Hōgen's Form and Name

Banshō's commentary on the case

Manjushri asked Vimalakirti, “What is the root of the body?” He answered, “Craving is its root.” “What is the root of craving?” “False discrimination is its root.” “What is the root of false discrimination?” “Inverted conception is its root.” “What is the root of inverted conception?” “Nonabiding is its root.” He further asked, “What is the root of nonabiding?” The answer was, “Nonabiding has no root. Manjushri, from nonabiding as root, all dharmas are established.”³ Master Sengzhao comments: Mind is like water: when still, it reflects; when moving, it mirrors nothing. Clouded by delusion and craving, fanned by deviant winds, it surges and billows and never rests even briefly. Viewing dharmas through it, where would they not be inverted? It is like facing a surging spring and demanding one's original appearance—such a thing has never been possible. He also says: If mental movement is taken as root, there is the mark of having a cause. At the furthest beginning of arising, the first movement has no further root. If absence of dharmas is taken as root, existence arises caused by nonexistence; but nonexistence is not in turn caused by nonexistence and has no further root. He also says: Because of nonabiding there is inverted conception; because of inverted conception, discrimination; because of discrimination, craving; because of craving, a body. Once there is a body, good and evil are both set forth. Once good and evil are set forth, the ten thousand dharmas arise. From this point onward, words and numbers cannot exhaust them. Master Sengzhao treats the very first movement of thought, fundamental unawareness, as the root called nonabiding.⁴ In the Transmission of the Lamp, National Teacher Qingliang answers the crown prince's question about mind's essential point: The highest Way is rooted in mind; the dharma of mind is rooted in nonabiding. The body of nonabiding mind is numinous awareness, unobscured. National Teacher An cited the Diamond Sutra: “One should give rise to that mind without abiding anywhere.” “Without abiding” means abiding neither in form nor sound, neither delusion nor awakening, neither body nor function. “Give rise to that mind” means manifesting the one mind in every place. If one abides in good and produces mind, good appears; if one abides in evil and produces mind, evil appears, while original mind is hidden. If nothing is abided in, the worlds of the ten directions are only the one mind.⁵ The Daikan Enō asked Heze, “Spiritual friend, you have come from far away with great hardship. Have you brought the root? If there is a root, you should recognize its master. Try telling me.” Heze said, “I take nonabiding as root and seeing as master.” Heze's Record Manifesting the Principle says, “Since the World-Honored One's extinction, the twenty-eight ancestors of India have together transmitted the mind of nonabiding.” Here “nonabiding as root” names the fundamental matter itself “nonabiding.” If true and false are merged, one has many varieties; the two are not two different things. Hōgen's answer comes from the Treatise of the Treasure Storehouse: Form arises before it has substance; designation begins before it is named. Once form and name show their signs, wandering breath disorders clarity. Setchō raised his staff and said, “Assembly, the staff raises form and name together. Form itself is formless; name itself is nameless.” One class of blind people without discernment recognizes only a formless portion with no name or surname and takes it as the ultimate. They betray Hōgen and turn their backs on Yongming. Zen Master Yanshou's Essentials of Mind-Only says, “There is no name that does not broadcast the Tathagata's title; there is no thing that does not reveal Vairocana's form.” Another class, isolated and poorly informed, refuses to investigate principle or inquire in practice. They only say, “What was there originally?” Banshō says: Already far too much. They ask, “How can it be avoided?” Banshō says: What was originally lacking? Simply understand in this way: by investigating Hōgen, you also see Tendō. Look at it: no form, yet it fills heaven and covers earth. Listen to it: no sound, yet its perfect voice is uninterrupted. Though cloud has no root, the great void is marked by a patch of cloud. Though wind has no color, the great earth is supported by the wind-wheel.⁶ Duangong Liu Yu asked Yunju, “Where does rain come from?” Yunju said, “It comes from the place where you ask, Duangong.” Delighted, Liu thanked him. Yunju then asked, “Where does the question come from?” Liu had no words. While Xichan was sitting with an official, Xichan asked, “What color is the wind?” The official had no words. Xichan then asked a monk. The monk raised his patchwork robe and said, “It is spread out in the prefectural offices.” Xichan asked, “How much silk did it use?” The monk said, “Irrelevant.” Xichan had no words. Unmon answered for him, “Bah! This saying has fallen into that teacher.” Setchō combined the two encounters in verses: Where does rain come from? What color is the wind? Dragon Gate, ten thousand fathoms high, once lodged a passing guest; advancing and retreating together, who suffered the marked forehead? And: What color is the wind? Where does rain come from? No need to snap the fingers: the tower gate opens. Surging and angular— the southerner has not yet returned. Tendō versifies the root of nonabiding with “White clouds have no root; what color is the clear wind?” He versifies establishing all dharmas with “It spreads the Qian canopy without being mind; it holds the Kun carriage with strength.” Great Being Shanhui's Inscription on the Mind King says: Contemplate mind, the empty king, mysterious and wondrous, difficult to fathom; without form and without mark, it has great spiritual power. The Guanzi says, “Water that emerges but does not flow is called an abyss; water that travels far in its flow is called a source.” Before remotest antiquity is the abyssal source of a thousand ages. From here the ten thousand forms take shape. The Huayan Sutra's “Vows and Practice of Samantabhadra” says, “Buddhas speak, bodhisattvas speak, lands speak, beings speak, everything in the three times speaks.” Elsewhere Universal Eye does not see Samantabhadra; seeing and not seeing are both Samantabhadra. If he were absent where not seen, he would not be called universal.⁷ In the “Entry into the Dharma Realm,” Bodhisattva Maitreya approached the tower, snapped his fingers, and its gate opened. He invited Sudhana to enter, and Sudhana saw throughout the billion four-continent worlds of the three-thousand-great-thousand world, and in every Tushita heaven, a Maitreya. Another verse says: Maitreya, true Maitreya, transformed bodies by the hundred billion; constantly shown to people of the time, yet people of the time do not recognize him. All these display the establishment of every dharma.⁸ Do you still see Hōgen? Always, in the place where I see a guest off, I remember the time I departed my own home.