Dhitika Penetrates the True Measure

Keizan's commentary

The teacher was from Magadha. When he was born, his father dreamed that a golden sun emerged from the house and illuminated heaven and earth. Before him stood a great mountain adorned with jewels. From its summit a spring burst forth, pouring down and flowing in every direction. When the teacher met Venerable Upagupta, he first told him this dream. Upagupta explained it: “The great mountain is my body. The spring bursting forth means that when you produce wisdom, the Dharma will be inexhaustible. The sun emerging from the house is the sign of your entering the way now. Its illumination of heaven and earth means that your wisdom will surpass all.” The teacher was originally named Fragrant Elephant. Upagupta changed it to his present name. In Sanskrit, Dhītika means “Penetrating the True Measure.”² After hearing the explanation, the teacher chanted a verse: Lofty, lofty, the seven-jeweled mountain, Forever bringing forth the spring of wisdom. Circling back, it becomes the flavor of the true Dharma, Able to carry across all who have affinity. Venerable Upagupta also spoke a verse: I transmit my Dharma to you. You will manifest great wisdom. The golden sun emerges from the house And illuminates heaven and earth. The teacher naturally bowed, followed Upagupta, and at last asked to leave home. Upagupta asked, “Your resolve seeks to leave home. Is it your body that leaves home, or your heart?” The teacher said, “I have come seeking to leave home, but not for the sake of body or heart.” Upagupta said, “If it is not for body or heart, then who leaves home?” The teacher answered with the words of the present case, through “The teacher then greatly awakened.” In truth, leaving home reveals the “I” of no-I/I. It is not something to be decided through body and heart. This “I” of no-I/I is itself the constant way. It cannot be measured through arising and ceasing. Therefore it is not the buddhas and not sentient beings—much less the four elements, five aggregates, threefold world, or six paths. Thus heart has no shape or mark. Though there may be seeing and hearing, awareness and knowing, they are finally neither coming and going nor motion and stillness. One who sees in this way can be called a fellow who knows the heart. But this could still be called understanding from what one has heard. So although Dhītika understood it in this way, Upagupta marked it and said, “You must greatly awaken. Your own heart will penetrate freely.” This was like stamping the emperor's seal on goods offered for trade. Once the royal seal has been stamped, the goods are neither poison nor counterfeit, nor are they public property. People can therefore use them. The way between teacher and heir accords in just this manner. Even if there is no principle you have failed to penetrate and no way you have failed to clarify, you must first obtain it through great awakening. Without once greatly awakening, you become only a guest of intellectual understanding and never penetrate the ground of heart. You have therefore not escaped views of Buddha and Dharma. When will you be free from binding yourself and binding others? Even if you could recite all forty-nine years of teaching without losing one character and explain the three or five vehicles without a single error, without once greatly awakening you could hardly be accepted as a true patch-robed monk. Even if you lecture on a thousand sutras and ten thousand treatises, cause buddhas to appear, shake the great earth, and make heavenly flowers fall in profusion, this is already the understanding of a lecture-master. It is not yet the native understanding of a monk.³ Therefore do not understand this matter as “the threefold world is only mind.” Do not understand it as “the real mark of all dharmas.” Do not understand it as “all possess buddha-nature.” Do not understand it as final emptiness and quiescence. The real mark still remains caught at a joint. “All empty” instead resembles falling into emptiness. “All possess” resembles a spiritual essence. “Only mind” has not yet escaped awareness and knowing. If someone who seeks this matter searches among a thousand sutras and ten thousand treatises, regrettably he is a fellow who abandoned his father and ran away. Open your own treasury, one by one. When you bring the entire canon forth from it, the sacred teachings will naturally become what you possess. Unless you realize it in this way, all the buddhas and ancestors are your enemies. Thus it is said: What demon taught you to leave home? What demon taught you to travel on foot? Speak, and you die beneath the fork. Fail to speak, and you die beneath the fork.⁴ This is why Dhītika said that leaving home is not for the sake of body or heart. But even understanding it in this way did not make him a native monk. Only when Upagupta pointed it out once more did he greatly awaken and penetrate. Therefore, all of you, practice the way closely and work at it without gaps. Do not interpret meaning by relying on words. Do not distinguish spirit by relying on awareness. Utterly destroy heaven and earth, the great earth, ordinary and holy, environment and living body. Then, although you go back and forth before and behind, there will be no obstruction by even one thread; although you enter and leave above and below, not one grain of dust will separate you. Make a cage in empty space and raise waves on level ground. See the Buddha's face. Recognize “awakening to the way and illuminating the heart.” Bring forth gourds from a gourd vine; turn the single round, radiant jewel. Only then can you know that there is an inner chamber of the buddhas and ancestors. To the encounter just raised, I would append a humble word. Do you wish to hear it?