Ōbaku's Dreg-Gobblers

Banshō's commentary on the case

This story has been abbreviated. Fully raised, it should say: One day Ōbaku ascended the hall and said, “All of you—what do you seek?” He then drove them with his staff. The assembly did not disperse. The teacher thereupon said, “All of you are dreg-gobblers.” People in the Tang liked to insult others: “dreg-gobblers.” Duke Huan of Qi was reading in the hall above while Wheelwright Pian was cutting a wheel in the courtyard below. Pian put down mallet and chisel, went up, and asked, “May I ask what words my lord is reading?” The duke said, “The canons of the sages.” Pian asked, “Are the sages alive?” The duke said, “They are already dead.” Pian said, “Then what my lord is reading is the dregs of the ancients.” The duke said, “I am reading a book. How does a wheelwright get to criticize it? If you have an explanation, you may live; if you have none, you die.” Pian said, “I look at it from my own work. When I cut a wheel too slowly, the fit is loose and not firm; when I go too quickly, it is tight and will not enter. Neither slow nor fast, it is obtained in the hand and answered in the heart. The mouth cannot express it, yet a measure exists within it. “I cannot convey it to my son, and my son cannot receive it from me. Therefore I have reached seventy years and grown old cutting wheels. The ancients died together with what they could not transmit. Thus what my lord reads is the dregs of the ancients.”² Ōbaku also said, “Traveling in this way only makes others laugh. As soon as you see a place with eight hundred or a thousand people, you go there. You must not merely seek crowds and excitement. “When this mountain monk traveled, if I happened to meet a fellow under the grassroots, I would immediately put an awl to the crown of his head and see what he did. If he knew pain from itch, I could fill a cloth sack with rice and support him. “If everyone were as easygoing as you, where would today's matter still exist? Since you call yourselves traveling practitioners, you should summon a little spirit. Do you know that in the Great Tang realm there are no Zen teachers?”³ Since Ōbaku, Gantō and Razan liked to enforce this command. In recent times Furi and Master Yi of Qingshou, who came from the north, found no one satisfactory up to their deaths. They would rather have their succession end than accept someone unfit. The descendants of Reverend Jun of Xiangshan, a Dharma great-uncle, also enforced this command. Those who did not understand called it “pointing at one's own chest.” What was needed was someone unwilling to submit, who would step forward and take it on. Sure enough, a monk came forward and said, “Venerable elders throughout the regions gather assemblies and transform them through teaching. Why do you say there are no Zen teachers?” Ōbaku said, “I do not say there is no Zen, only that there are no teachers.” Isan asked Kyōzan, “What do you make of it?” Kyōzan said, “The goose king separates milk; from the outset it is not of the duck kind.” Isan said, “This is truly difficult to distinguish.”⁴ Jie of Wuzu offered the monk's response: “Thank you, Reverend, for explaining the principle so well.” Banshō says: Raw words, overripe phrases—cold lips and a bland tongue. Cong of Shimen said, “Ōbaku's instruction was certainly extraordinary. But as soon as the cloth-robed monk pressed him, he lost one eye.” Banshō says: He exchanged it for both of that monk's eyes. Zong of Chengtian said, “Jie of Wuzu's eye illumines the four quarters beneath heaven.” Banshō says: Still only one eye. If you want to see Ōbaku, this is not yet enough. Banshō says: Indeed. “If one wishes to establish and support the treasury of the true Dharma eye, it must be the lineage teacher Ōbaku.” Banshō says: Adding flowers atop brocade. Zhen of Suigan said, “When the various regions discuss it, they say Ōbaku sat this monk down.” Banshō says: They do not know that he raised this monk up. Zhen also said, “This monk came straight at Ōbaku and left him unable to sort the matter out.” Banshō says: Black and white become still clearer. What does this mean? Suigan abruptly produced deliberation: The mist-hidden leopard nourishes its coat, never descending to feed. The courtyard bird nurtures its courage, finally waiting to startle people. Banshō says: Look again after five days. Ōbaku also said, “Acaryas, do you not see? Under Master Ma there were more than eighty people. Sitting at their places of practice, every one of them was lively and rolling free. Yet those who obtained Master Ma's true eye numbered only two or three. Guizong alone was somewhat the best. “One who leaves home must know the matter passed down from the beginning. Consider Master Rong of Niutou under the Fourth Patriarch: he could explain horizontally and vertically, yet still did not know the upward-facing pivot. Only with this eye and brain can one distinguish the deviant and correct lineages.” I abbreviate here. To see this story from beginning to end, more than a hundred further words remain. Because these were among Ōbaku's earliest words on emerging into the world to instruct people, they circulated widely in every region. Setchō's verse and Foguo's evaluation and commentary are the most detailed, yet they still omit the original intention of the sermon in Ōbaku's record. Tendō's verse brings it out with goodness and beauty exhausted. In the “Explaining Correspondences” chapter of the Liezi, a neighbor of Master Yang lost a sheep. The neighbor first assembled his companions, then asked Yang's young servant to join the pursuit. Yang said, “For one sheep, why are there so many pursuers?” The neighbor said, “There are many branching roads.” When they returned, Yang asked, “Did you get the sheep?” The neighbor said, “It is lost.” Yang asked, “How did you lose it?” He said, “Within each branching road there was another branch.”⁵ At the time of King Hui of Liang, the Mozi tells of a person of the Way who went out and saw plain silk being dyed into other colors. Grieving, he said, “People are clear and still, identical with the body of a sage, but by living amid bad customs they are dyed and accumulate burdens.” “Paths divide, silk is dyed—too much laolao.” The reading is formed with chi and jiao; it means noisy clamor and weary bustle. The graph “labor” is another possible reading. “Leaves stitched and flowers linked” recalls the First Patriarch Bodhidharma's verse: I originally came to this land to teach Dharma and save deluded beings. One flower opens five petals; the fruit ripens naturally. One flower and five petals are themselves branching paths and dyed silk. If in the Great Tang realm there are no Zen teachers, even Bodhidharma has no chance to show his head.⁶ The Record of the Source Mirror says, “The south-pointing chariot was originally shown to those who were lost; the mirror that illumines the heart was made to reflect deviant people.” The Notes on Ancient and Modern Matters says that the Yellow Emperor fought Chiyou at Zhuolu. Chiyou made a great fog that confused all four directions. The emperor, riding in a chariot, pointed south and showed the direction. His soldiers captured Chiyou and beheaded him. The vehicle was therefore called the south-pointing chariot.⁷ As for “forming in the kiln,” the Record of Customs at Chenliu says that Shun made pottery on the riverbank. His descendants took Zhen as their surname; today the surname is pronounced Zhen. This mysterious furnace molds the myriad forms; the sea of wisdom gathers the ten thousand streams. “Screen away and cut off the proliferating fragments; shear away the fine down”: remove the divergent roads of branching paths and trim the side branches of linked leaves. The Dipper is the balance among stars, turning and regulating the four seasons. The ornate mirror is a bright and patterned mirror. A balance determines light and heavy; a mirror distinguishes beautiful and ugly. As for the jade ruler, the Record of Gleanings says that when Yu traveled to Dragon Gate, eight spirits brought out a jade tablet and presented it to him. One foot and two inches long, it could measure heaven and earth. As for the golden knife, ancient times had gold-inlaid knife coins and writing called “golden-blade script.”⁸ This verse depicts Ōbaku ranking the various regions, balance and ruler in hand. Moreover, his hearing was acute enough to hear ants fighting and his sight clear enough to discern an autumn hair. Guarding against the minute and stopping what had barely begun, he sat cutting off the spring wind and would not let it rise. Reverend Anyi of Dasheng wrote in his poem on bamboo shoots: Better to bring the axe down close to the root, so no branch will grow outside the joint.