Sōzan's Mourning Is Complete

Banshō's commentary on the case

A monk asked Zen Master Wei of Tong'an, “What about Niutou before he met the Fourth Patriarch?” Tong'an said, “A roadside spirit shrine—everyone who sees it raises clasped hands.” The monk asked, “What about after they met?” Tong'an said, “There is no spirit couch inside the room; no one in the entire household wears mourning.”⁴ The monk in the present case asked, “What about when the funeral robe is not hung?” Dongshan first said, “Take off the grease-seared cap; shed the fox-stinking cloth shirt; become a free and unencumbered patch-robed monk.” Later, when a monk asked, “What is Buddha?” he answered, “Three pounds of flax.” If you arrive at this time, you understand Sōzan's “Today my mourning is complete.” This monk too was good. Wanting to see how Sōzan proceeded today, he asked, “What about after mourning is complete?” Sōzan said, “Sōzan likes wine that sends one staggering.” Juefan said, “His mind is like a bright mirror; his mouth like a drunken man.” One day a monk asked, “Qingshui is solitary and poor. I beg the teacher to rescue him.” Sōzan called, “Qingshui!” The monk answered, “Yes.” Sōzan said, “Three cups of the White family's wine from Seigen, yet you still say it has not touched your lips.” Another monk asked Jinfeng, “What about when the golden cup is filled to the brim?” Jinfeng said, “Jinfeng cannot withstand getting dead drunk.” Foguo commented, “In receiving words, understanding their source, illuminating the mechanism, and responding universally, Jinfeng certainly has something. But examine it closely and he is far too leaky. If someone asked Jiangshan, ‘What about when the golden cup is filled to the brim?’ I would answer only, ‘This mountain monk has always observed Heaven's abstinence.’”⁵ Another monk asked Sōzan, “How should one preserve it throughout the twelve periods of the day?” Sōzan said, “As though passing through a country of gu poison: do not let even one drop of its water touch you.” Sometimes Sōzan is drunk, yet alert within drunkenness. Sometimes he is awake, yet does not distinguish day from night. For him the yellow-millet dream has ended and feelings for the inner chambers are forgotten.⁶ Dongshan asked Yunju, “A great icchantika kills his father and harms his mother. Where is filial care?” Yunju said, “Only then is filial care completed.”² This is called a person whose mourning is complete and whose wine sends him staggering. Dongshan said, “Before the eyes, a desolate forest—year after year discussing expansive freedom.” Tendō has often roamed and played there. People who cannot tolerate sand in the eye are far too constricted. Sōzan said, “The coarse, heavy greed, anger, and delusion of the world are difficult to cut off, yet they are light. Nothing-amiss, nonaction, purity, and cleanliness—nothing is heavier than these.” Therefore Dongshan said, “Before the Bright Moon Hall, it is always the ninth month of summer.”⁷ The highest Way cannot be given a form. The ancients drew nearby from their own bodies and far away from other things, associating images and joining kinds to analogize the highest Way. Baoci's half-body verse in praise of Ryūge says: The sun rises across the joined mountains; the full moon stands before the door. It is not that there is no body— he does not wish to expose it completely. Both old men were descendants of Dongshan. Juefan said, “Their family style values the mechanism of mutual turning so that it does not violate the primary position. Its speech avoids ten-tenths completion so that it does not fall into the present moment. Baoci's craftsmanship alone is exquisitely subtle, and his words do not lose the ancestral principle. This makes them valuable.” “Where radiance turns, the waning moon tips away” analogizes mourning's completion and the meeting with spring. The commentary on line nine in the second place of the Qian hexagram in the Changes—“A dragon appears in the field; it is beneficial to see the great person”—says the line should occupy the interval between establishing the first and the twelfth lunar months. At that time shoots first begin emerging from the earth: this means yang breath becomes manifest. The image of Qian naturally corresponds to it.⁸ Old Du's “Song of the Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup” says, “Cap cast off, head bare before princes and dukes”; and, “Called by the Son of Heaven, he will not board the boat.” Both forget conventional form and disregard ritual. They cannot be confined by banks and boundaries. One day Tanka lay crosswise on Tianjin Bridge. The advance party of Governor Zheng shouted at him. The teacher did not respond. When questioned, he slowly said, “I am a monk with nothing amiss.” Zheng regarded him with respectful wonder. At Seppō's evening assembly, Seppō lay in the central courtyard. Senior monk Fu of Taigen said, “Within the five prefectures, only this venerable is a little better.” Seppō immediately got up and left. These are all open-robed, loose-haired drinking companions with nothing amiss. How does Sōzan make use of mourning completed? In all four seasons, spring's wealth; among the ten thousand things, wine's free flow.