Kyōsei's Pecking and Tapping

Engo's commentary on the case

Kyōsei succeeded Seppō and lived at the same time as Benren, Gensha, Sozan, and Taigen Fu. After first meeting Seppō and attaining the intent, he regularly instructed later students through the working of pecking and tapping. He responded skillfully to occasions. He told the assembly, “A pilgrim must possess the eye of simultaneous pecking and tapping and its function before being called a patch-robed monk. When the mother would tap, the chick cannot fail to peck; when the chick would peck, the mother cannot fail to tap.” A monk asked, “When mother taps and chick pecks, what affair is accomplished on the reverend's side?” Kyōsei said, “Good news.” The monk asked, “When chick pecks and mother taps, what affair is accomplished on the student's side?” Kyōsei said, “A face appears.” Thus Kyōsei's gate possessed this working. The monk in the case was also a guest within his house and knew its domestic affairs. Therefore he asked, “This student pecks within; I ask the teacher to tap without.”³ The Dongshan school calls such a question “borrowing an affair to reveal the working.” What does that have to do with this? Chick pecks and mother taps, naturally and exactly at once. Kyōsei too was good: fist and kick corresponded, mind and eye illuminated each other. He answered, “Will you manage to come alive?” The monk too was good and knew transformation. Beneath one phrase were guest and host, illumination and function, killing and life. The monk said, “If I do not come alive, people will laugh at me.” Kyōsei replied, “You too are a fellow in the weeds.” Each entered mud and water, and Kyōsei's hands were severe. Since the monk knew how to ask, why did Kyōsei call him a fellow in the weeds? An expert's eye must act like sparks from stone or a lightning flash. Grasp it or fail to grasp it: body and life are lost. See this and you see Kyōsei's “fellow in the weeds.” Nanyuan said, “Communities everywhere possess only the eye of simultaneous pecking and tapping, not its function.” A monk asked, “What is its function?” Nanyuan said, “An expert neither pecks nor taps; simultaneous pecking and tapping loses it.” “That is still this student's doubt.” “What is your doubt?” “Lost.” Nanyuan struck him. The monk did not accept it, so Nanyuan drove him out. Later, in Unmon's community, the monk recounted the exchange. Another monk asked, “Did Nanyuan's staff break?” At this he suddenly gained insight. Tell me: where was the intent? The monk returned to see Nanyuan, who had already died, and met Fuketsu instead. As soon as he bowed, Fuketsu asked whether he was the monk who had questioned the late teacher about simultaneous pecking and tapping. “Yes.” “How did you understand then?” “At first I was like someone walking inside a lamp's shadow.” Fuketsu said, “You understand.”⁴ What principle is this? The monk said only that his former state resembled walking in lamplight; why did Fuketsu confirm him? Suigan later said, “Though Nanyuan planned within the command tent, the land was broad and people few; those who knew the sound were rare.” Fuketsu said, “Nanyuan should have waited for him to open his mouth and struck him across the back. Then see what he did.” See this case and you see where the monk and Kyōsei met. How will you avoid being called a fellow in the weeds? Setchō loved that phrase and versified it. “Ancient buddhas have a household style.” Setchō completes the verse in one line. The moment anyone shows his head, no one can approach him. Approach and you are exiled ten thousand miles. Yet showing your head is already descending into weeds. Even moving freely in every direction does not withstand one pinch. Setchō says ancient buddhas have a household style, unlike people today. When old Śākyamuni was born, he pointed one hand to heaven and one to earth, looked in every direction, and said, “Above heaven and below heaven, I alone am honored.” Unmon said, “Had I seen him then, I would have killed him with one blow and fed him to the dogs, hoping for peace beneath heaven.” Only such a response fits exactly.⁵ The working of pecking and tapping is thus an ancient buddha's household style. One who reaches it can knock down Yellow Crane Tower with one fist and overturn Parrot Isle with one kick. It is a mass of fire that burns the face when approached, the sword Tai'e that takes body and life at the first intention. Only someone who has broken through and attained great liberation can act so. Lose the source and stick to phrases, and you cannot grasp such speech. “In confronting and answering, he undergoes stripping away.” One guest and one host, one question and one answer: within question and answer, stripping already occurs. Setchō knew this deeply and completed the verse in two lines. At the end he descends into weeds and explains for you: Chick and mother do not know each other. Who pecks and taps together? Though the mother taps, she cannot cause the chick's peck. Though the chick pecks, it cannot cause the mother's tap. They do not know each other. At the moment of pecking and tapping, who does it together? Even understanding this way does not escape Setchō's final phrase. Kyōgen said: Chick pecks; mother taps. The chick awakens with no shell. Chick and mother both forgotten, response to conditions never errs. Those on the same road sing together— subtle mystery, a solitary foot. Setchō descends further into weeds and entangles himself: Tap. This one word versifies Kyōsei's “Will you manage to come alive?” Awake— This versifies the monk's “If I do not, people will laugh.” Why then does Setchō immediately say: still inside the shell? In sparks from stone Setchō distinguishes ordained and lay; within lightning he discerns the first sign. Kyōsei says, “You too are a fellow in the weeds.” Setchō says, “struck again.” This is the difficult point. Can Kyōsei's “fellow in the weeds” be called exchanging the monk's eyes? Is “still inside the shell” the answer? Happily, that has nothing to do with it. Understand, and you can travel everywhere and have a share in repaying kindness. This mountain monk's present explanation is also a fellow in the weeds. “Monks beneath heaven only try to name and depict it.” Who does not name and depict? Here Setchō cannot depict it himself, yet implicates every monk beneath heaven. Tell me: how does Kyōsei serve this monk? No monk beneath heaven can leap free.