Rinzai's Great Awakening

Banshō's commentary on the case

Zen Master Huizhao of Rinzai Cloister in Zhenzhou, personal name Yixuan, was from Nanhua in Caozhou and had the family name Xing. At first he studied sutras and treatises widely. Recognizing that they did not provide the swift essential, he went to Ōbaku. He followed the assembly for three years without questioning or seeking instruction, maintaining discipline and dwelling silently. The head-seat monk found him extraordinary among the community and urged him to inquire and study. The Wujin deng bianwu says: “I privately consider: during Rinzai's three-year stay, could Ōbaku have given people no opportunity to ask about the matter? If he did, could a person of Rinzai's capacity and discernment have failed to pose even one question until the head seat taught him, and only then become able to ask?”² I once saw Yang Wuwei's praise of Rinzai: The treasury of the true Dharma eye dies beside a blind donkey; Ōbaku, the old grandmother; Dayu, the talkative one. I also saw Foguo's praise of Bokushū: Bitter, bitter, pungent, pungent; snarling and baring the teeth. He pierced Jibei and made a great tree; shoved Unmon down a dangerous cliff. His words are like dry firewood; his principle cannot be climbed. This is called battle-array straw sandals. In the original record, after awakening Rinzai immediately said, “Originally, Buddha Dharma has very little to it.” Dayu said, “You bedwetting ghost! Just now you asked whether you were at fault; now you say Buddha Dharma has very little to it. How much is there?” He grabbed Rinzai and said, “Speak! Speak!” Rinzai punched Dayu three times beneath the ribs. Dayu pushed him away and said, “Your teacher is Ōbaku. This has nothing to do with me.”³ Rinzai returned to Ōbaku. Ōbaku asked, “Coming and going, coming and going—when will it end?” Rinzai said, “Only because your grandmotherly concern is so urgent.” He then recounted the preceding exchange. Ōbaku said, “That old fellow Dayu is too talkative. Wait until I see him; I will give him a beating.” Rinzai said, “Why speak of waiting to see him? Strike right now.” He immediately slapped Ōbaku once. Ōbaku chuckled and said, “This mad fellow comes here to stroke the tiger's whiskers.” Rinzai shouted. Ōbaku said, “Attendant, lead this mad fellow to the monks' hall.”³ Isan asked Kyōzan, “Did Rinzai receive Dayu's power or Ōbaku's power?” Kyōzan said, “He not only knew how to stroke the tiger's whiskers; he also knew how to sit upon the tiger's head.” Later Rinzai instructed the assembly: “At my late teacher's place I asked three times about the great meaning of Buddha Dharma and was struck three times, as though touched by a mugwort branch. Now I would like one more beating. Who will put a hand to it?” A monk came forward and said, “I will.” Rinzai picked up the staff and handed it to him. As the monk reached to receive it, Rinzai immediately struck him.⁴ Setchō said, “Where Rinzai releases is rather dangerous; when he gathers back, it is too fast.” Tendō saw how free and exceptional this father and son were. Ōbaku's function was transmitted through Rinzai. Tendō selected the most urgent place and versified it. This praises Rinzai, as Xie Chaozong truly possessed phoenix down. In former years Ōbaku once gave Hyakujō a palm; today he met Rinzai's poisonous hand. A true dragon produces a dragon child; a phoenix raises a phoenix chick. The Chart of Auspicious Responses says the phoenix has nine endowments: first, returning to destiny; second, the heart accords with measure, meaning heaven's measure; third, the ear hears and penetrates; fourth, the tongue bends and extends; fifth, colored radiance; sixth, a crest whose obscurely transmitted description corresponds to vermilion; seventh, a sharp hook; eighth, a rising, forceful voice; ninth, an opening at the belly.⁵ Jiufang Yin judged horses for Duke Mu of Qin and indeed found a colt able to travel a thousand li. This analogizes Rinzai's divine excellence, traveling a thousand li in one day. The moment he awakened, he understood true potential and great function. Throughout the various regions there is a couplet: Beside Ōbaku's cheek, one thunderous slap; beneath Dayu's ribs, three driving punches. Because true wind passed through the flute, the numinous mechanism could issue from the pivot. The first line means receiving the teacher's transmission; the second, penetrating the source through one's own nature. Laozi said, “Is the space between heaven and earth not like a bellows and flute?” A bellows is a bottomless bag or leather air chamber; a flute has three holes. Bashō Che said, “It is like zithers and harps: though they possess wondrous sounds, without wondrous fingers they can never issue.” This originally comes from the Surangama Sutra. “When it comes directly at the face, flying lightning is urgent” speaks of Rinzai's severe mechanism and swift eloquence. “Where clouds of confusion break, the great sun stands alone” speaks of the brightness of his awakening. On “stroke the tiger's whiskers,” the Zhuangzi says that after Confucius visited Robber Zhi, he withdrew and said, “Qiu calls this cauterizing oneself without illness: rushing to stroke the tiger's head and braid its whiskers, nearly failing to escape the tiger's mouth.”⁶ “Do you see?” Tendō points it out to people so that students may embody complete potential and great function and not yield where responsibility is theirs. This is called a patch-robed monk's handle. Hō Wujin, in his Continued Record of Qingliang, after describing how every request was immediately answered, heard that Zen Master Jietuo had struck Manjushri. Without realizing it, he praised him: “A true resolute man!”⁷ Do you still see the place of Rinzai's awakening? It puts the new bride of Heyang to death with shame; it startles awake the old woman's Zen at the wooden stupa.