Baso's White and Black

Banshō's commentary on the case

The Sixth Ancestor said to Master Huairang, “The Twenty-seventh Ancestor in India foretold that from beneath your feet a young horse would emerge and trample everyone under heaven to death. The illness is in your heart; there is no need to speak of it quickly.” Later, after polishing a tile and striking an ox, the divine colt entered the stable and was called Baso, “Horse Ancestor.” He walked like an ox and looked like a tiger; his extended tongue passed his nose, and wheel patterns marked the soles of his feet. His 139 Dharma heirs each became a Dharma master in one region. Zhizang and Brother Hai were Xitang and Hyakujō.⁴ As I see it, this monk too was a student of the Buddha-Dharma. He used the four propositions and hundred negations to test the cardinal principle of the separate transmission outside the teachings. The Mahayanasamgraha says: “It is” is the slander of addition; “it is not” is the slander of diminishment; “it both is and is not” is the slander of contradiction; “it neither is nor is not” is the slander of frivolous theorizing. If the four propositions are left behind, the hundred negations cease of themselves.⁵ Ōbaku said, “If you want to understand directly and swiftly, altogether nothing is it.” Banshō says: if you want to understand truly and in detail, there is nothing that is not it. Turn it over and examine it: without leaving the four propositions or cutting off the hundred negations, where is the ancestral meaning of the coming from the West unclear? Master Nagarjuna said, “Prajna is like a great mass of fire: it cannot be entered from any of the four sides.” Yet he also said, “Prajna is like a clear, cool pool: it can be entered from every side.” The monk said, “Apart from the four propositions and cut off from the hundred negations, please directly point out the ancestral meaning.” Everywhere this is called a mouth-locking question. Baso, unhurried, merely said, “I am tired today and cannot explain it to you. Go ask Zhizang.” He saved his own eyebrows and pierced the monk's nostrils. Unable to avoid being driven by him, the monk actually went and asked. Without arranging it in advance, Zhizang agreed: “Why don't you ask the abbot?” The monk did not open his brows and eyes. He said, “The abbot instructed me to come ask you.” Zhizang said, “I have a headache today and cannot explain it to you. Go ask Brother Hai.” It may be said: without the father, his son would not be born. The monk asked Huaihai. Hai said, “When I reach this point, I do not understand.” Just when you thought there was Hou Bai, there is also Hou Hei. Though the monk had no blood in him, he did follow the matter from beginning to end and returned to report it to Baso. The ancestor said, “Zang's head is white; Hai's head is black.” This phrase has confounded everyone under heaven. Zhaojue of Donglin versified: Hundred negations, four propositions—cut off, no words; black and white distinct, decide straight and partial. Banshō says: four in the evening, three in the morning—vainly producing joy and anger. One day the three men were enjoying the moon with Nansen. The Second Ancestor asked, “At just such a time, what then?” Hyakujō said, “A fine time to practice.” Zhizang said, “A fine time to make offerings.” Nansen brushed out his sleeves and left. Baso said, “Scripture enters Zang; meditation returns to Hai. Only Puyuan alone transcends things.” Here black and white should indeed be clearly distinguished. Banshō says: Zang's head is white, Hai's head is black; a duck's head green, a crane's crown red. The divine colt of ten shadows stands south of the sea; the five-colored auspicious qilin walks north of heaven. People everywhere, do not borrow the efficacy of a fox-spirit. Tendō has genuine news of his own. The four propositions are four slanders, like a great mass of fire that cannot be entered from any side. The four propositions are four gates, like a clear, cool pool that can be entered from every side. Years ago, when I was registrar at Daming, Master Heng of Tanzhe passed through. In the dark of night he knocked at the gate and told the attendant that he wished to burn incense and establish a Dharma connection. Tanzhe immediately granted an interview. I asked, “What is a living phrase? What is a dead phrase?” Tanzhe said, “Registrar, if you understand a dead phrase, it too is a living phrase. If you do not understand a living phrase, it too is a dead phrase.” At the time I thought, “An old adept's methods are different after all.” Look now at this monk's question. He adamantly wants the ancestral meaning pointed out separately, outside the four propositions and hundred negations. The three old men have similar heads and brains. If you simply understand them as having left the four propositions and cut off the hundred negations, very well: bury them in one pit with this monk. Later Tendō versified Kyōzan's striking the sounding block in a dream: Leave the four propositions and cut off the hundred negations; when Baso and his sons are ill, stop treating them. Banshō says: what kind of mental conduct is this? “White head, black head—the sons able to carry on the house.” In the Book of Changes, the second nine line of the Meng hexagram says, “The son is able to carry on the house”: he can shoulder the family enterprise. “With a phrase or without a phrase—the working that cuts off the current.” Banshō says: there are only waves on still water, no billows that inundate the heavens. “In imposing dignity they sit, cutting off the road of tongues; they should laugh at the old awl of Vaisali.” The Sanskrit Vaisali is translated “Broad and Majestic.” It was the city where Vimalakirti lived. Manjusri asked about the Dharma gate of nonduality, and Vimalakirti remained silent. This monk questioned Baso and his sons, and entangling vines covered the ground. Tell me: where is the place for laughter? If only you can avoid violating the present sovereign's taboo, that is still better than the former court's talent for cutting out tongues.