Tōsu Gisei and the Unspoken Matter

Keizan's commentary

The teacher's personal name was Yiqing. He was a son of the Li family in Qingzhou. At seven, already precociously gifted, he went to Miaoxiang Monastery and left home. At fifteen he passed the scripture examination and received ordination. He studied the Treatise on the Hundred Dharmas. Before long he sighed, “The road of three incalculable eons is distant. What benefit is there in exhausting myself?”⁴ He then entered Luoyang and heard lectures on the Avataṃsaka Sūtra. Their meaning ran through him like pearls on a string. Once, while reading a verse by Bodhisattva Zhulin, he came to the words, “Mind itself is self-nature.” He was sharply awakened and said, “Dharma is apart from written words. How could it be lectured upon?” He immediately abandoned that work and traveled to the seats of the Zen lineage. At the time, Zen Master Yuanjian was living at Huisheng Cliff.⁵ One night Yuanjian dreamed that he was keeping a blue hawk, which he took as an auspicious sign. The next morning the teacher arrived, and Yuanjian received him ceremonially. Yuanjian had him investigate the outsider's question to the Buddha, and the encounter continued until the teacher clearly awakened. He then bowed. Yuanjian asked, “Have you marvelously awakened to the dark mechanism?” The teacher said, “If there were one, I would have to vomit it out.” Attendant Zi, who stood nearby, said, “Qing the Huayan lecturer is like a sick man who has finally broken into a sweat today.” The teacher looked back and said, “Shut your dog's mouth. If you keep chattering, I will vomit.”⁶ From then he remained another three years. Whenever Yuanjian brought out the principles of the Dongshan tradition and showed them to him, he accorded with all of them in a marvelous way. Yuanjian entrusted him with Dayang's portrait, leather shoes, and cloth robe and charged him, “Continue that lineage's house style in my place. Do not remain here long. Guard and uphold it well.”⁷ He then wrote a verse to send him away: Sumeru stands in the great void; Daily activity assists it as it turns. The clustered peaks gradually lean upon it; Only then do the white clouds begin to change. At Shōrin a wind rises through the grove; At Sōkei the curtain of the cave is rolled up. A golden phoenix roosts in the dragon's nest; How could imperial moss be crushed by cart wheels?⁸ The Tathāgata's wheel of true Dharma has been transmitted intimately from east to west. The Five Houses raised their voices in profusion. Their pivotal devices differed, and each house had a somewhat different style. There were phoenixes and there were dragons and elephants. None moved with the common herd, and none was inferior. Qing the Huayan lecturer's responsive activity accorded with Dayang. He can therefore properly be called a descendant of the Dongshan house. Master Yuanjian had inherited the lineage principle from Yexian. He belonged precisely to the stream beneath Rinzai. A phoenix chick should not be kept in a dragon's nest. Yuanjian therefore sent the teacher to rely on Zen Master Yuantong Xiu. When the teacher arrived there, he asked no questions and sought no interview. He merely delighted in sleeping. The monastery officer reported to Yuantong, “There is a monk in the hall who sleeps all day. The regulations should be applied.” Yuantong asked, “Who is it?” “Senior Qing,” the officer said. Yuantong said, “Not yet. Wait while I examine him.” Yuantong dragged his staff into the hall and found the teacher asleep. Striking the sitting platform, he scolded him: “Here I have no idle rice for a senior monk to eat and then go to sleep.” The teacher said, “What would the reverend have me do?” Yuantong said, “Why do you not go practice Zen?” The teacher said, “Fine food does not suit a man who is already full.” Yuantong said, “A great many people have still not approved you, Senior.” The teacher said, “If I waited for their approval, what would it be good for?” Yuantong asked, “Whom have you met?” The teacher said, “Fushan.” Yuantong said, “No wonder you are so stubbornly lazy.” He took the teacher by the hand, and they laughed together as they returned to the abbot's quarters. From this, the teacher's reputation in the way became very great. He first resided at Baiyun and later moved to Tōsu. This is the account recorded in the Five Lamps Compendium.⁹ The Continued Record of Ancient Venerable Adepts also says: The teacher attained the Dharma through Zen Master Yuanjian. Earlier, Yuanjian had studied with Great Master Dayang Ming'an. Their responsive activities accorded, and Dayang finally intended to transmit the lineage principle and entrust him with leather shoes and a cloth robe. Yuanjian declined, saying, “I already have a place of attainment from before.” Dayang sighed and said, “No one will transmit this branch of mine.” Yuanjian then said, “It is difficult to set forth the entire house style of the Dongshan lineage. Your reverence is advanced in years. If there is no one to whom you can transmit it, I will hold the robe and tokens of trust and, for your sake, later pass them on and entrust them to someone.” Dayang agreed and said, “I will write a verse and leave it as corroboration.” He immediately wrote: Grass on the summit of broad Dayang— I rely upon you to wait until its value is known. Where an extraordinary shoot grows luxuriant, Deep and hidden, secure the numinous root.¹⁰ At the end he wrote: “The person who obtains the Dharma should remain hidden in the assembly for ten years. Only then should it be expounded.” Later Yuanjian met the teacher. He entrusted him with the Dongshan lineage principle, Dayang's true portrait, the robe and tokens of trust, and the verse, saying, “Continue Dayang's house style in my place.” As predicted, only after ten years did the teacher appear in the world as a public teacher and succeed Dayang. In the verse above, “broad Dayang” means Mount Dayang. “Where an extraordinary shoot grows luxuriant” means the present Zen Master Qing. The phrase “wait until its value is known” refers to Yuanjian.¹¹ The prediction did not fail. When the teacher finally appeared in the world, he raised incense and said: “This single petal of incense—assembly, do you know where it comes from? “It was not produced by heaven and earth. It was not brought to completion by yin and yang. Before Buddha Bhīṣmagarjitasvararāja it did not fall within any rank. After Dīpaṃkara, the Seven Buddhas transmitted it down to Sōkei, where it divided into branches throughout great China. “At the beginning of the Zhiping era, this mountain monk received it personally from Zen Master Fushan Yuanjian. He entrusted me with the lineage verse as corroboration. His compassionate instruction was: ‘Continue Dayang's house style in my place.’ “Although this mountain monk did not know Zen Master Dayang, Fushan possessed the lineage Dharma's eye for a person and established me as successor in this way. How could I dare disobey Fushan's Dharma command or forget the kindness of his entrustment? “I respectfully offer it for Great Reverend Ming'an of Mount Dayang in Yingzhou. “Why? Parents and buddhas are not intimate; I take Dharma as intimate.”¹² From that time the teacher opened and expounded Dayang's house style. He then obtained Zen Master Fuyō Dōkai as his successor. Now Zen Master Fushan Yuanjian stood in the seventh generation after Reverend Rinzai. He was, as is said, the legitimate successor of Reverend Yexian Guixing. Long before, he had left home under Reverend Sansong Jiao. While still a novice, he saw a monk enter the room to ask about Jōshū's “cypress tree in the courtyard.” Sansong questioned the monk, and Yuanjian understood while standing nearby. He studied with various teachers and accorded with them all. Visiting Fenyang and Yexian, he received recognition from both and finally became Yexian's legitimate successor. Yet he also studied with Dayang, and their responsive activities accorded. Therefore Dayang intended to transmit the lineage principle to him. Fayuan declined, saying that he already had a place of attainment. Although for that reason he did not personally receive Dayang's succession, Dayang had no eventual successor. He therefore entrusted it to Fayuan so the line would not be cut off. Later, having found the appropriate capacity, Fayuan secretly transmitted it. From this one should understand that Seigen and Nanyue were never fundamentally separate.¹³ Yuanjian pitied Dayang's lineage because it was about to fall to the ground, and he transmitted Dayang's lineage principle in Dayang's place. Yet people within our own house say, “The descendants of Nanyue are inferior; Seigen's house style is superior.” People in the Rinzai line, in turn, say, “Dongshan's lineage principle had become extinct and was rescued by Rinzai's descendants.” Both sound as though they are dark about the lineage principle. If genuine people are found in our own and another house, neither should be doubted. Why? Seigen and Nanyue were both disciples of Sōkei, like the two horns of one ox. Yakusan, for example, clarified the matter with Baso but succeeded Sekitō. Danxia also clarified it with Baso, then turned and succeeded Sekitō. Truly they were brothers of one flesh and bone, without superior or inferior. Yet people praise only their own ancestor as the legitimate heir and regard the others as collateral branches. Understand that the Rinzai descendants are also honored and noble, while the descendants of our own house are also surpassing. If Rinzai had a place it did not reach or a place where it was inferior, Yuanjian ought already to have succeeded Dayang. If Dayang had an inferior or mistaken place, why would Yuanjian have entrusted his line to Tōsu? Venerable practitioners, do not argue comparatively over the Five Houses and Seven Schools. Simply clarify the heart. This is the true Dharma of all buddhas. How could it be contested through self and other? It cannot be settled by victory and defeat.¹⁴ Nevertheless, Huihong Juefan wrote in the Record from the Groves of the Zen Gate: The old stūpa-keeper lived roughly a hundred years after Unmon, yet called himself Unmon's successor. Qing the Huayan lecturer had never met Dayang. He succeeded him merely because Master Yuan of Fushan said so, and he did not doubt it. Both elders calmly acted upon transmitted words. They regarded themselves very highly and Dharma very lightly. Among ancient people who regarded Dharma highly were Yongjia and Ōbaku. Yongjia awakened to the Buddha-mind lineage by reading the Vimalakīrti Sūtra, yet went to see the Sixth Ancestor, saying, “I wish to settle the lineage principle.” Ōbaku awakened to Baso's meaning yet succeeded Hyakujō.¹⁵ When I examine this explanation, Huihong Juefan seems still to have something he did not understand. Why? Dayang entrusted his buddha-Dharma to Yuanjian. How could that be doubted? Moreover, when he found the person, he left corroborating evidence. Even the later prediction proved accurate. If one must doubt that Yiqing met Yuanjian, then one should equally doubt that Dayang transmitted anything to Yuanjian. The admonitions ancestral teachers have handed down cannot be compared with the disorderly sentiments of the world. Even ordinary worldly people often take the words of a trustworthy person as evidence. How much more so when Yuanjian was a person who knew Dharma, had received Dayang's face-to-face instruction, and whose responsive activity accorded with his? Juefan condemns Tōsu for not doubting Yuanjian's words. Yet Yuanjian was already Yexian's legitimate successor and stood in Rinzai's true stream. Ancient people did not doubt him. How could buddhas and ancestors make false claims? He was honored because he had received the successive ancestors' seals of recognition. On what grounds should Tōsu doubt Yuanjian? It was as though Dayang were still alive. The lifeline of buddhas and ancestors passes through without beginning or end. It remotely transcends the three times, while teacher and disciple meet face to face without discrepancy. All of it is struck into one piece, like a gourd vine winding around the gourds it has produced. Ultimately it is not a different thing. Thus, from Dayang through Yuanjian and as far as Tōsu, the one person Dayang comes forward. Indeed, the one person Śākyamuni has continued without break to the present day. Such is the matter in the inner chamber of the buddhas and ancestors. How could Yuanjian be doubted? If Yuanjian should doubt Dayang, why did Kāśyapa not doubt Śākyamuni? Why did the Second Ancestor not doubt Bodhidharma? An ancestral teacher cannot be deceived. Because they honor the absence of private interest in buddha-Dharma, the succession has continued. Dayang relied upon Yuanjian; Tōsu honored Yuanjian and, esteeming Dharma, did not doubt his command. All three teachers failed to abandon the lineage principle of the former ancestors. They entrusted Dongshan's house style to later generations for a long time. This truly is the wondrous distinction of our house and the secret treasury of buddha-Dharma. Even now, when the appropriate vessel is not immediately found, the matter may be deposited with an accomplished person.¹⁶ Huihong Juefan did not investigate it thoroughly. How great an error to compare Qing the Huayan lecturer with the old stūpa-keeper! Jianfu Chenggu was called the old stūpa-keeper. He dwelt before the stūpa of Zen Master Hongjue at Yunju. He appeared about a hundred years after Unmon. Because he gained a little understanding of a saying of Unmon, he said, “Ōbaku's viewpoint was not complete. How could past and present be separated? Although Baso's saying was clarified, one need not succeed Baso. I clarify Unmon's saying, so I should succeed Unmon.” In the end he claimed to be Unmon's successor, and the various records all list him among Unmon's heirs. This is an error by the recorders. It deserves laughter. Kyōgen awakened when a pebble struck bamboo—why did he not succeed the green bamboo? Lingyun awakened at peach blossoms—why did he not succeed the peach blossoms? It is regrettable that Chenggu did not understand succession within the house of buddhas and ancestors. If Juefan also doubts Reverend Yiqing, it is as though he too does not understand transmission within the house. Therefore the words “you took yourself lightly and regarded Dharma as incomplete” should be turned back upon him. The account in the Record from the Groves should not be relied upon.¹⁷ In the encounter presented above, an outsider respectfully asked the Buddha, “I do not ask about speech; I do not ask about silence.” Because the way does not fall into ordinary speaking or silence, the World-Honored One remained for a long while. This was neither concealment nor display, neither self nor other. It had no inside or outside and no relative or absolute. It was revealed as just like empty space, just like ocean water. The outsider suddenly understood. Bowing, he said, “World-Honored One, in your great kindness and great compassion you opened my cloud of delusion and enabled me to enter.” He then departed. He had truly attained something like a single cloud exhausted so that the open sky was pure, or wind and waves subsiding so that the vast sea was still. Ānanda, however, did not understand. He respectfully asked the Buddha, “What did the outsider realize that he could say he had entered?” The Buddha said, “Like a fine horse in the world that moves at the sight of the whip's shadow.”¹⁸ This truly is the pivotal working of the ancestral teachers. When the treasury was personally thrown open, the outsider understood without turning one mechanism or uttering one word. He carried it through with lucid penetration, like seeing the whip's shadow and arriving on the true road. Therefore do not remain at the place of nonthinking. Look still more closely. Do not linger at wordless preaching. Clarify the heart further. Many people mistakenly understand this “long while.” Some say: “When not one thought arises, the whole body manifests. Apart from the marks of names and words, it comes forth alone. It is like clouds clearing and the mountain appearing—lofty and abrupt, dependent on nothing. Precisely this is it.” Compared with the former understanding that generated interpretations and raced outward in search, this seems like a little rest. Yet skin and flesh have not disappeared, and the consciousness aggregate has still not been relinquished. If you wish to accord with this place, cut off breath; sever the life-root and see. What thing will appear? How could it be called nonthinking? Since nothing whatever can be done with it, how could it be called silent and mute? This does not mean merely stopping one breath and closing both eyes. Turn toward the place where the hundred bones disintegrate and skin and flesh leave no trace. There is one thing that belongs neither to light nor darkness and is neither male nor female. How will you penetrate this principle?¹⁹