The World-Honored One Ascends the Seat

Banshō's commentary on the case

Perfectly gathering the ten epithets, alone honored upon appearing in the world, he shakes out his eyebrows and raises his nostrils high. In lecture halls this is called “ascending the seat”; in Zen monasteries it is called “entering the hall.” Before any of you reached the Dharma hall, before Banshō left the abbot's room—if you recognized it then, you had already fallen into third and fourth place. Have you not seen Setchō's words? If the assembly contained a Sendhava guest, Why would Manjusri need to strike the gavel? Examined closely, Setchō should not have asked for salt; how could Banshō bear to offer a horse?¹ Even if the seven buddhas and ancestral teachers declared, “Attend closely to the Dharma of the Dharma King; the Dharma of the Dharma King is thus,” they would still need to pull the nail from the eye and the wedge from behind the head. To this day, at the end of an inaugural sermon, the announcing gavel is struck and that formula recited, following this precedent. The World-Honored One immediately descended from the seat, saving half for the moment. The other half is entrusted to Tendō Wanshi. His verse says: Tendō says, “Do you see one current of the true wind?” Is the place where the World-Honored One ascends the seat one current of the true wind? Is the place where Tendō presents the verse one current? Is the place where Banshō asks for instruction one current? If so, it has become three currents. What is one current of the true wind? Moreover, each of you has a share. It is worth investigating carefully. Wanshi also says, “Endlessly, the Mother of Transformation tends the loom and shuttle.” “Mother of Transformation,” “worker of transformation,” and “maker of things” are different names. Confucian and Daoist teachings take one qi as their source; Buddhist traditions take one mind as theirs. Guifeng said that primordial qi is itself produced by mind and is contained within the appearance portion of ālayavijñāna.⁵ Banshō says: this is the true Caodong lineage, the lifeline of ancestors and buddhas. The mechanism's cord catches at the pivot's opening; where it turns is hidden and subtle. Continuous thread issues from the shuttle's belly; when used, it is close-woven. How could this be discussed on the same day as theories of perverse causation or no cause? The next line versifies the World-Honored One's reserve: “She weaves an ancient brocade containing the forms of spring.” It may be like an insect gnawing wood and happening to form a pattern, yet the carriage built behind closed doors fits the wheel tracks when brought outside. At the end Manjusri overturns him, and Wanshi says, “What can be done about the Lord of the East giving it away?” Manjusri struck the gavel and the World-Honored One descended. When Kasyapa struck the gavel, however, hundreds of thousands of Manjusris appeared. The occasion is of one kind. Why do gathering and release differ? Tell me: where does the Lord of the East give it away? Diligently, for you, I untie the lilac knot, Releasing free spring at the tips of the branches.