Setchō Zhijian and the Cypress

Keizan's commentary

The teacher's personal name was Zhijian. He was a son of the Wu family in Chuzhou. When he was a child, his mother was washing a sore on his hand and asked, “What is this?” He replied, “My hand resembles a buddha's hand.” When he was older, he lost the support of his parents. He relied on Shinketsu at Changlu. Zongjue was head of the assembly at that time and immediately recognized him as a vessel. Later he withdrew to Xiangshan. A hundred strange apparitions could not confuse him. Late one night he awakened and sought verification from Yanshou.⁴ Afterward he again studied with Reverend Zongjue. Zongjue was then residing at Tendō and appointed the teacher secretary. One day Zongjue raised the encounter given above. This saying comes from the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, in the second part of chapter four, “The Tathāgata's Nature.” It says: At that time Bodhisattva Kāśyapa addressed the Buddha: “World-Honored One, the statement you have made—that all buddhas, world-honored ones, possess secret words—is not correct. “Why? All buddhas, world-honored ones, have only intimate words; they have no secret treasury. “It is like an illusionist's mechanical wooden person. Although people see it bend and extend, bow and look up, no one knows what inside makes it do so. “Buddha-Dharma is not like this. It enables all sentient beings to see and know. How then could one say that all buddhas, world-honored ones, possess a secret treasury?” The Buddha praised Kāśyapa: “Excellent, excellent, good man. It is as you say. The Tathāgata truly has no hidden treasury. “Why? It is like the full autumn moon, exposed in the open sky, pure and without obstruction, which everyone can see. The Tathāgata's words are also like this: opened and exposed, pure and unobstructed. “Foolish people do not understand them and call them a secret treasury. The wise comprehend them, so they do not call them hidden.”⁵ Since then this saying has long been used within the ancestral teachers' gate. Therefore, when it was raised here, Zhijian awakened. Truly, nothing was concealed. Whenever you hear any word, you must understand the heart of it. Do not remain stuck in the words. The word “fire” is not fire; the word “water” is not water. Therefore speaking of fire does not burn the mouth, and speaking of water does not wet the mouth. Know that water and fire truly are not words.⁶ Reverend Sekitō said, “Receiving the words, you must understand the source. Do not establish rules of your own.” Yakusan also said, “You should further look for yourself. You must not cut off language. The words I now speak for you reveal the one without words—that one originally has no appearance such as ears or eyes.” Changqing said, “All twenty-eight generations speak of transmitting mind. They do not speak of transmitting words.” Great Master Unmon said: “As for this one affair: if it were in language, do the three vehicles and twelve divisions of teaching lack language? Why then is it said to be a separate transmission outside the teachings? “If one follows learned understanding, cleverness, and intelligence, even sages of the tenth bodhisattva stage—who preach Dharma like clouds and rain—are still rebuked because seeing nature is as though separated by gauze.” From this, know that every state involving constructed mind is as far apart as heaven and earth. Even so, when one is a person who has attained, saying “fire” has never burned the mouth. Though one speaks of the affair all day long, it has never clung to lips or teeth, and not one word has ever been spoken.⁷ Therefore, venerable practitioners, know not only the absence of words but also that there is one without a mouth. How could it have only no mouth? It has no eyes, and from the beginning it has not a single hair of the four elements or six faculties. Although it is like this, it is not empty and is not the absence of anything. When you see a thing or hear a sound, it is not these eyes that see and not these ears that hear. It is the faceless fellow who is like this. What you have furnished as your body and mind is what this fellow has done. Therefore this body and mind are altogether not fabricated dharmas.⁸ Without reaching this, you think the body is produced by father and mother as conditions, or a body born as karmic recompense. You therefore think it is the body of the two drops, red and white, or a body bearing skin and flesh. All such views arise because you have not clarified yourself.⁹ To make this place known, a teacher employs immeasurable skillful means, causing all six faculties to disappear and every activity to cease. At this time there is still that which cannot be made to disappear and that which cannot be broken. When it is necessarily recognized, it falls neither into emptiness nor existence and is neither light nor dark. Therefore it is difficult to call it deluded and difficult to call it awakened. At this ground it is called neither buddha nor Dharma, neither mind nor nature. It is only a blazing light, only brilliantly clear. It is therefore neither firelight nor the gleam of water—only open and brilliantly clear. Thus, though you try to peer at it, it cannot be peered at; though you try to obtain it, it cannot be obtained. It is simply alert and clear.¹⁰ When the three calamities of fire, water, and wind arise and the world is destroyed, this one is not broken. When the three realms and six paths arise and the myriad images stand in profusion, this one does not change. Therefore a buddha can do nothing with it, and an ancestral teacher can do nothing with it. Venerable practitioners, if first you wish to arrive intimately at this place, for a while close both eyes, stop one breath, finish this body, and have no house to cover it. Let every place of use become altogether unnecessary. Be like a blue sky without clouds, like the great sea without waves, and there will be some measure of accord.¹¹ At this time, although there is nothing further that can be done with you, there is another level of light. It is not like the moon or sun in the blue sky. The whole sky is moon, yet it illuminates no object at all. The entire world is sun, yet there is nowhere it deliberately shines. Shoulder this in detail. If you do not see this place, you are not only confused by monastic and lay, male and female. You revolve through the three realms and six paths. Though you are a disciple of the Buddha and bear the appearance of a monk, you will still fall into the hands of old Yama. Would that not be shameful?¹² Śākyamuni's buddha-Dharma completely fills worlds as numerous as sand, reaching everywhere. If you investigate to the end, why should you not arrive? This human body is not easily received. It has been received through the power of wholesome roots from the past. If once you reach this place, you are completely released. You are neither male nor female, neither spirit nor ghost, neither ordinary nor sage, neither monastic nor lay. There is nowhere to contain you, and the eye cannot reach you. If you attain this ground, though a monk you are not a monk; though a layperson you are not a layperson. You are not confused by the six faculties or employed by the six consciousnesses. If you do not attain it, you will be confused and bound by every such matter as you go. Would that not be unfortunate?¹³ It is complete from the beginning. Yet if work is needed to reach it, expend your strength. Although no person lacks it, once one becomes confused through the eye's seeing, it is lamentable how much wandering one undergoes. Simply let faculties and objects fall away; do not rely upon mind or consciousness. See with continuous care, and you will necessarily arrive. You will not arrive merely by degrees. Raise the force of a single fierce resolve and accord. Even for a short while, do not give rise to partial knowledge or incomplete understanding. Truly recognize and reach the root-source. Once you arrive, your four edges stand on the ground and the eight winds cannot move you.¹⁴ An ancient said: Studying the way is like drilling wood for fire; When smoke appears, do not stop. When you exert your strength completely, you obtain fire. What is called smoke? When you meet the skilled hand of a teacher, the place where not one thought arises is the time smoke appears. To remain there and stop at once is like stopping once the wood becomes warm. Continue forward and see the fire. That is, clearly know the one in whom not one thought arises.¹⁵ If you do not recognize yourself, though it may now seem like rest, even if you resemble a dead tree you are a corpse whose consciousness has not dispersed. Therefore, if you wish intimately to shoulder this place, investigate it through and through. Do not depend upon fixed sitting and do not make frog-talk. What is the principle of the intimate saying that is not concealed?