Rakuho at Death

Banshō's commentary on the case

As Rakuho approached death, his grandmotherly concern was too intense. The head seat disclosed everything, but Rakuho reproached him for speaking out of season. Yancong did not let it emerge through his lips, and Rakuho allowed that he ought to understand. He fished him out again and again, but pitifully Yancong remained submerged throughout. Kebin willingly accepted a fine for meal money; the blind donkey deliberately extinguished the eye of the true Dharma. These compressed lineage precedents warn that accepting punishment, refusing office, and preserving the teaching do not always coincide.³ Xuanjue said, “Tell me: did Senior Yancong truly not understand, or was he afraid the bowl bag would stick to him?” Therefore the lamp records include Yancong in the line of Rakuho's Dharma successors.¹ Rakuho once instructed the assembly, “You must clarify the guiding principle outside the meaning; do not take a rule from within words.” A monk asked, “What about the place of inconceivable practice?” Rakuho said, “Green mountains constantly raise their feet; the bright sun does not move its wheel.” Judged by this, the head seat's accordance with Rakuho is brilliantly evident. On Rakuho's side, was there still anyone to gather the aftermath? A hundred years later there was Tendō. The ancients used a long rainbow as fishing rod, the new moon as hook, and a broken cloud as bait. On a clear ford the boat of compassion can be rowed; at Sword Gorge one must first release a wooden goose. Reverend Wuyun of Kōshū said in his Admonition on Seated Meditation, “Following the current through Sword Gate, do not obstruct the wooden goose.” Sword River is dangerously narrow and swift. If two boats collide, both will certainly break apart. Therefore people first cut a piece of wood and float it downstream; this is called a “wooden goose.” Accounts elsewhere differ and are hard to trust; Banshō considers the meditation admonition the best evidence.⁴ “Old, his heart solitary, he has not caught even scales.” Those who do not know say this means Rakuho had no successor. Rakuho in fact had eleven, including Wuya and Qingfeng, all mature adepts with white eyebrows. Reverend Ne of Momo'an wrote: Profit and fame, the wine of past and present; heroes all sink into drunkenness. The haggard one beside the marsh is not yet enough to be alone sober. Qu Yuan, personal name Ping, served King Huai of Chu as a grand officer of the three clans. Banshō reports that Jin Shang slandered him and that he was banished toward Chōsa. Walking alone beside the river, Qu Yuan told a fisherman, “Everyone in the world is drunk; I alone am sober. Everyone in the world is muddy; I alone am clear.” He died by drowning himself in the Miluo River, located in Luo County of Tanzhou. The Selections of Refined Literature transmits Encountering Sorrow as Qu Yuan's work.² At Rakuho's death, Yancong was dull and obstructed. Rakuho lowered the line but did not get even one coin into his hand. They held themselves level against one another, yet in the end not even water or rice passed between them. Do you understand? Failing to be enfeoffed as marquis is also an idle matter.