Ungan Sweeps the Ground

Banshō's commentary on the case

Dōgo bent and pressed Ungan as Foguo later provoked and encouraged Fojian: “If one is not eager, I do not open the way; if one is not struggling to speak, I do not articulate it.” Ungan was sweeping the ground. Dōgo idly inspected him. Ungan said, “You must know there is one who is not busy and laborious.” Good people, while eating rice, brewing tea, handling a needle, and sweeping the ground, recognize the one who is not laborious. Then worldly dharmas and Buddha-Dharma are beaten into one piece. In the Dongshan house this is called proceeding while including both, and no moment passes in vain. Dōgo immediately saw an opening and said, “If so, then there is a second moon.” Setchō would have said instead, “He almost deserved to be let pass.” The two old men feared that people would leave the physical body behind and separately establish a Dharma body. National Teacher Huizhong said to a Zen traveler from the south, “Here, buddha-nature is wholly unborn and undying. Your southern buddha-nature is half born and dying, half unborn and undying.” The traveler asked, “How do they differ?” The National Teacher said, “Here body and mind are one suchness, with nothing outside mind; therefore it is wholly unborn and undying. In the south, body is impermanent while spiritual nature is permanent; therefore it is half born and dying and half unborn and undying.”³ At this point one must know the time to turn the body and approach the father. Ungan then raised the broom and said, “Which moon is this?” The expression originally comes from the Surangama Sutra: “Like a second moon—which is the moon, and which is not? Manjusri, there is only one true moon; between them there is originally neither a moon nor not a moon.”⁴ Dōgo immediately stopped. One edition says he brushed out his sleeves and left. Banshō says: he saw through him. Tell me: did Ungan see through Dōgo, or Dōgo through Ungan? Those with bright eyes, try to inspect it. Gensha said, “It is precisely the second moon.” This old fellow had yellow correction pigment in his mouth and a sharp sword on his tongue. Changqing said, “What if he turned the broom around and struck Gensha across the face?” Gensha stopped. Razan said, “Ah! The two old fellows do not know good from bad. That fellow Ungan had his hands and feet bound—how long had he been dead?” Banshō says: beneath Tokusan's gate one cannot say this is inadmissible; beneath Dongshan's gate it is still not yet there. When Seppō traveled on foot, he went to Touzi three times and climbed Dongshan nine times. One day while he was washing rice, Dongshan asked, “Are you washing sand away from rice, or rice away from sand?” Seppō said, “Sand and rice are both removed at once.” Dongshan asked, “What will the great assembly eat?” Seppō overturned the basin. Dongshan said, “Attainment is attainment, but you must meet someone else.” Later Seppō indeed succeeded Tokusan. Gensha and Changqing succeeded Seppō; Razan succeeded Gantō. All emerged under Tokusan's gate. Thus one presses down and another raises up; words oppose while intention accords. Today the Unmon and Dongshan lines proceed together—how could one be superior and the other inferior? Unmon said, “A male slave sees a maidservant being attentive.” Hofuku said, “Ungan greatly resembles pushing a cart through mud, busy and laborious at every step.” These two elders also succeeded Seppō, so naturally their tone accorded. They meant that Ungan could not use the broom to strike and cut off the entangling vines. Little did they know there was a thorn in the rotten mud. Before Banshō had finished examining and raising these comments, he involuntarily laughed: “Ungan and Dōgo disclosed the Dongshan mechanism, yet this band of old fellows, with a multitude of mouths that could melt gold, had no one to redress their wrong.” Fortunately Tendō draws his sword to assist them. Discuss this matter and it is like sparks from flint or a flash of lightning. Ungan raises the broom to show people; Changqing turns it and strikes him across the face. Though their uses differ, both return to change and extinction. Thus the Dongshan house values turning the mechanism and changing position. At Seppō is Elephant-Bone Crag. Seppō once instructed the assembly, “On South Mountain there is a turtle-nosed snake. All of you must look carefully.” Unmon thrust his staff before them and made a frightened gesture.⁵ Is this not a male slave seeing a maidservant being attentive? Ungan swept the ground, raised the broom, and said, “Which moon is this?” He changed them all from servile status into effective descendants. Unmon remains under the hedge-eaves to this day. Therefore Tendō did not let him pass: “The snake-handler before Elephant-Bone Crag—what he did as a child, in old age he knows to be shameful.” Master Shengmo said, “This verse searches out a person's shortcoming and also works for a person's strength.” Here Tendō and Shengmo inspect and penalize Unmon. Today Banshō overturns the verdict. Have you not seen Tendō's verse on the snake story, praising Unmon's complete mechanism and great function as not descending from the clouds? Why is it like this? Pressing down and raising up are both with me. Who else determines killing and giving life?