Jōshū Asks About Death

Banshō's commentary on the case

Zen Master Datong of Mount Tōsu in Shuzhou first visited Zen Master Wuxue of Suibi. He happened to encounter Suibi walking meditation in the hall, advanced, exchanged bows, and asked, “How does the teacher show people the secret intent of the coming from the West?” Suibi stopped and looked back at him. Tōsu said, “I beg the teacher to point it out.” Suibi said, “Do you want a second ladle of foul water?” Tōsu suddenly awakened and accorded. He bowed in thanks and withdrew.³ Suibi said, “Do not fall away from it.” Tōsu said, “When the time comes, roots and sprouts grow of themselves.” Another day Tōsu happened to ask, “What is Buddha-principle?” Suibi said, “Buddha does not reason.” Tōsu asked, “Does that not fall into emptiness?” Suibi said, “True emptiness is not empty.” He then showed him a prophetic verse: When has Buddha-principle ever reasoned? True emptiness, again, is not empty. Datong will dwell in Secluded Abiding, spreading and expounding my teacher's lineage.³ Tōsu returned to his home region and Mount Tōsu at Tongcheng. Jōshū first met him at Tongcheng. Jōshū asked, “Are you not the hermitage master of Tōsu?” Tōsu said, “Tea superintendent, donate one coin to me.” Jōshū went up the mountain first. Tōsu arrived later carrying an oil bottle. Jōshū said, “I have long heard of Tōsu, but upon arriving I see only an old oil seller.” Tōsu said, “You see only the old oil seller; you do not recognize Tōsu.” Jōshū asked, “What is Tōsu?” Tōsu raised the oil bottle and said, “Oil! Oil!” Tōsu laid out tea and refreshments to receive him. He personally passed a sesame cake to Jōshū, but Jōshū paid no attention. Tōsu had the attendant pass it; Jōshū bowed to the attendant three times. Now say: what was his intent?⁴ Zen Master Zhen of Yongguang in Suzhou ascended the hall and said, “If the edge of speech differs by a hairsbreadth, the home pass is ten thousand li away. One must release one's hands at the sheer cliff, personally assent, and take responsibility. Reviving after extinction, one cannot be deceived.” Jōshū took this intent and asked his question. Without Tōsu, it would finally have been difficult to match. Tōsu immediately said, “Night travel is not permitted; you must arrive by daylight.” This resembles the ordinary saying, “One who has not shed the skin needs a white-willow staff.” In principle it corresponds exactly with Jōshū's question. Jōshū said, “I was already Hou Bai; he is even Hou Hei.”⁵ From this Tōsu's reputation for the Way gathered an assembly. A petition was submitted in accord with the prophecy, and the monastery was named Secluded Abiding. Baiyun Duan versified: Dying and reviving, the teeth still show. “Arrive by daylight”—he has already gone first. In whose separate lodge, within the pond, is a pair of mandarin ducks impossible to paint? Try looking at Tendō's single brushstroke. The Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom says there is a city one hundred yojanas square, entirely filled with mustard seeds. Once every hundred years one seed is removed. The seeds can be exhausted while the eon is still not ended. As for the kalpa stone, Sanskrit kalpa means a division of time. The Sutra of the World's Arising says there is a great stone forty li square. Once every hundred years heavenly beings come and brush it with a fine gauze robe. The stone can be worn away while the eon is still not ended.² Exhaust this mustard-seed city and kalpa stone: this is completely exhausting the present time and returning to before the empty eon. Only afterward is the eye alive. “Within the ring” comes from the Zhuangzi: “The pivot first obtains the center of its ring and thereby responds without exhaustion.” This means cycling endlessly while obtaining the ring's center. The empty place in the ring's center is essence; cycling without exhaustion is function. The tradition of the Book of Odes says a large wild goose is hong and a small one is yan. A Western Han envoy reportedly told the Chanyu, “The Son of Heaven shot a goose in the Shanglin Park. On the goose's foot was a letter tied there by Su Wu.” The Chanyu therefore did not dare deceive him.⁶ Cai Yong's daughter was named Yan, style-name Wenji, and was wife to Dong Si. Banshō's account says that during frontier troubles Dong Si was captured by foreign people and Cai Yan became consort to their king. Longing for home, she wrote a letter, placed it in a wax pellet, and tied it to a goose's neck. When the goose reached Han territory and drank, the pellet fell into the water and a fish swallowed it. A fisherman cut open the fish, obtained the letter, and learned where Cai Yan was.⁶ This verse says, “Night travel is not permitted; you must arrive by daylight.” It does not broadcast the family's disgrace outside or falsely pass a message. Even so, reporting upward to Tendō: just now the attendant offered thanks for the instruction transmitted in Dharma.