Dayang Jingxuan and the Skin Shoes

Keizan's commentary

The teacher's personal name was Jingxuan. In the transmission records and other works it appears altered because an emperor of that time had the personal name Jingyan. His authentic name, however, was Jingxuan.³ He was a son of the Zhang family in Jiangxia. He relied on Zen Master Zhitong and left home. At nineteen he became a full monk. He heard the definitive meaning of the Sūtra of Perfect Awakening, and no one on the lecture seat could equal him. He then traveled in search of the way. Reaching Liangshan first, he asked, “What is the formless practice hall?” The encounter continued until he had insight. He immediately bowed and stood leaning in his original position. Liangshan asked, “Why do you not say one phrase?” The teacher said, “I do not refuse to speak. I fear it will go onto paper and brush.” Liangshan laughed and said, “These words will go on a stone stele.” The teacher offered a verse: Formerly, as a beginner, I was confused in studying the way; Across a thousand mountains and myriad waters I sought seeing and knowing. Clarifying present and distinguishing ancient, I finally could not understand; Directly speaking no-mind only increased my doubt. The teacher kindly pointed out the mirror from Qin times, Which illuminates before father and mother were born. Having finished study today, what have I attained? At night a black cock flies carrying snow.⁴ Liangshan said, “The Dongshan lineage can rely upon you.” His reputation immediately spread. After Liangshan died, the teacher bade farewell at the stūpa and went to Dayang. He visited Zen Master Jian, who yielded his seat and had him preside. From then on Dongshan's lineage flourished in the world, and people followed its wind. The teacher's spiritual bearing was extraordinary, imposing, and grave. From childhood he ate only one meal a day. Because he personally bore the weight entrusted by former worthies, his feet did not cross the boundary and his side did not touch the mat. Even at eighty-two he was still so. Finally he ascended the seat, bade farewell to the assembly, and died.⁵ In study, the most essential point is precisely the formless practice hall. It bears no shape and receives no name. Therefore, though it does not participate in words, there is necessarily an unmistakably clear place. It is the appearance before father and mother were born. To show this ground, Liangshan points to a Guanyin image painted by Hō Wu, as though showing a mirror. It has eyes but does not see, ears but does not hear, hands but does not grasp, heart but does not calculate, nose but does not smell, tongue but does not taste, and feet but does not tread. All six faculties seem useless. The whole body is idle household furniture, like a wooden person or iron fellow. At this time one has already escaped seeing color and hearing sound. Jingxuan was about to advance a word. To prevent him from remaining at a wooden stake, Liangshan urgently pressed: “This is the one with form. Which is the formless one?”⁶ Through this useless one he makes known the one without a face, like seeing a bright mirror and knowing oneself. Long ago there was said to be a mirror in the Qin era. Facing it, one could see every one of the body's five organs and six viscera, eighty-four thousand pores, and three hundred sixty bones. Where ears and eyes exist but are not used, one sees the place that bears no body and heart. Not only do the thousand mountains and myriad waters of form break apart; the dark obscurity of no-mind and nondiscrimination swiftly breaks as well. Heaven and earth are not divided and the myriad images have not sprouted, yet everything is lucidly and perfectly complete. This is truly the Dongshan lineage. It was not merely famous at one time; successive ancestors all saw and attained this way. After understanding this intent, the teacher was once asked at Dayang, “What is the reverend's house style?” He said, “A full bottle—tip it, nothing comes out. Across the great earth, there is no hungry person.” Indeed, at this ground, tip it and it does not come out; press and it does not open; lift and it does not rise; touch and there is no track. It is therefore not a place reached by ears or eyes. It accompanies speech and silence, movement and stillness, yet is never obstructed by movement and stillness. This affair is not complete only in the ancestral teachers. Not one person throughout the great earth fails to possess it. Therefore he says there is no hungry person.⁷ Venerable practitioners, fortunately you have become descendants of the Dongshan house and met the house style of ancient buddhas. Study with exact, continuous intimacy. Shoulder self before father and mother were born, before form and emptiness arose. Reach the place without even a hair's trace of shape and see the place without so much as a dust-mote of outside object. Though you search and grasp through a thousand births and ten thousand kalpas, you cannot obtain the four elements and five aggregates. Yet throughout the twelve periods, not one is lacking. Clarify this, and you will truly be a descendant of the Dongshan house and a branch of Seigen. For now, how can this principle be penetrated? Do you wish to hear?