Manorhita and the Foam

Keizan's commentary

The teacher was a son of King Constant Sovereignty in the country of Nāḍi. He met Ancestor Vasubandhu at thirty. When Vasubandhu traveled to teach in Nāḍi, King Constant Sovereignty had two sons. The elder was Mahāra and the younger Manorhita. The king asked, “How do the customs of Rājagṛha differ from ours?” Vasubandhu said, “Three buddhas have appeared in that land. Your country now has two teachers who guide and transform.” The king asked, “Who are these two teachers?” Vasubandhu said, “The Buddha predicted that during the second five-hundred-year period a great being with spiritual power would leave home and continue the rank of sages. He is your younger son Manorhita, one of the two. Although my virtue is slight, I dare to count myself as the other.” The king said, “If your words are true, I will give this child to become a renunciant.” Vasubandhu said, “Excellent, great king. You can follow the Buddha's intent.” He then gave Manorhita the full precepts.² From then on Manorhita attended Vasubandhu. Once he asked, “What is the awakening of all buddhas?” Vasubandhu said, “It is the original nature of heart.” At the beginning of studying the way, the question that must be asked is precisely this. “Awakening” means the way, so the question means, “What is the way?” People today do not ask Dharma with an empty heart and do not meet a teacher as beginners. Therefore they lack this question. If the thought of the way is genuine, it cannot be otherwise. First ask, “What is Buddha?” Then ask, “What is the Buddha-way?” This is why Manorhita asks here. Vasubandhu instructed him, “The original nature of heart is it.” Because Manorhita's resolve had no second intention and he kept not a hair in reserve, he immediately asked, “What is the original nature of heart?” Vasubandhu answered, “The eighteen realms are empty.” At that moment Manorhita opened and awakened. Buddha is the original nature of heart. Original nature finally cannot be known or seen; it is precisely the unsurpassed way. Heart has no shape and no place to stand. How much more “Buddha” and “way”? These are all names forced upon it. Buddha is not conscious knowing. The way is not something cultivated. Heart is not discriminating consciousness. On this ground there is no field and no faculty. Where could consciousness stand? Therefore do not debate it as heart and object or distinguish it as knowing. Arriving here, the buddhas finally reveal no shape and the wondrous way requires no cultivation and maintenance. Although seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing leave no tracks, sound, color, movement, and shaking do not possess boundaries either. Thus it is said: This very seeing and hearing is not seeing and hearing; Further, no sound or color can be presented to you. If you understand here, there is no affair at all; What obstruction could there be to essence and function, Divided or undivided?³ Do not understand sound as the notes gong, shang, jue, and zhi. Do not understand color as blue, yellow, red, and white. Do not make seeing a condition of rays from the eye or think hearing is the ear-faculty. No person's eye independently faces color, and no person's ear waits for sound. If there were a dharma standing opposite and an object awaited, how could sound enter the ear and color be seen by the eye? Unless it were like empty space joining empty space and water joining water, seeing and hearing would be cut off. Because it is not otherwise, the eye passes through color and the ear passes through sound. They are harmoniously merged without barrier and mingled without trace. Thus even a sound shaking heaven and earth enters the tiny square inch of the ear. Is this not the greatest identical with the small? The tiny square inch of the eye illuminates the whole world. Is this not the smallest identical with the great? Is the eye not color? Is sound not the ear? Knowing and distinguishing it in this way, this heart has no edge or boundary. The eye cannot originally be obtained, and color cannot be divided. Are these three divisions not all empty?⁴ When you reach this ground, you can call it sound, call it eye, or call it consciousness. “This way” works, “not this way” works, and “this way and not this way” both work. Not one fine dust-mote comes from outside, and not a hair-tip goes away as separation. When speaking of sound, listener and teaching are distinguished within sound. When speaking of color, perceiver and perceived are arranged within color. There is nothing at all outside one's share. Yet because all of you do not reach this principle, some think, “Sound and color are false, empty appearances recklessly erected. They should be swept away. Original heart abides permanently from the beginning and must never change.” This is especially laughable. At this place, what thing could change or not change? What thing could be real or unreal? Unless you clarify this matter, you are not only dark to sound and color; you do not reach seeing and hearing either. You therefore raise the eyes and try not to see, block the ears and try not to hear. This is binding yourself without a rope and falling into a hole where none exists. It is difficult to escape the outflows of feeling and sensory dust. Investigate closely. If you penetrate and see the bottom clearly, reaching through the crown will also be unobstructed. I have another humble verse and wish to point out this encounter. Do you wish to hear it?