Hofuku's Summit of Wonder Peak

Engo's commentary on the case

Hofuku, Changqing, and Kyōsei all succeeded Seppō. The three attained and verified alike, saw and heard alike, raised and used alike. Exiting and entering, they pressed one another in turn because they were people born from the same branch. Raise something and each immediately knew where it came down. In Seppō's assembly, the regular questions and answers were mainly among these three. The ancients kept this Way in mind while walking, standing, sitting, and lying down. Therefore, when something was raised, they knew its point. One day while hiking, Hofuku pointed and said, “Right here is the summit of Wonder Peak.” Ask Zen monks today in this way and their mouths flatten like carrying poles. Fortunately, he asked Changqing. What did Hofuku intend? The ancients acted this way to test whether someone had eyes. A person inside the house naturally knows where the words come down. Changqing answered, “It is, indeed—what a pity.” What was his intent? One cannot go on only in that direction. It resembles it, indeed, yet rarely is there casually not the slightest affair. Fortunately, Changqing saw through him. Setchō remarked, “What did he hope to gain by hiking today with this fellow?” Where does that come down? He also said, “In a hundred or a thousand years I do not say there will be none—only few.” Setchō knew how to strike his breast. It resembles Ōbaku's statement: “I do not say there is no Zen, only that there are no teachers.” His words are perilously steep. Without voices responding to one another, how could they be so solitary, precarious, and strange? This is called an appended remark. It falls on both sides, yet does not abide on either. When the exchange was related to Kyōsei, he said, “If it were not for Master Sun, skulls would cover the fields.” Sun was Changqing's lay surname. A monk asked Jōshū, “What is the solitary summit of Wonder Peak?” Jōshū said, “I will not answer that.” “Why not?” “If I answered, I fear I would fall onto level ground.” In the scriptures, the monk Meghaśrī never comes down from the solitary summit of Wonder Peak. Sudhana went to visit him but did not meet him for seven days. Then one day they met on another peak. Once they met, Meghaśrī taught him the Dharma gate called “Universally Seeing the Wisdom-Light of All Buddhas of the Three Times in a Single Thought.”² If Meghaśrī never descended, why did they meet on another peak? Say he descended and the scripture declares that he never once came down, always remaining on Wonder Peak's solitary summit. At this point, where exactly are Meghaśrī and Sudhana? Later the Hō Li Tongxuan spun out an excellent explanation. He said the solitary summit of Wonder Peak is the Dharma gate of equality in one flavor. Each thing is true and each is whole, exposed alone where there is no gain or loss, right or wrong. Therefore Sudhana did not see Meghaśrī. At the place commensurate with nature, an eye does not see itself, an ear does not hear itself, and a finger does not touch itself. A knife does not cut itself, fire does not burn itself, and water does not wash itself. Here the scriptures show great grandmotherly concern. They leave one thread of a path and, through the gate of the secondary meaning, establish guest and host, working and scene, question and answer. Thus it is said: The buddhas do not appear in the world, nor is there any nirvana. To deliver beings through skillful means, they manifest affairs like these.³ Ultimately, how can one avoid Kyōsei and Setchō speaking as they do? Because people at the time could not clap and respond in accord, skulls cover the fields across the whole earth. Kyōsei verifies it this way; the other two put it to use that way. Setchō's verse makes it still more radiant. “On Wonder Peak's solitary summit, the grass grows rank.” Rolling in the weeds—when will it end? “Raised distinctly—to whom can it be entrusted?” Where is the distinct place? This versifies Hofuku's “Right here is the summit of Wonder Peak.” “Had Master Sun not discerned it exactly”—what principle did Master Sun see that made him say, “It is, indeed—what a pity”? “How many would know the skulls striking earth?” Do all of you know? Blind!