The Old Woman of Godaisan

Banshō's commentary on the case

The old woman on the road to Wutai was accustomed to following Wuzhuo in and out of the monastery. She had fully investigated Manjusri's “three before and three after.” Whenever she saw a monk ask which way the road to Wutai went, she openly pointed out the great road to Chang'an: “Go straight ahead.”³ The monk, raising no doubt or obstruction, immediately went. The woman said, “A fine reverend—off he goes like that again.” This old woman too had hook and awl in hand. How many worthy people had she been tripping up all along? The monk could do nothing with her and brought the story to Jōshū. Jōshū said, “Wait. I will go test her.” He confounded everyone under heaven. This old fellow, old but never resting his mind—what was he seeking? He too wanted to establish the lineage eye. Jōshū questioned her as before; the old woman answered as before. Some immediately split the story into two stakes: in the first section this monk supports the woman; in the latter the woman supports Jōshū. Only Xuanjue said, “The former monk questioned and answered in this way; later Jōshū questioned and answered in the same way. Tell me: where is the seeing-through?” Banshō says: he has seen through her. Xuanjue also said, “Not only was she seen through by Jōshū; she was also seen through by this monk.” Banshō says: he has implicated not only Xuanjue but Banshō as well. Rōya said, “Great Jōshū went into this old woman's hands and lost body and life.” Even so, many understand it wrongly. Banshō says: above all, avoid measuring another by yourself. Zhe of Isan said, “Patch-robed monks throughout the world know only to ask the old woman for directions, yet do not know how deep the mud is beneath their own feet. Were it not for old Jōshū, how could his high achievement as a warhorse be revealed?” Even so, Tendō must lend his praise. Ghosts become uncanny through occult powers; charms and medicines through dependent powers; devas and dragons through powers received as recompense; worthies and sages through spiritual powers; buddhas and ancestors through the power of the Way. Nansen and Jōshū were people beyond buddhas and ancestors—how much more when they had grown old? Thus it says, “With age one becomes uncanny.”⁴ “Jōshū, an ancient buddha, succeeded Nansen.” Baso said, “Scripture enters Zang, meditation returns to Hai; only Nansen alone transcends things.” Jōshū took Chōsa as friend and Nansen as teacher. Their testing cannot be graded by gain and loss, victory and defeat. The world calls it “Jōshū's barrier”; it is certainly hard to pass. Confucius said that the divine turtle could appear in Lord Yuan's dream but could not escape Yuqie's net. Its intelligence could endure seventy-two drillings without one lost oracle, yet could not avoid the disaster of having its entrails cut out. Thus intelligence has what confines it, and spiritual power what it cannot reach. The Zhuangzi says Lord Yuan of Song dreamed of a disheveled man who said he came from the Zailu abyss as an envoy of the Clear River to the River Earl, but fisherman Yuqie had caught him. Divination identified a divine turtle. A fisherman named Yuqie indeed brought a white turtle five feet around. The lord wished to keep it alive, but divination said killing it for divination was auspicious. They cut it open; after seventy-two drillings no oracle failed. This is that affair.⁵ Rakuho said, “If you wish to know a person of the highest stream, he does not paste the verbal teachings of buddhas and ancestors on his forehead—like the turtle bearing the diagram and thereby taking on the omen of his own death, or a phoenix entangled in a golden net while hastening toward the Milky Way.” Among King Mu of Zhou's eight steeds was one that rode clouds and outran flying birds. Thus the verse says, “the fine steed chases the wind.” It versifies the woman testing the monk but not escaping Jōshū's seeing-through; Jōshū could test the woman but did not escape Rōya's examination. Studying Zen is called the gold-and-dung method: before understanding, it is like gold; once seen through, like dung. Thus it says, “spoken before people, it is not worth a coin.” Simply leave behind calculations of gain and loss, victory and defeat. Naturally you will stand level with the old woman and look down on Jōshū. But if you reach Banshō's gate, you may not carry a board against your chest.