Unmon's White and Black

Banshō's commentary on the case

King Milinda asked the venerable Nagasena, “I am about to put a question. Can the teacher answer?” Nagasena said, “Please, King, present your question.” The king said, “I have already finished asking.” Nagasena said, “I have already finished answering.” The king asked, “What did the teacher answer?” Nagasena said, “What did the king ask?” The king said, “I asked nothing.” Nagasena said, “I answered nothing.”³ This can still be investigated. Unmon's question is like lightning striking through a clear sky; Kempō's answer, like thunder running across dry ground. When both release and both gather, one instead sees a head and tail. Thus one who is not a patch-robed monk does not know it, and one who is not an adept does not see it. Reverend Tendō entered deeply through this gate. The miss lies upon the bowstring: one cannot fail to release. This versifies Unmon's question, whose sharp mechanism cannot be touched. “Net-jewels face one another” versifies Kempō's answer: host and guest participate together, the question within the answer and the answer within the question. “Released a hundred times, hitting a hundred times” versifies Unmon's “Then I am late.” Zhijue said, “It is like a person shooting at the ground; there is no principle by which the shot can miss.” “Their crossing lights weave one another; phenomenon after phenomenon is unobstructed” versifies Kempō's “Is it so? Is it so?” The Huayan Commentary says that in Indra's palace, strung jewels form a net. Light and image appear reciprocally, layer beyond layer without end.⁴ This versifies the public case's general meaning. There is no need to assign every line rigidly, like gluing the bridge of a lute while tuning its strings. Unmon said, “I had thought you were Hou Bai, but there is further a Hou Hei.” Hou Bai, courtesy name Junsu, lived under the Sui and was renowned for comic wit and ready speech. The great general Yang Su recognized him. Hou Bai composed the Record of Manifested Anomalies, which reportedly detailed responses and retributions among humans and spirits.² Under the Tang, Li Bai was able in poetry. Later Li Chi imitated him but did not resemble him closely, and the story circulated as a joke. The present “Hou Hei” is formed in the same fashion. Another copy reads, “I was already Hou Bai; he is further Hou Hei,” meaning that Kempō went still further. There are three kinds of dharani: many-letter, one-letter, and no-letter. They retain all Dharma gates. Samadhi means correct concentration. Tendō's “partial and complete” resembles phenomena and principle. National Teacher Guan said, “Principle is complete; words are partial. When words arise, principle is lost.” Tiantai's Calming and Contemplation speaks of the three dots of the round syllable 伊: they are not vertical like falling drops of water, nor horizontal like a row of flames. Further, exhausting the three times vertically is called high; pervading the ten directions horizontally is called broad. Thus the Lotus Sutra says, “Its cart is high and broad.”⁵ Tendō communicates broadly with the ocean of teachings and penetrates the sky of meaning. Unmon and Kempō erect a wordless stele; Tendō enters a wordless poem in song. It may be called Yang Xiu seeing “young woman”: at one glance he knew the hidden word “wondrous.”⁵