Unmon's Flatbread

Banshō's commentary on the case

Unmon ascended the hall and said: “The moment one word is raised, a thousand differences follow the same track. Even if it encompasses every mote of dust, this remains an explanation within the gate of transformation. What should a patch-robed monk do? “If you bring the ancestors' meaning and the buddhas' meaning here to deliberate, the single road of Sōkei sinks flat away. Is there anyone who can speak? Come forward and speak.” A monk asked, “What is talk that surpasses buddhas and goes beyond ancestors?” Unmon said, “Flatbread.” The monk asked, “What does this have to do with it?” The teacher said, “Exactly! What does it have to do with it?” Then he said, “Do not manufacture an ending. When you hear someone mention the ancestors' meaning, you immediately ask about the principle of talk that surpasses buddhas and goes beyond ancestors. “For now, what do you call Buddha? What do you call ancestor, that you then speak of surpassing buddhas and going beyond ancestors? “You immediately ask about getting out of the three worlds. Bring me the three worlds. What seeing, hearing, awareness, or knowing obstructs you? What dharma of sound or form is there for you to finish? Finish what bowl?”³ Another monk asked, “What is talk that surpasses buddhas and goes beyond ancestors?” Unmon said, “Puzhou ephedra; Yizhou aconite.”⁴ He also said, “Come, come. Let me question you people further. You carry a staff crosswise and say, ‘I investigate Zen and study the Way,’ then seek a principle that surpasses buddhas and goes beyond ancestors. “I ask you: through the twelve periods, walking, standing, sitting, lying, shitting and pissing—down to the worms in a latrine, the buying and selling in the market, and the mutton on the butcher's counter—is there a principle that surpasses buddhas and goes beyond ancestors?”² Foguo said, “Someone made a circle: adding mud on top of dirt, adding a cangue and carrying a lock.” Banshō says: If you want the drill and hammer that knock apart cangue and lock, ask Tendō's verse on the old case. Zen Master Chuchan of Dongshan's verse pointing to the complete mechanism says: Dongshan is empty and desolate, without a single thing; tasteless talk plugs people's mouths. Even with a thousand kinds of exquisite food, what can be done when the full do not want it? If they are hungry ghosts, greedily gorging, they bite crosswise and lengthwise like dogs gnawing dry bones. Only when they have chewed through their tongues, cast it aside, can they meet Unmon.⁵ After the meeting, what then? Each one's facial skin is three inches thick.