Fuketsu's One Speck of Dust

Banshō's commentary on the case

Setchō raises the staff with his intention at the place where the dust is established. He versified: Let the old rustic never unfold his brows; for now, plan a heroic foundation for house and nation. Where now are the strategists and fierce generals? This versifies, “Is there a patch-robed monk who will die together and live together?” The pure wind across ten thousand miles—only he himself knows. “The old rustic never unfolds his brows.” The story as raised above is incomplete. In the record Fuketsu ascended the hall and said, “If one speck of dust is established, house and nation flourish, and the old rustic frowns. If one speck is not established, house and nation perish, and the old rustic rests at ease.”¹ “If you understand here, the acarya has no share; it is wholly this old monk. If you do not understand here, this old monk is precisely the acarya. The acarya and this old monk can also awaken everyone in the world and can also bewilder everyone in the world. “Do you want to recognize the acarya?” Fuketsu slapped the left side and said, “Here he is.” “Do you want to recognize this old monk?” He slapped the right side and said, “Here he is.” Unmon said, “Here is easy; there is difficult.” Rōya Jue said, “Divining with a ladle, one listens to empty sounds.” Banshō says: Unmon adds a point to the arrow; Rōya pulls out the wedge from behind the skull. This too is the establishing and abolishing of one dust, the flourishing and perishing of house and nation. In reality, when has the tree at the center moved even slightly? Within the gate of buddha-work, Setchō abandons not one dharma. Tendō also includes the ground of actual principle, which admits not one speck of dust. The two methods proceed together; he holds them out in one piece.² When the Lord of the West was about to hunt, a divination said: “What you obtain will be neither brown bear nor black bear, neither striped beast nor tiger, but an aide to hegemon and king.” He indeed found Lü Shang on the north bank of the Wei River. Delighted by their conversation, he said, “My late forebear the Grand Duke once said that a sage would come to Zhou. My Grand Duke has long awaited you.” Thus Lü Shang was called Taigong Wang, “the Grand Duke's Awaited One,” and was established as teacher.³ Boyi and Shuqi were sons of the ruler of Guzhu. Each yielded the state and both fled. When King Wu campaigned against Zhou of Shang, they grasped his horse and remonstrated: “Your father has died and is not yet buried, yet you take up weapons—is this filial? As a subject, you kill your ruler—is this humane?” King Wu's attendants wanted to kill them. Taigong said, “These are righteous men,” and had them led away. After King Wu subdued Shang and all under heaven acknowledged Zhou, Boyi and Shuqi were ashamed of it. They refused to eat Zhou grain, gathered bracken on Mount Shouyang, and starved to death.⁴ Taigong campaigned against Shang and established Zhou: house and nation flourishing. Boyi and Shuqi yielded their positions and starved: house and nation perishing. Banshō's inherited narrative frames both service and refusal through elite political virtue; it does not report the perspectives of those governed or killed in the conquest.⁴ National Teacher Xianshou established the transformations of just one speck of dust and expounded the Ocean of Meaning in the Hundred Gates. Lofty name is Boyi and Shuqi; meritorious work is Taigong.⁵ Rakuho said, “Before the old rustic's gate, court affairs are not discussed.” Therefore he rests securely in farming and mulberry cultivation and never frowns. Why? The place of no use becomes the place of true use. A favorable condition is an unfavorable condition.