Sozan on Being and Nonbeing

Banshō's commentary on the case

Zen Master Guangren of Sozan in Fuzhou visited Dongshan and asked, “I ask the teacher to instruct me in the word before existence.” Dongshan said, “I do not assent; no one affirms it.” Sozan asked, “Can it still be cut?” Dongshan asked, “Ācārya, can you cut it right now?” Sozan said, “If it cannot be cut, there is no place for avoidance.” Later, in Kyōgen's assembly, a monk asked Kyōgen, “What about when one does not admire the sages and does not esteem one's own numinous awareness?” Kyōgen said, “The ten thousand mechanisms cease; a thousand sages do not carry it.” Within the assembly, Sozan made a retching sound and said, “What kind of statement is that?” Kyōgen asked, “Who is it?” The assembly said, “Your Dharma uncle.” Kyōgen asked, “Do you disapprove of this mountain monk?” Sozan came out and said, “I do.” Kyōgen asked, “Can you not say it?” Sozan said, “I can.” Kyōgen said, “Try saying it.” Sozan said, “If you have me speak, you must first render the ceremony of teacher and student.” Kyōgen descended from the seat and bowed, then repeated the preceding question. Sozan said, “Why not say, ‘Affirmation and assent cannot be complete’?” Kyōgen asked, “What does affirmation affirm? To whom does assent assent?” Sozan said, “Affirmation affirms the thousand sages; assent assents to oneself.” Kyōgen said, “Even granting you this, you must still suffer diarrhea for thirty years. If you live on a mountain, you will have no firewood to burn; if by water, no water to drink. Remember it clearly.”³ Later, after Sozan became abbot, events supposedly followed Kyōgen's prediction. After twenty-seven years his illness improved. Sozan said, “Kyōgen predicted thirty years of diarrhea for me; three years remain.” After every meal he used a hand to induce vomiting in order to fulfill Kyōgen's prediction.² Sozan later asked Zen Master Daofu of Kyōsei, “Affirmation and assent cannot be complete. How do you understand it?” Daofu said, “It returns completely to affirmation and assent.” Sozan asked, “Then what about ‘cannot be complete’?” Daofu said, “Within this there is no road of affirmation.” Sozan said, “Only now does it accord with this sick monk's intention.” Lazy An of Isan was one of the “three lazy ones” of the Zen gate and was also called Zen Master Daan of Changqing. He instructed the assembly, “Having a phrase or no phrase is like a vine leaning on a tree.” Sozan did not consider four thousand li too far. He sold his cloth sheet and went to ask. He found Isan plastering a wall and immediately asked, “Is not ‘Having a phrase or no phrase is like a vine leaning on a tree’ the venerable's statement?” Isan said, “It is.” Sozan asked, “What if suddenly the tree falls and the vine withers?” Isan put down the plaster tray, laughed loudly, and returned to the abbot's quarters. Sozan followed, saying, “I sold my cloth sheet and came four thousand li especially for this. How can the venerable make sport of me?” Isan called the attendant, asked for money, reimbursed Sozan for the sheet, and sent him away. He instructed him, “Later a one-eyed dragon will break it open for you.” Sozan later did meet Myōshō and had it broken open. Sozan sold his cloth sheet and traveled four thousand li specifically for this exchange. Pilgrims of the present who merely follow neighboring households should also attend to the fundamental matter. They may establish teachings according to place and praise one another in turn, but must not behave as Sozan did by making retching sounds in the assembly. I do not say he had no other strengths. Yet disrupting the formal act, disrupting the turning of the Dharma wheel, and disrupting the harmonious sangha necessarily attract present retribution. Kyōgen's prediction and Sozan's induced vomiting to fulfill it are both set up as examples for later people.⁴ Sozan too was a person whose level could not be fathomed. When meeting occasions, Sozan habitually held a wooden snake. A monk asked, “What is the object in your hand?” Sozan raised the snake and said, “The Cao family's daughter.” Seppō went into the mountains and gathered a branch shaped like a snake. On its back he wrote, “Originally natural, requiring no carving,” and sent it to Daan of Isan. Isan said, “A mountain dweller in original colors, without a mark of knife or ax.” Because Sozan met Isan through this exchange, he also used a wooden snake. Whether transmitted personally or copied cannot be known.⁵ Myōshō also asked Sozan, “A tiger bears seven cubs. Which has no tail?” Sozan said, “The seventh has no tail.” National Teacher Shao of Unmon and others all studied with Sozan. The short Dharma uncle's fame consequently crowned past and present.⁶ Tendō takes only Isan's laugh, Sozan's seeing through it, and Myōshō's raising it, and versifies them directly. An outsider established a and “sorrowlessness” as auspicious. At the head of a scripture, a letter was interpreted as a, saying “without sorrow,” while another letter was said to mean existence. Therefore the outsider asked the Buddha without asking through speech and without asking through no speech. This is a whale swallowing all the sea water. The World-Honored One paused a long time. This is exposing a coral branch. The outsider bowed and praised him: “The World-Honored One's great compassion opened my clouds of confusion and let me enter.”⁷ Kyōgen Rui said, “Speech is slander; silence is deception. Above speech and silence there is a road.” Great Isan borrowed this as instruction to the assembly. Sozan saw him add “like a vine leaning on a tree” and immediately asked, “When the tree falls and the vine withers, where does the phrase return?” How could Isan avoid laughing loudly? Isan's words had no room to unfold the matter; his speech did not meet the occasion. Sozan says, “One who receives words is lost; one who stagnates in phrases is confused.” Had he asked Banshō at the time, I would only have said, “Heavens! Heavens!” Have you not heard? Spring carrying out winter's ordinance.