Kyōzan, According to Capacity

Banshō's commentary on the case

Master Cijue's opening verse in the Text Encouraging Filiality says: Before father and mother were born, one feature, perfectly round and still. Even Shakyamuni does not understand it; how could Kashyapa transmit it? Nagarjuna, the fourteenth ancestor, vanished while on the Dharma seat and displayed a circle. Deva said, “The honored one displays the form of the Buddha body to show us. Through this markless samadhi, shaped like the full moon, the meaning of buddha-nature is vast, empty, and bright. The analogy goes only this far.”³ In China, the making of circle figures began with National Teacher Huizhong, who entrusted them to his attendant Danyuan. In fulfillment of a prophecy, Danyuan transmitted them to Kyōzan. They consequently came to be regarded as the house style of the Guiyang line. Master Liang of Gohō in Mingzhou once composed forty cases, for which Mingjiao of Song wrote a commendatory preface. Liang said, “Circle figures have six collective names: first, circle figure; second, ocean of meaning; third, dark mechanism; fourth, character study; fifth, intended speech; sixth, silent discourse.” The Guiyang Lineage says Danyuan told Kyōzan, “The National Teacher transmitted ninety-seven circle figures from the ancestors of six generations. Thirty years after my death, a novice will come from the south and greatly promote this Way. I have examined this prophecy: it rests with you.” After receiving them, Kyōzan burned them. One day Danyuan said again, “The circle figures transmitted to you should be kept deeply secret.” Kyōzan said, “I already burned them.” Danyuan said, “That is acceptable for you, but what about those who come later?” Kyōzan said, “If the venerable wants them, I will record another copy.” He reproduced and presented them without a single discrepancy.⁴ One day Danyuan ascended the hall. Kyōzan came out from the assembly, made a circle, supported and presented it with his hands, then stood with hands folded. Danyuan showed him both fists crossed together. Kyōzan advanced three steps and made a woman's bow. Danyuan nodded; Kyōzan bowed. Among the ninety-seven circle forms, crossed fists are called rakshasa samadhi and a woman's bow is called woman samadhi. These are all universal-gate manifestations flowing from samadhi of the king of samadhis.⁵ Another time an Indian monk came to visit. Kyōzan drew a half-moon on the ground. The monk approached, completed it as a circle, and erased it with his foot. Kyōzan spread both hands. The monk brushed out his sleeves and departed, saying, “I came east to bow to Manjushri, but instead met a little Shakyamuni.” Another monk bowed, but Kyōzan paid no attention. The monk asked, “Venerable, do you recognize characters?” Kyōzan said, “According to my capacity.” The monk drew a circle, supported it, and presented it. Kyōzan brushed it away with his sleeve. The monk made a half-moon, supported it, and presented it. Kyōzan made a backward-tossing gesture with both hands. The monk looked at him; Kyōzan lowered his head. The monk circled Kyōzan once; Kyōzan immediately struck him. The monk left. Here Kyōzan stands like a wall a thousand fathoms high, no different from the severe mechanisms of Tokusan and Rinzai.⁶ While Kyōzan was seated, another monk came and bowed. Kyōzan paid no attention. The monk asked, “Teacher, do you recognize characters?” Kyōzan said, “According to my capacity.” The monk circled once to the right and asked, “What character is this?” If devices of this kind are meant to produce discriminating consciousness, what ancestral principle do they establish? If they are entirely without reason, why have ordinary and sacred people from India and China investigated them together? A monk from Guanyin's assembly visited Gantō. With his hand he made a circle on the left, one on the right, and one in the center. Before the third was complete, Gantō swept it aside with his hand. The monk had no answer, so Gantō shouted him out. As the monk stepped across the gate, Gantō called him back and asked, “Are you from Guanyin in Hongzhou?” The monk said, “Yes.” Gantō asked, “What about the circle on the left just now?” The monk said, “It is the phrase of being.” “And the circle on the right?” “It is the phrase of nonbeing.” “And the circle in the middle?” “It is the phrase of neither being nor nonbeing.” Gantō asked, “What about my acting as I did?” The monk said, “Like a knife drawing on water.” Gantō struck him and drove him out. This monk had not obtained the principle of circle figures and produced arbitrary excavations. Had it not been Gantō, he would almost have caused confusion.⁶ As for the monk who met Kyōzan, when he asked whether Kyōzan recognized characters and then circled once to the right, his skills were already exhausted. Kyōzan's 十 had annotated it and explained it completely. Why require all the later smell of rice and gruel? There was no need to wait until this point. When first asked, “Teacher, do you recognize characters?” he could simply have said, “I have always had little learning,” and watched what the monk did. Have you not seen? A monk habitually passed his time idly. Another admonished him, “Senior, you are young and vigorous. It is a pity to throw away every inch of time.” The monk asked, “What would you have me do?” The other said, “Why not read sutras?” The monk said, “I do not recognize characters.” “Why not ask someone?” The monk asked, “What character is this?” The adviser had no words. This can be called writing without added punctuation and music without added sound. The present monk then circled once to the left and asked, “What character is this?” Is this the same as or different from ordinarily going east to west, then west to east; patting the left knee and saying, “This is the teaching's meaning,” then patting the right and saying, “This is the ancestors' meaning”? Kyōzan shifted the stars and turned the Dipper, changing 十 into 卍. The Sanskrit asura means “non-god.” The Sanskrit Rahu means “obscuration,” because he obscures the sun and moon with his hands. The monk drew a circle in the posture of an asura holding the sun and moon. Among the ninety-seven circle figures this is called asura samadhi.⁷ The Sanskrit name Louzhi is explained as “weeping.” The thousand buddhas of the Worthy Eon were a thousand royal sons. Louzhi drew the last tally and would become the last buddha. He wept, “Why is my merit so slight that I drew the final tally?” Then he suddenly laughed and said, “I will take up all the skillful means and adornments of the other nine hundred ninety-nine buddhas.” He is now the Dharma-protecting spirit who holds the cudgel. At the end the monk made Louzhi's gesture; its intention can be known. Kyōzan said, “So it is, so it is. This is protected and kept in mind by all buddhas. You are thus; I too am thus. Guard and maintain it well. Excellent, excellent. Go well.” After bowing in thanks, the monk rose into the air and departed. Five days later a practitioner who had witnessed it came to ask Kyōzan. Kyōzan asked, “Did you see it?” The practitioner said, “I saw him leave the gate and rise into the air.” Kyōzan said, “That was an arhat from India who deliberately came to test me.”⁸ The practitioner said, “Although I saw the various samadhis, I do not distinguish their principle.” Kyōzan said, “I will explain their meanings for you. These are eight kinds of samadhi: the ocean of awakening changes into the ocean of meaning. Their body is the same, yet their meanings contain cause and result, immediate time and different time, totality and particularity; none departs from the samadhi of concealing the body.” Therefore it is said: the nirvana mind is easy to obtain; differentiating wisdom is difficult to clarify. Try to see where Tendō puts his hand. “The emptiness of the Way's ring is never filled.” This place where person and ox are not seen is precisely the time of the bright moon. Cijue said, “Who knows that the final move is the time before distinctions have divided?” The Way's ring comes from the Zhuangzi: “The pivot first obtains the center of its ring and thereby responds without end.” Tendō borrows this to versify the gesture of supporting and presenting a circle. “The character of the empty seal”: although 十 changes into 卍, in truth it is not worldly writing to be grasped. Daofu answered Bodhidharma, “As I see it, neither grasping words nor departing from words, one employs them for the Way.”³ Meditation head Kuan of Daning arrived at Fachang. Master Yu made the figure 󱕋. Kuan immediately went out to communal labor. The next day, before ascending the hall, Fachang asked from in front of the Dharma seat, “What about yesterday's case?” Kuan made the figure 󱐝, then erased it with his foot. Fachang said, “Meditation head Kuan's reputation is not empty.” He ascended the seat and said: Suddenly, a thunderclap in a clear sky; at Yu Gate, three-foot waves roar. How many horned heads become dragons and depart? Shrimp and crabs strain their eyes as before. This verse and Tendō's “The mechanism springs from the mysterious pivot: lightning strikes the blue sky” investigate together. Heaven's wheel, earth's axle, military weft, and civil warp all follow the bloodline of the two circuits, 十, and 卍. “Release it, gather it; standing alone, it travels in a circuit” versifies the asura holding the sun, Louzhi raising his fist, enclosing 卍, and praising “Excellent.” The Prognostic Text of the Spring and Autumn Annals says, “Heaven's body encloses earth at its center, with sun, moon, and stars belonging to it. Heaven and earth have forms of height and depth; the four seasons have principles of ascent and descent; sun and moon have measures of movement; constellations have constant lodges. The stars turn in their circuits like a wheel; therefore it is called heaven's wheel.” The River Chart's Image Encompassing Earth says, “Beneath earth are eight pillars, each a hundred thousand li wide. There are thirty-six hundred axles pulling one another. The cavities of famous mountains and great rivers interconnect.”⁸ The Family Sayings says east to west on earth is weft, north to south is warp. It also says civil power can warp heaven and military power can weave earth: without civil culture there is no way to embrace the distant, and without military force no way to resist disorder.⁹ Bokushū instructed the assembly, “Opening apart is up to me; gathering together is up to me.” A monk asked, “What is opening apart?” Bokushū said, “Three times nine is twenty-seven: bodhi, nirvana, suchness, liberation, this mind is Buddha. For now I speak in this way; what do you say?” The monk said, “I do not speak in that way.” Bokushū said, “The cup falls to the ground; the saucer breaks into seven pieces.” The monk asked, “What is gathering together?” Bokushū drew in his hands and sat. Laozi said, “Silent and empty, it stands alone without changing and travels everywhere without danger.” When the pivotal mechanism issues, it is like lightning or a spark from stone. Spiritual radiance in the eye is called cliff-lightning. Seeing stars in broad daylight is like a tree's shadow in darkness or a fish's track beneath water: fleshly eyes cannot see it.¹⁰ Juefan's poem sent to Lingyuan says: A tree's shadow in darkness: the meaning of an entire life; a fish's track at water's edge: the mechanism after illness. I imagine your thin face, with nowhere to abide, leaning on a staff, idly watching evening clouds return. Do you still know where Kyōzan walked? On black silk, embroidering a black rooster at midnight; in darkness, one thread is truly difficult to pass.