Sanavasa and the Robe Corner

Keizan's commentary

The teacher was from Mathurā. In Sanskrit his name is Śāṇaka; here it is explained as “Naturally Clothed.” When Śāṇavāsa was born, he came wearing clothing. From then on it became cool clothing in summer and warm clothing in winter. When he raised the mind of awakening and left home, his ordinary clothing naturally became a kāṣāya, as happened to the nun Utpalavarṇā in the Buddha's lifetime. This was not peculiar to his present life. Long ago, when Śāṇavāsa was a merchant, he offered a hundred lengths of cotton cloth to a hundred buddhas. From then on, life after life, he wore natural clothing. Ordinarily the interval between abandoning one's present existence and reaching the next is called the intermediate existence. At that time everyone is without clothing. Śāṇavāsa, however, wore clothing even in the intermediate existence.¹ “Śāṇavāsa” is also the name of a nine-branched plant of the western regions. When a sage is born, this plant grows on clean ground. It too appeared when Śāṇavāsa was born, and so it became his name. He was born after remaining in the womb for six years. Long before, the World-Honored One pointed to a green grove and told Ānanda, “This place is called Urumuṇḍa. A hundred years after my extinction, a monk named Śāṇavāsa will turn the wondrous Dharma wheel here.” A hundred years later the teacher was born there and eventually received Venerable Ānanda's entrustment. He remained in that grove, turned the Dharma wheel, and subdued a fire-dragon. The dragon submitted and offered him the grove. The World-Honored One's prediction did not fail.² Śāṇavāsa had formerly been a hermit in the Snow Mountains. When he committed himself to Venerable Ānanda, the present encounter took place. He asked, “What is the originally unborn nature of all dharmas?” This truly is a question no one else had asked. Who lacks the originally unborn nature of all dharmas? Yet people do not know that it is there, and they do not ask. Why call it an unborn nature? Although each and every thing issues from this place, this nature itself never issues forth. Therefore it is unborn, and all things are originally unborn. Mountain is not mountain. Water is not water. For this reason Ānanda pointed to the corner of Śāṇavāsa's robe. The word kāṣāya is Sanskrit. Here it means “broken color”; it also means “unborn color.” In truth, it is not something to be seen as color. And yet, from the buddhas above down to every ant, mosquito, and gnat below, dependent environment and living body alike are entirely color. This is one side of seeing it. Even so, it is not sound and color. Therefore there is no threefold world to escape and no fruit of the way to realize. Although Śāṇavāsa understood it in this way, he asked again, “What is the original nature of the awakening of all buddhas?” From boundless ages onward it had never been otherwise. But unless it is once known to be present, it merely obstructs the eyes. He asked in this way to clarify the place from which the buddhas emerge. Ānanda wanted him to know answering when called and emerging when struck, so he deliberately took the corner of Śāṇavāsa's robe and tugged it. At that moment Śāṇavāsa greatly awakened. Through measureless ages it has never missed. Even so, if you have not once run into it, you cannot know that your own self is the wisdom-mother of all buddhas. For this reason buddhas appear one after another and ancestral teachers point it out generation after generation. No single dharma can be given to another, and no single dharma can be received from another. Still, it must be like feeling your own face and touching your nostrils. In investigating Zen, you must investigate personally. Once you have awakened, you must meet a person. If you do not meet a person, you will only cling to grass and attach yourself to trees.³ Do not practice Zen in vain. The present encounter with Śāṇavāsa should make clear that you must not empty out an entire life. Do not produce views about what is spontaneous and natural. Do not put your private and old views first. And do not think, “The way of the buddhas and ancestors chooses its people and their capacities. It is beyond what I can bear.” Such a view is the most foolish of foolish views. Which of the people of old did not have a body born of father and mother? Which of them had never been involved in affection, attachment, reputation, and gain? But once they had begun to investigate, they invariably penetrated. Thus from India to our own country, although the ages of true Dharma, semblance Dharma, and final Dharma differ, realized sages have filled the mountains and seas. Every one of you possesses faculties of seeing and hearing no different from those of the ancients. Wherever you go, it can be said of each of you: “You are this person.” Your four elements and five aggregates do not differ from Kāśyapa's or Ānanda's. Why should you differ from the ancients in the way? Only because you do not investigate the principle and practice the way do you lose the human body in vain and never finally know that you yourself are here. It was transmitted that a life must not be emptied out in this way. Ānanda therefore took Kāśyapa as his teacher in turn, and Ānanda received Śāṇavāsa. The way between teacher and heir passed through. The treasury of the true Dharma eye, the wondrous heart of nirvana, has circulated in this manner without differing from the Buddha's own lifetime. So do not regret that you were not born in the Buddha's country. Do not grieve that you did not meet the Buddha while he lived. Long ago you planted roots of goodness deeply and formed a profound affinity with prajñā. This is why you have gathered in a Mahāyāna assembly. In truth, you stand shoulder to shoulder with Kāśyapa and sit knee to knee with Ānanda. Though host and guest for a day, be buddhas and ancestors for the rest of your lives. Do not be carelessly confined by ideas of ancient and modern. Do not remain stuck in the dharmas of sound and color. Do not pass either night or day emptily. Practice the way with close and careful effort. Reach the place the ancients penetrated, and receive confirmation in the present time. To clarify the encounter just raised, I have another humble verse. Do you wish to hear it?