The Eastern Indian King Invites the Patriarch

Banshō's commentary on the case

The Twenty-Seventh Ancestor was first called the Garlanded Youth. The Twenty-Sixth Ancestor, Puṇyamitra, was riding with King Firm when he asked whether the youth remembered former events. The youth said that in a past kalpa they had lived together: the teacher expounded great prajñā while he maintained a profound sūtra, and he had waited there so that they might succeed one another in proper transformation. The ancestor told the king that this was no minor saint but a manifested body of Mahāsthāmaprāpta. The king brought the youth into the carriage, supported him at the palace, and had him ordained. From the prajñā-sūtra episode he was named Prajñātāra.³ The Liang tradition called Bodhidharma Avalokiteśvara; the Indian tradition called this patriarch Mahāsthāmaprāpta. Only Amitābha's whereabouts remain unknown. After a pause Banshō said, “Fenggan was talkative.” Later, at an imperial gathering, the honored one occupied the chief seat. The old fellow displayed marvels and confused the crowd—he should have been tipped over then, cutting off the vines. Once the king asked why he did not read scripture, he could not let it pass. Lacking the bearing of a great person, he tossed gourd and horse-ladle about for a round, and the king bowed. What ache or itch did he understand? Banshō says: the king coveted one grain of rice; the honored one lost ten-thousand-year provisions. He knew only how to brace heaven with an iron spine, unaware that his forehead touched earth. Only Tendō can lift him. The opening two lines finish versifying “not dwelling in the aggregate-realms” and “not entering the many conditions.” In Buddhist classifications, five aggregates, twelve sense fields, and eighteen elements are called the three categories. The honored one briefly gave the beginning and end, encompassing the middle. Sanskrit ānāpāna means in-breath and out-breath. Its method has six stages: counting, following, stopping, observing, returning, and purifying, explained fully in Tiantai calming-and-contemplation texts. One who prepares for the unexpected must know this. Isan's Admonitions says that if the doctrinal principle has never been taken to heart, the dark path cannot be accorded with and realized for no cause. The Treatise of the Treasure Storehouse laments that a priceless treasure lies hidden in the pit of aggregates and sense fields. When will numinous light shine alone, far released from faculties and objects? Tendō says, “The cloud-rhinoceros plays with the moon; its gleaming horn holds the radiance.” An old poem says that when a rhinoceros plays with the moon, patterns arise in its horn. Fine words—unfortunately reduced to literary talent and feeling.² “A wooden horse roams spring, a steed unbridled” versifies the out-breath not entering the many conditions. It may be called good traveling without wheel tracks. “Beneath the brows, a pair of cold blue eyes.” Rakuho said that one who illuminates only oneself has not clarified the Dharma-eye and possesses only one eye. For both eyes to be round and clear, one must neither dwell in the aggregate-realms nor enter the many conditions: sun and moon hung high in a shadowless forest, spring and autumn secretly distinguished on branches that never bud. “How could reading scripture reach piercing the oxhide?” Changqing asked what fault lies in the eye. The Śūraṅgama Sūtra says that when the eyes survey the holy assembly, their comprehensive seeing resembles a mirror and makes no separate analysis. Miss it here and, as Yakusan said, one must pierce through the oxhide at the bottom. Banshō says: then one has the diamond eye. The verse reads, “Clear and distinct, mind arises through vast kalpas”; Banshō quotes it as “Clear and distinct, mind surpasses vast kalpas.” The Third Ancestor said, “Only do not hate or love, and it is openly clear.” One thought is ten thousand years, received and maintained without exhaustion.⁴ Lumen said, “The whole earth is one fascicle of scripture for this student; all heaven and earth are this student's single eye. With this eye I read scripture such as this, continuously through millions of kalpas.” Banshō says reading is not easy. “A hero's strength breaks the encirclement.” Wang Mang sent Wang Xun and Wang Yi to Kunyang, surrounding the future Emperor Guangwu many layers deep. Guangwu's weaker army offered surrender; when it was refused, he stiffened his generals' resolve, fought back, and routed them. The honored one is accomplished in civil and martial affairs, general and minister at once. Aggregate-realms and conditions are more than a many-layered siege.⁵ “At the wondrous round pivot, the numinous mechanism turns.” The Erya calls a door pivot a wei; Guo Pu explains it as the pivot of the door leaf. Flowing water does not rot, and a moving pivot is not eaten by worms: it is alive. The honored one moves before being marked and turns without being pushed. On this side or that, nothing is either permitted or forbidden. Tendō sorts gold from sand and divides the smallest weights—judgment complete. The final two lines have talent left over: “Hanshan forgot the road by which he came; Shide led him home, hand in hand.” At the state banquet the oceanic assembly drilled paper, trying to pass through a window. Grandmotherly, the honored one partly helped: hook up the curtain so the fledgling swallow returns; pierce the paper so the foolish fly escapes. The lines match Hanshan's poem: If you want a place to settle the body, Cold Mountain can preserve you long. A faint wind blows through secluded pines; The nearer you listen, the finer the sound. Below sits a grizzled man, Chattering as he reads Laozi and the Yellow Emperor. Ten years, unable to return, He has forgotten the road by which he came. One text reads “muttering” for “chattering.” After Lüqiu Yin's visit, Hanshan and Shide reportedly left hand in hand through the pine gate and never returned. The verse treats the young wanderer forgetting home and a lost person being shown the road.³ Later Tang Emperor Zhuangzong invited Zen Master Huayan Xiujing to a palace meal. All the eminent monks read scripture, but Xiujing's group remained silent. Asked why, he replied, “When the way prospers, the Son of Heaven's commands are not transmitted; when the age is peaceful, stop singing songs of peace.” The emperor asked why his followers also did not read. He answered, “A lion's cave contains no other beasts; where the elephant king walks, fox tracks end.” Asked why all the other eminent monks read, he said, “The jellyfish originally has no eyes; to seek food it must rely on the shrimp.” The emperor was delighted. Banshō reports this inherited animal lore; it is not a biological claim of this edition.² How much more the ancestral honored one, called Mahāsthāmaprāpta from remote kalpas, who recited profound sūtras and was therefore named Prajñātāra. His old habit was not eliminated. Huayan Xiujing surpasses him in possessing a monk's usable handle. At this point Banshō involuntarily laughs. At what? Where Yunju's arhat opens his robe; when Gongxian's tea bottle meets the mouth.