Punyamitra and the Jewel

Keizan's commentary

The teacher was a prince of King Victorious in southern India. The Twenty-Fifth Ancestor first subdued a non-Buddhist teacher named Honored No-Self in central India and then came to southern India. The king of that country, named Heavenly Virtue, welcomed, invited, and supported him. The king had two sons. One was violent, yet replete with beauty and physical power. The other was gentle, yet long afflicted by illness and suffering. The ancestor explained cause and effect to them, and the king suddenly released his doubts. After King Heavenly Virtue died, Prince Victorious took the throne. He again trusted non-Buddhists and brought persecution upon the ancestor. Prince Puṇyamitra remonstrated with the king and was imprisoned. The king abruptly asked the ancestor, “My country has always been free of specters and strange powers. What lineage can the teaching you transmit possibly be?” The ancestor said, “Your kingdom has indeed been without false Dharma from ancient times. What I transmit is precisely the Buddha's lineage.” The king said, “The Buddha has already been extinct for twelve hundred years. From whom did you receive it?” The ancestor said, “The great being Kāśyapa personally received the Buddha's seal. It passed in turn to the Twenty-Fourth Ancestor, Venerable Siṃha. I received it from him.” The king said, “I have heard that the monk Siṃha could not escape execution. How could he transmit Dharma to someone after him?” The ancestor replied, “Before my teacher's persecution arose, he secretly entrusted me with the robe of verification and the Dharma verse, revealing the succession of teacher and disciple.” The king asked, “Where is this robe?” The ancestor took it from his bag and showed it to the king. The king ordered it burned. Its five colors remained vivid, and when the firewood was exhausted, the robe was just as before.² The king immediately repented and paid homage. Once Siṃha's true successor had been made clear, the king released the prince. The prince then requested permission to leave home. The ancestor asked him, “You wish to leave home. For what affair?” and continued through the dialogue in the case, finally allowing him to ordain. From then on the teacher served him for six years. Later, when Vasiṣṭha entrusted him with the Tathāgata's treasury of the true Dharma eye, he said, “From the Tathāgata onward, it has been entrusted in legitimate succession until now. You must transmit and maintain it and skillfully guide all beings.” When the teacher received this intimate prediction, body and heart were released. The preceding encounter directly shows that it is not for that affair. Therefore the ancestor asks, “You wish to leave home. For what affair?” The teacher says, “I will engage in the affair of Buddha.” “Affair” means a worldly affair. You should understand from this that leaving home is originally not for an affair. The affair is not one's own affair and not another's affair. Therefore he says, “It will not be for worldly affairs.” Even if you shave the hair, dye the robe, and make your form resemble a child of Buddha, you may still not escape views of self and other. If you do not leave the marks of male and female, all of it is a worldly affair and is not the affair of Buddha.³ When, for the moment, we speak from every person's original heart, there is altogether no affair of Buddha and no worldly affair. Before original heart is known, we provisionally call it a worldly affair. Having clarified and attained original heart, we name this the affair of Buddha. At the time original heart is known, there is no mark of arising and no mark of extinction. How much less could there be a deluded person or an awakened person? When you see and attain in this way, even the four elements and five aggregates do not remain. How could the three realms and six paths stand? There is consequently no place that can be abandoned as a home and no place that can be lodged in as a body. For this reason it is called leaving home.⁴ Because there is nowhere to abide, the house is broken and the person is gone. Thus birth-and-death and nirvana naturally come to an end without being swept away; awakening and affliction are originally left behind without being discarded. It is not only today that things are just so. From kalpa to kalpa, this has never originally been shifted by the four cosmic phases of formation, abiding, decay, and emptiness, nor bound by the four phenomenal marks of arising, abiding, change, and extinction. It is open and clear like space without inside or outside, pure like water without front or back. Every person's original heart is entirely like this. Even so, do not fear being a householder and do not take pride in leaving home. Simply stop seeking outward and discern it by turning toward yourself. All of you, just try for a while not to scatter the heart east and west and not to turn the eyes before and behind. If you look closely, at this time what will you call self and what will you call other? Since self and other already do not face one another, what further will you name good and evil? If it is like this, original heart is manifest from the beginning, bright as sun and moon. There is no dark place it does not illuminate.⁵ To present the encounter just raised, I have another humble verse. Listen: