Jizō Plants the Fields

Banshō's commentary on the case

Zen Master Guichen of Jizō Cloister in Zhangzhou was invited by Prefect Wang of Zhangzhou to reside at Jizō Cloister, which Wang had built on Stone Mountain west of the city in Min. After more than twelve years Guichen moved to Jizō in Zhangzhou. Thus the master was also called Jizō.³ Head Monk Xiu, Hōgen, Wukong, and Head Monk Jin became traveling companions beyond the lakes. Reaching Zhangzhou, they were stopped by rain and snow and swollen streams, and lodged at Jizō Cloister west of the city. They gathered around the hearth and looked at Jizō as though no one were there. Wanting to test them, Jizō too approached the fire and said, “May I borrow your attention for a question?” Xiu said, “If you have a question, please ask.” Jizō asked, “Are mountains, rivers, and the great earth the same as you senior monks, or different?” Xiu said, “Different.” Jizō raised two fingers. Xiu hurriedly said, “The same, the same.” Jizō again raised two fingers, stood, and left. Hōgen asked, “What did the rector mean by raising two fingers?” Xiu said, “He gave it at random.” Hōgen said, “You must not carelessly slight him.” Xiu said, “Could an elephant's tusks grow from a rat's mouth?” The next day they took their leave. At the place they were to lodge farther on, Hōgen said, “You brothers go ahead. I will rely on Jizō. If he has something of value, I will stay; if not, I will return and seek you.” After Hōgen had investigated for a long time, Xiu and the other three also came to Jizō. Jizō then asked, “How is the Buddha-Dharma in the south these days?” At that moment Xiu would have done well simply to say, “The same as it is here every day.” Instead he said, “There is discussion, vast and swelling,” without knowing that he had put himself forward as its leader. Jizō said, “How could that compare with our planting fields here to earn our food?” Xiu would have done well to say, “If so, it is not only the south.” Instead he said, “But what about the three realms?” He burdened the Zen travelers of the south and had not even removed their worldly air. Out of compassion, Jizō used speech that descended into the weeds: “What do you call the three realms?” It would have been better simply to say, “This old monk is busy planting the fields,” and avoid Tendō's drawing up one indictment to take them all away. Qingliang said, “Penetration of the source is one's own practice; penetration of exposition shows it to those not yet awakened.” This originally comes from the Lankavatara Sutra. The Buddha tells Mahamati that there are two kinds of penetration. Penetration of the source is the advancing character of personally attained conditions: leaving deluded conceptions of spoken and written words, proceeding toward the uncontaminated realm, and radiantly illuminating the course of personal awakening. This is called the character of source-penetration. What is the character of penetration through exposition? It means explaining the varied teachings of the nine divisions, leaving the marks of different and not different, existent and nonexistent, and teaching the Dharma appropriately through skillful means. This is called the character of exposition-penetration.⁴ Lecturers say: Exposition penetrates, the source does not: the sun enclosed by clouds. The source penetrates, exposition does not: a snake entering a bamboo tube. Source and exposition both penetrate: the sun in empty sky. Neither source nor exposition penetrates: a dog barking in scrub grass. Once source and exposition are divided, there are already two branches. How much worse when Zen divides into five houses and doctrine arrays three vehicles? Here not even one is established; all are forced contrivance. How much more so speech leaving the mouth and entering the ear, requesting instruction, raising cases, and making verses: entangling vines trail their tendrils beyond Silla. The hot water in Gongxian's tea kettle never runs out. Vast and swelling discussion was not limited to the south. For a person whose mouth is not burned by speaking of fire, eloquence may resemble a suspended river, yet originally there is not one word. Planting fields to earn food is an ordinary household affair, but unless one has investigated to satiety, one does not know its purport. People of old, deep in the mountains, beside their mattocks, cooked hulled-grain rice in broken-legged pots. No wealth surpasses knowing sufficiency and passing one's life without asking anything of another. No nobility surpasses clear leisure. Why require an official seal large as a grain measure?² Thus it says, “Having investigated fully, one clearly knows there is nothing to seek. Zifang never prized being enfeoffed as marquis.” In the sixth year of Han, according to the Records of the Historian, meritorious ministers were enfeoffed. Some said Zhang Liang had no achievement in battle. Emperor Gao said, “Forming strategies within the command tent and deciding victory a thousand miles away—that was Zifang's achievement.” He allowed Zhang Liang to choose thirty thousand households in Qi. Zhang Liang said, “At first this minister met Your Majesty at Liu after coming down from Xiapi. Heaven thereby gave me to Your Majesty. Fortunately, when you used my plans they sometimes succeeded. I wish only to be enfeoffed at Liu; that is enough. I dare not accept thirty thousand households.”⁵ This versifies that one need not imitate the south by opening a Dharma hall and expounding teachings. The fisherman's song in the Encountering Sorrow tradition says: When the Canglang's water is clear, I can wash my hat-strings in it. When the Canglang's water is muddy, I can wash my feet in it. This is dwelling together with gibbons and cranes, traveling together with fish and birds. Tell me: what sort of person is this? An authentic fellow carrying a board.