Tokusan—Study Finished

Banshō's commentary on the case

Great Master Yuanming, personal name Yuanmi, was the ninth-generation teacher at Tokusan in Dingzhou. Among Unmon's descendants, his transmission spread most broadly. He originated three phrases: “containing heaven and earth,” “cutting off the many streams,” and “following waves and pursuing currents.” Their present transmission as “Unmon's three phrases” reflects insufficient investigation.³ One day Yuanming instructed the assembly, “Let everything be exhausted and gone. Even hang the mouths of all buddhas of the three times on the wall.” This says that discursive understanding cannot reach the Buddha's broad, long tongue-mark. “Still, there is one person laughing aloud.” Tell me: what person laughs, and at what? “If you recognize this person, the matter of study is finished.” If this is truly so, another matter remains.¹ Reverend Qing of Touzi commented: Conceal completely the moon in Chu's sky; still a star remains over the land of Han. Banshō says: The cart has already gone—why make so much of the oil jar? This can be spoken to someone stepping forward from the top of the pole. Reverend Zhao of Baofeng said, “You must be like a person greatly dead, who after dying dies once more.” A monk asked, “Does this mean coming alive within death?” Baofeng said, “For now, die; do not come alive. While eating, you should hurry and go defecate by yourself. You have not yet eaten, yet already you ask about defecating—why?”² This values personally arriving at and verifying great rest and great cessation. Speaking one zhang does not equal practicing one foot. But at the place where practice cannot proceed, how does one speak? Ask Tendō. Yuanming's instruction needed nothing more. Tendō adds the one graph “Gather!” and, together with Yuanming, packs it into a cloth bag. Great Master Huisi said, “I swallow all buddhas of the three times in one mouth. Where could there still be sentient beings to save?” Here no water leaks through and the roads of ordinary and sage are cut off.⁴ At precisely this time, the empty Dharma realm is like one ancient mirror: the Vairambha wind of the destruction kalpa grinds it bright, and the Gold-Treasury Cloud of the formation kalpa wipes it clean. Water and sky share one color; cloud and moon cross their light. All these select the side of pure clarity without a speck.⁴ Here words are bland and without flavor. With the moon as hook and cloud as bait, fish and dragons have nothing they can swallow. King Tang's loosening of the net follows your intention; Lü Wang's lowering the hook trusts my conditions. These are traditional ruler-and-fisherman allusions, not instructions for harming animals.⁵ Have you not heard: Coarse rice from mountain fields, wild vegetables, and pale yellow pickle. If you eat, eat as you please; if not, go east or west as you will.