Unmon on Sound and Form

Banshō's commentary on the case

Tendō, in raising the exchange, discusses the divine steed's spirit and speed while omitting its black and yellow coloring. In the original record, Unmon instructed the assembly: “Hear sound and awaken to the Way; see form and clarify mind. How does one hear sound and awaken to the Way, see form and clarify mind?” He raised a hand and said, “Bodhisattva Guanyin brings money to buy flatbread.” He lowered his hand. “Originally, it was a steamed bun.”³ National Teacher Yuantong said, “The old man of Shaoyang can be said to sing ever higher while ever fewer harmonize. Now, upon the tip of Yansheng's fly whisk, enter square-net samadhi: enter concentration in the east and arise in the west, even enter concentration in a male body and arise in a female body.⁴ “Do you understand? Wild color is no longer cut off by mountains; moonlight connects directly with the water.” Banshō says: Sought in the sea, it cannot be found; on the shore, instead, one meets it. Look further: where does Tendō meet it? “Hear sound and awaken to the Way”—does the Way have sound? “See form and clarify mind”—does mind have form? This is “rites, music, punitive campaigns, and attacks issue from the Son of Heaven”; an army of benevolence and righteousness has no enemy beneath heaven. The baleful comets Canqiang and Banghui all bring the same disaster.² Sound and form are treated as shadows and echoes to indicate their lack of fixed reality. “Shadow” means an image in a mirror or the moon in water. “Echo” means a sound transmitted through an empty valley. Within the mind of the Way, all these become baleful comets. The ten thousand states are like the ten thousand dharmas. The twelve fields are the six sense faculties and six sense objects. Radiance throughout the three-thousandfold world shines through and breaks apart shadows and echoes. By removing shadows and echoes, pure radiance is released.⁵ Have you not seen? Hyakujō and Guling said, “Numinous radiance shines alone, far removed from faculties and objects.” But suppose each faculty and every object pervades the Dharma realm—then what? I had thought it was a steamed bun; instead it is flatbread.