Suigan's Eyebrows

Banshō's commentary on the case

Great Master Yongming of Suigan in Mingzhou, personal name Lingcan, was a native of Huzhou. He received Seppō's prediction and opened a great teaching seat. One day he ascended the hall and said, “All summer long I have spoken east and west for you brothers. Look—are Suigan's eyebrows still there?” Many throughout the various regions say, “He originally meant to surrender himself, but without realizing it doubled the case.” Then they see Hofuku say, “A thief's heart is uneasy,” and claim that Suigan has been gathering firewood behind his back, concealing his verbal offense himself. Foguo said, “Many people misunderstand, saying, ‘In broad daylight under a clear sky, he spoke words with no direction or relevance, making trouble where there was none. He first confessed his own fault so others would not inspect him.’ Fortunately, this has nothing to do with it.” Changqing said, “They have grown!” Banshō says: They remain right above his eyes. Unmon's word “Barrier!” belongs to what Puzhao called “one-word Zen.” All three succeeded Seppō. They heard a person of the house speak no outsider's words; they saw that Suigan's instruction was extraordinary, and therefore all joined in the responsive singing. The ancients' replies did not fall into conventional gestures.⁴ A doctrinal lecturer attached to a Huayan lecture seat invited Suigan to a vegetarian meal. Suigan said, “This mountain monk has a question. If you can answer, I will attend the meal.” He then picked up a flatbread and asked, “Does this possess the dharma body?” The lecturer said, “It does.” Suigan said, “Then one eats the dharma body.” The lecturer had no answer. A contemporary lecturer answered on his behalf, “What fault is there in that?” Suigan did not approve. Unmon answered on his behalf, “I especially thank the venerable for condescending to dignify this empty feast.”⁵ Juefan called Great Master Unmon a king among monks. Sure enough, Tendō strings them together in a single strand and versifies the whole encounter from its beginning. Setchō said, “When one steals skillfully, ghosts and spirits do not know.” Since Hofuku and Tendō saw through him, Suigan would seem not to be a skilled hand. What they fail to realize is that great Unmon and Changqing were both caught at once when Suigan used a single eyebrow hair to pierce their nostrils. If one hides one's head but shows one's shadow, how could one count as an outstandingly formidable person? Suigan could therefore move distinctly in every direction, meeting the occasion and responding to its stimulus. Hofuku's “A thief's heart is uneasy” and Unmon's “Barrier!” both show the long nostrils of patch-robed monks: A thousand li away, already smelling dried shit; through three winter months, still scenting rotten-melon fragrance. Suigan said, “Are my eyebrows still there?” Changqing immediately said, “They have grown!” This is the moment when the eminent monk painted on a wall answers as soon as he is called, when the goose raised in a bottle has already emerged by following the sound. How could discriminating consciousness calculate it?⁶ Therefore the verse says long brows shade the eyes: he watches people from a cool place, and they cannot deceive him by a single speck. Some say, “All summer long the tangled vines put out branches and trailing tendrils; now he cuts the grass and removes the roots, clearing everything away together.” They fail to realize that thirty years later this saying would flourish greatly. Why hide it in a bag, cover it with bedding, hold the breath, and swallow the voice? Doing so is facing the wall and carrying a board, and it implicates the ancestral house. Throughout the various regions they say, “Xu Six carries a board and sees only one side.” The Book of Documents says, “If one does not learn, one faces a wall.” Its commentary explains: facing a wall, one sees nothing.⁷ Do you not see? On Vulture Peak the Buddha emitted the mark of the white curl, illuminating eighteen thousand worlds in the east.⁸