Unmon's “One Statement in Response”

Engo's commentary on the case

Followers of Zen: if you wish to know the meaning of buddha-nature, observe occasion and conditions. This is called a separate transmission outside the teachings, singly transmitting the mind seal, directly pointing to the human mind, seeing nature and becoming Buddha. Old Śākyamuni lived in the world for forty-nine years. In 360 assemblies he expounded sudden and gradual, provisional and real. This is called “the teaching of the whole lifetime.”³ The monk picked it up and asked, “What is the teaching of the whole lifetime?” Why did Unmon not explain it in profusion? Instead he said only, “In response: one statement.” Ordinarily, within one phrase of Unmon's all three phrases must be present: the phrase that boxes and lids heaven and earth, the phrase that follows wave after wave, and the phrase that cuts off all streams.⁴ Releasing and gathering, it is naturally extraordinary—like cutting nails and severing iron. It gives doctrinal interpretation no means to calculate it. The entire canon requires only three characters. From every side there is nowhere for you to bore in. Many misunderstand. Some say he spoke in response to the needs of one particular occasion. Others say the dense array and ten thousand forms are all stamped by one Dharma, so it is “in response: one statement.” Still others say he simply spoke that one Dharma. What does any of this have to do with it? They do not merely fail to understand; they enter hell like an arrow. The ancient's intent was not like this. Thus it is said: Bones ground to powder, body smashed to pieces—not enough to repay it. Clearly understand one phrase and surpass ten billion. The exchange is unquestionably extraordinary. “What is the teaching of the whole lifetime?” It requires only “In response: one statement.” Recognize it head-on and you can return home and sit securely. If not, bow your head and listen to the sentence. “In response: one statement—utterly solitary and cut off.” Setchō cannot praise it enough. The words emerge alone, solitary and dangerous, eclipsing what came before and cutting off what follows—like a cliff ten thousand fathoms high, or an army of a million in which there is no person for you. It is simply too solitary and dangerous. An ancient said, “If you want intimacy, do not bring a question to ask. The question is in the answer; the answer is at the question's beginning.” Truly steep. Where is the steepness? No one beneath heaven can do anything with it. The monk too was an expert, which is why he asked this way. Unmon answered this way. It greatly resembles “driving another wedge into a holeless iron hammer.” Setchō uses literary language with exceptional skill. Beneath the Jambu tree, laughing aloud. The Sūtra on the Arising of the World says that on Sumeru's southern side a beryl tree casts all Jambudvīpa in blue. The continent takes its name from this great Jambu tree, seven thousand yojanas across. Beneath it lies a mound of Jambu gold twenty yojanas high; because the gold emerges below the tree, it is called the Jambu tree.⁶ Setchō says he laughs aloud beneath that tree. What does he laugh at? Last night the black dragon had a horn twisted off. He can only gaze up and praise Unmon. What is Unmon's “In response: one statement” like? Like twisting off one horn of a black dragon. Without the reality of such an affair, how could one speak this way? Setchō completed the verse, then at the end said: Distinct! Distinct! The old man of Shaoyang got one stake.⁷ Why not say he got the whole? Why only one stake? Where is it? One must pass through and beyond a second person.