and waits far into the future for Maitreya to descend into the world. Therefore Mahākāśyapa has not entered extinction even now.⁵ If you study the Way personally and penetrate it closely, not only is Kāśyapa undying; Śākyamuni too abides constantly. From before you were born, direct pointing and single transmission have come down to you. Across ancient and present you have been striking it and running into it. So do not yearn for a past two thousand years away. Practice the Way urgently today, and Kāśyapa does not enter Mount Cockfoot. He appears right here in the land of Fusang. Śākyamuni's flesh is still warm; Kāśyapa's smile is new again. When you reach such ground, you succeed Kāśyapa—and Kāśyapa receives succession from you. Transmission does not merely run from the seven buddhas down to you. You can become the ancestral teachers of the seven buddhas. Without beginning or end, cut off from old, coming, and present: here the entrustment of the treasury of the true Dharma eye is present. Thus Śākyamuni too receives Mahākāśyapa's entrustment and is present even now in Tuṣita Heaven. You too are present at the assembly on Vulture Peak, unchanged. Have you not heard? I am always on Vulture Peak And at my other dwelling places. When the great fire burns, This land of mine remains at peace, Always filled with gods and human beings.⁶ Vulture Peak is not the only dwelling place. How could India, China, or Japan be left out? The Tathāgata's true Dharma turns and circulates without losing a single hair. If this is so, this assembly must be Vulture Peak, and Vulture Peak must be this assembly. According only to your diligence or lack of it, the buddhas raise their heads or let them sink. Practice repeatedly today and penetrate closely: Śākyamuni appears in the world at once. It is only because your own self remains unclear that Śākyamuni entered extinction long ago. You are already children of the Buddha. Why would you kill the Buddha? Practice the Way urgently and quickly meet your compassionate father. Old Śākyamuni normally walks, stands, sits, and lies down with you. He speaks with you and attends with you. He is never apart from you for a moment—just as Deng Yinfeng was at Dongshan's back.⁷ If you pass your whole life without seeing that old fellow, every one of you is unfilial. Once you call yourselves Buddha children, if you remain unfilial, even the hands of a thousand buddhas cannot reach you. Today I have humble words with which to point out this principle for the descendants of Mahāyāna. Do you wish to hear them?