Kyūhō's Head and Tail

Banshō's commentary on the case

Zen Master Daoqian of Kyūhō in Junzhou was a native of Guanhuai in Fuzhou whose family name was Liu. Though he passed through Dharma seats everywhere, he received the seal from Shishuang. He first lived at Kyūhō, where students of the mystery especially flourished. Later he lived at Letan in Hongzhou and died there. The court bestowed the posthumous title Great Awakening.³ One day a monk asked, “What is the head?” Unless the eye of the Way is penetrating and bright and discriminating wisdom complete, discussion of head and tail, before and after, leaves the mind dark and unable to find where anything comes down. Kyūhō said, “Open the eyes without noticing dawn.” A monk once asked, “Everyone speaks of requesting instruction. I do not yet understand—by what Dharma does the teacher rescue people?” Kyūhō said, “Would you say a great mountain ever lacked an inch of earth?” The monk said, “If so, what is the purpose of investigating throughout the four seas?” Kyūhō said, “Yajñadatta loses his head and his own mind goes mad.” The monk asked, “Is there anyone who is not mad?” Kyūhō said, “There is.” The monk asked, “Who is the one not mad?” Kyūhō said, “On the road at sudden dawn, his eyes are not open.” This is a model for “open the eyes without noticing dawn.” The monk asked, “What is the tail?” Kyūhō said, “Do not sit on the ten-thousand-year bed.” Another monk asked, “What is before Lighting Lamp Buddha?” Kyūhō said, “Laboring diligently without gaining strength.” The monk asked, “What is precisely Lighting Lamp?” Kyūhō said, “The head is large; the tail small.” The monk asked, “What is after Lighting Lamp?” Kyūhō said, “Retiring from rank without knowing leisure.” This models not sitting on the ten-thousand-year bed. “Head without tail” is opening one's eyes and noticing dawn; ultimately not valuable. “Tail without head” is retiring from rank and knowing leisure; though full, without strength. When head and tail match, descendants gain strength—full and powerful. “Inside the room it is not known” remains ultimately honorable.² The Record of the Source Mirror says, “To enter our lineage, first one must know there is; afterward preserve and sustain it.” It also says, “Head and tail must match. Principle and practice cannot be deficient, nor mind and mouth contradict. Entering the Source Mirror, principle and practice are both complete.” Shishuang, Kyūhō's teacher, instructed the assembly: “A beginner who has not yet met the great matter must first recognize the head; its tail will arrive of itself.” Sozan came forward and asked, “What is the head?” Shishuang said, “You must directly know there is.” Sozan asked, “What is the tail?” Shishuang said, “Exhaust the present time.” Sozan asked, “What about head without tail?” Shishuang said, “Even if you spit out gold, what use is it?” Sozan asked, “What about tail without head?” Shishuang said, “There is still dependence.” Sozan asked, “What about when head and tail match exactly?” Shishuang said, “He does not form an intellectual interpretation, yet I still do not approve him.” Therefore Kyūhō said: “Senior monks, when the ancients spoke of a head, they only had you know there is. When they spoke of a tail, they only had you exhaust the present time. There are so many matters that do not correspond; therefore they had you clear them away and wear them away here, so today you can correspond and accomplish. “If it is one's own embodied reality, truly constant suchness, one cannot speak this way any longer. Even so, only the right person will do. Do not merely speak in unison with different mouths. Quickly exert yourselves. Take care.”¹ Banshō has used a Kyūhō case to verify a Kyūhō case. I have annotated all that can be annotated and explained all that can be explained. The remaining flavor is entrusted to Tendō. For a person who attains the wondrous vertically and horizontally and meets the source on left and right, the Zhuangzi says, “The round fits the compass; the square fits the square.” The Master said to Yan Yuan, “When employed, act; when set aside, store. Only you and I possess this.” Otherwise one glues the tuning peg before tuning the string or notches the boat to mark where a sword fell—rigid methods that cannot follow changed conditions.⁴ The Treatise of the Treasure Store says, “There are ten thousand roads of advancing cultivation. A stranded fish stops in a pool; a dull bird lodges in reeds. The first does not know the great sea, the second the forest. People who pursue a narrow way are likewise.” In the top line of the “Great Vigor” hexagram of the Book of Changes, a ram butts a fence. It can neither retreat nor advance; nothing is beneficial. Difficulty, however, brings good fortune. “Eating another household's rice, sleeping in one's own bed” resembles saying, “Eat government rice while releasing a private camel,” or, “One who can use a cold mouth to eat another's hot food is difficult to find.”⁵ Going out, one becomes cloud and rain; entering, one freezes as ice and congeals as frost. This is merely sometimes going out and sometimes entering—not yet an adept. One must have needle and thread penetrate throughout, dense to the finest hairtip. The loom's threads do not hang, yet patterns range across and through. At the very moment the stone woman's loom stops, the wooden person's road has already turned. At the very moment night approaches noon, the moon's shadow has already shifted from center.⁶ These final two lines are only one sentence. Contemporary Confucian scholars and literary writers call this an inter-sentence antithetical pairing. Banshō separates what is firm and joins what is different in this way because he wants to meet Tendō. All of you must not betray Kyūhō.