Razan's Arising and Ceasing

Banshō's commentary on the case

Zen Master Daoxian of Razan in Shenzhou first asked Shishuang, “What about when arising and ceasing do not stop?” Shishuang said, “You must go to cold ashes and dead wood; go to one thought for ten thousand years; go where container and lid correspond; go to purity without one speck.” Razan did not accord. He went and asked Gantō. Gantō shouted, “Who is arising and ceasing?” At this Razan had insight. Gantō valued only that one's ground of seeing be clear. Shishuang established the Dead Tree Hall because he required one personally to arrive there once.³ Have you not seen Zuigan ask Gantō, “What is the principle of original constancy?” Gantō said, “It moves.” Zuigan asked, “What about when it moves?” Gantō said, “You do not see the principle of original constancy.” Zuigan stood thinking. Gantō said, “If you affirm it, you have not escaped sense faculties and objects. If you do not affirm it, you sink forever in birth and death.” Zuigan also received insight. Gantō was outstanding and unrestrained in spirit. In sending students on, his precise acuity did not fall short of Tokusan. Later he produced the Dharma treasure Razan: ice colder than the water from which it formed. Isan called this “valuing only your place of seeing, not asking about your conduct.”² Razan's question became a model for everyone. Beginners today often make their livelihood here, suppressing and severing afflictions like pressing a gourd beneath water. Zhijue said: Do not take mind as companion; with no mind, mind rests of itself. If you make mind a companion, as soon as it moves, mind deceives you. Companion means accompanying deluded mind; no-mind means no deluded mind. The ancestral teacher came from the West, directly pointed to the human mind, and taught seeing nature and becoming buddha. How could this have meant teaching you to act as the person from Puzhou who escorts a thief, recognizing a slave as the young master?⁴ At Razan's question, he was confused about truth and grasped delusion. At Gantō's shout, delusion itself was truth. If it had been Banshō, after shouting he would have stopped. Above truth and delusion, another matter remains.¹ In the Surangama Sutra, Ananda says, “The Tathagata has questioned me about where mind is located. I use mind to investigate and search. I take what can investigate to be my mind.” The Buddha says, “Bah! Ananda, this is not your mind.” Startled, Ananda leaves his seat, joins his palms, and asks, “If this is not my mind, what should it be called?” The Buddha tells him, “This is a falsely constructed appearance of objects before you. It confuses your true nature. From beginningless time through this life, you have taken a thief for your son, lost your original constancy, and therefore undergone cyclic existence.”⁴ This shout is like the precious sword of the Vajra King. Gantō's shout is like a lion crouched upon the ground: full authority and great function, power that does not deceive. Hō Koji said: A band of six thieves life after life deceives people to death. Now I recognize you and will not be your neighbor. If you do not submit to me, everywhere I will tell people to recognize you, cutting off your road of travel. If you consent to submit, I will make no discrimination; living together with you in one place, together we realize no arising and ceasing.⁵ Gantō said, “Who is arising and ceasing?” Ungan lifted his broom and asked, “In which month is this fellow practitioner?” Tendō values how well Gantō touches and transforms, and repeats it in verse. He cuts off the topic and razes the question's intent. Illumination and function are simultaneous; person and environment are both taken away. Gantō has work that surpasses his teacher. Yang Xiong said, “The sage is distinguished as a tiger, whose markings blaze; the noble person as a leopard, whose markings flourish; the debater as a raccoon-dog, whose markings gather.” Raccoon changes into leopard; leopard changes into tiger. This is a graded literary hierarchy, not zoology or a measure of human worth.⁶ The dark leopard of the southern mountain hides in mist and changes its pattern. Liu Xiang's Biographies of Exemplary Women tells that Tao Dazi governed Tao for three years. His reputation did not rise, but his household wealth tripled. His wife held their child and wept. Her mother-in-law angrily called this inauspicious. The wife said, “I have heard that a dark leopard on the southern mountain hides in mist and does not eat for seven days, wishing to enrich its coat and complete its pattern. Dogs and pigs do not choose their food and therefore grow fat; through fatness they incur disaster.” A year later, the story says, Tao Dazi was executed.⁶ Ren Fang's Record of Strange Things says that in the summer of the seventh year of Emperor Hui of Han, thunder shook the southern mountain, forest trees burned, and the earth was scorched yellow. After a violent rain, a complete set of dragon bones was found. This is marvel literature, not established paleontology.⁶ Razan encountered a wronging bandit who destroyed the household and submitted a statement of grievance. Gantō accepted the bandit's surrender and recruited him; afterward he transformed into an effective young man. This is Banshō's military and household metaphor for the encounter, not a literal criminal report.⁴ Tell me: where is the act of pacification and recruitment? Bah! Amid arising and ceasing in profusion, who is it now?