Rakuho Submits

Banshō's commentary on the case

The patriarchal-lamp records all say that before Kassan met Chuanzi he had already emerged as a teacher and lived at Zhulin in Jingkou, Runzhou, but they do not name his Dharma predecessor. Only Foguo's Rhythmic Exclamations says that Chuanming first succeeded Shilou—that is, Shilou of Fenzhou. Chuanming was Kassan's posthumous title.³ Zen Master Yuan'an of Mount Rakuho in Lizhou studied with Rinzai for a long time and served as his attendant. Rinzai once said, “Under Rinzai's gate is a single arrow. Who dares face its point?” One day Rakuho took leave. Rinzai asked, “Where are you going?” Rakuho said, “South.” Rinzai drew a line with his staff and said, “If you can pass this, then go.” Rakuho shouted. Rinzai struck him. Rakuho bowed and departed. After completing his travels, Rakuho reached Kassan's summit and established a hermitage for a year. Kassan learned of this and sent an attendant monk carrying a letter. Rakuho received it and immediately set it aside. He extended his hand again, asking for something more. The monk had no words. Rakuho struck him and said, “Return and report this to the reverend.” The monk returned and related it. Kassan said, “If this monk reads the letter, he will certainly come within three days. If he does not read it, he cannot be saved.” Rakuho came three days later. Without bowing, he stood face to face with Kassan. Kassan said, “A chicken roosts in a phoenix nest. If you are not of its kind, get out.” Each bore the eye that parts grass and observes the wind. Rakuho saw that Kassan's sending him away was precisely keeping him. Since he had come, how could he return empty-handed? He also saw that the household style was steep and hard, neither yielding to the other, so he used a softer strategy: “I have hastened from afar toward your teaching. I beg the teacher to receive me once.” Kassan had another furnace and bellows: “Before my eyes there is no acarya; here there is no old monk.” Kassan knew that this long-practiced visitor would certainly enact Rinzai's true command; only afterward did he use a drill and hammer beyond school and style. Rakuho indeed shouted. Tell me: is there something apart from just this? Kassan said, “Stop, stop! Do not be rash and hurried.” He did not want Rakuho to rush. “Cloud and moon are the same; streams and mountains differ.” The same flour and grasses are shaped and made according to the person. “You certainly know how to cut off everyone in the world's tongue.” There is only a thousand-foot cold pine. “But how will you make the tongueless person able to speak?” A stone bamboo shoot must further put forth a branch. Kassan once spoke of “institutional deployment” and “deep discourse entering principle.” Rakuho displayed the institutional style; Kassan spoke deeply into principle. Greedy to watch the white waves, Rakuho lost the oar in his hand and ultimately could not reach it. Kassan was excellent: he took Rinzai's true command and, for Rakuho, inserted an unfamiliar key into an old lock. Rakuho had tasted the strong vinegar of his own household and knew sourness; therefore he submitted.¹ Xinghua said, “Just know how to become a buddha; why worry about sentient beings?” Banshō says: What can be done when one tree does not make a forest? Setchō said, “This monk is lamentable and painful. Kassan dulled and obstructed Rinzai in him.” Banshō says: If the adopted son does not equal the father, the household declines for a generation. Kassan said, “Cloud and moon are the same”; I too say, “Streams and mountains differ.” Banshō says: Autumn colors on the southern mountain vie in force. What is this talk of a tongueless person unable to speak? Banshō says: He is still only an interpreting secretary. “Strike him across the mouth with the sitting cloth.” Banshō says: He is caught and thoroughly beaten. What then? Kassan is a person who knows the proper method; he will certainly arrange matters beneath the bright window. Banshō says: Better to return to him his ordinary fodder. Wuzu Jie said, “If you explain another principle, see if I do not drive you out.” Banshō says: Snakes and scorpions are innately acute; they are venomous from birth. Dayang Yan said, “Still, I ask the reverend to verify it.” Banshō says: The fragrance of iris and orchid remains fragrant into old age. Banshō further said: Yakusan's line is truly difficult to continue and raise. Ungan sweeps the ground, and dust spans the sky. Rakuho submits, yet cries injustice without end. Fortunately, the tongueless person can speak and the handless person can practice boxing. Even if staff and shout race together, they raise only half from the side. To sustain this Way, the matter is entrusted to Tendō. When Rakuho took leave of Rinzai, Rinzai said, “Under Rinzai's gate is a red-tailed carp. Shaking its head and waving its tail, it goes south.” “Without dependence through and through, it knows how to turn its body” is an affair of Rinzai's line. It is not altogether the same as “turning position” or “turning achievement.” Rinzai's extensive record says: Only the person of the Way who listens to Dharma without dependence is the mother of all buddhas. Therefore buddha is born from no-dependence. If no-dependence is awakened to, even buddha cannot be obtained. Seeing in this way is true and correct understanding.⁴ Banshō says: if Rakuho could not turn his body, how could he shout at Kassan? If he could turn it, why did he finally have no words? Try to determine it. Tendō grants that Rakuho possessed the eye and had skill. Kassan too knew how to cut off everyone's tongue and ably act according to the command. The only issue was how to make the tongueless person speak. Kassan lightly pulled back those sky-scraping nostrils. Foguo saw that Kassan's words resembled an incantation and commented, “Where did he get this tangled string?” Banshō says: precisely this is Kassan making the tongueless person speak. Foguo lacks this tangled string and can only cut off everyone's tongue. Even if there is another place to turn and breathe out, it is not necessarily the tongueless person's speech. Tell me: what is this person's domain? Wanshi says: Outside the night-bright curtain, wind and moon are like day; before the cliff of dead trees, flowers are always spring. This is the tongueless person's enjoyment. Emperor Ming of Han reportedly built the Hall of Luminosity, using pearls for blinds, gold for the threshold, and jade for the stairs, so it shone continuously day and night.⁵ Tong'an Cha said, “Before the cliff of dead trees, diverging roads are many.” Dongshan said, “One must put a few flowers upon the dead tree.” This verse does not lack solitary steepness beneath staff and shout. Yet after reaching the top of the hundred-foot pole, one must take another step; only then can the tongueless person speak. Thus one knows that a phrase issued by the tongueless person is the intimate phrase in which the true command is wholly raised. Arriving here, one's eye stands above the four seas and one walks alone through the realm. Later Rakuho said, “Let everyone under heaven rejoice as they will; I alone do not approve.” Even if everyone under heaven willingly lets Kassan cut off their tongues, Kassan said, “Above this there is still another opening.” What is the opening above? When the tongueless person speaks, I will tell you.