Daizui “Goes Along with It”

Engo's commentary on the case

Master Daizui Zhenru succeeded Master Daan. A native of Yanting County in eastern Sichuan, he visited more than sixty teachers. At Isan he served as fire attendant. One day Isan said, “You have been here several years and still do not know how to bring a question.” Daizui asked, “What should I ask?” Isan said, “You do not even know to ask, ‘What is Buddha?’” Daizui covered Isan's mouth with his hand. Isan said, “Later you will not find even a person who sweeps the ground.”² After returning to Sichuan, Daizui spent three years beside the road at Pengkou Mountain boiling tea for travelers. Only afterward did he teach publicly and found the monastery at Daizui. A monk asked him about the kalpa fire and whether “this” perishes. The monk relied on scriptural doctrine: formation, abiding, decay, and emptiness; when the three cosmic disasters arise, destruction reaches through the third meditation heaven. He did not know where his own question came down. Who or what is “this”? Many interpret it emotionally as beings' original nature. Daizui said, “It perishes.” The monk concluded, “Then it goes along,” and Daizui repeated the phrase. How many construct interpretations but cannot feel it out? If it goes along, where is it? If not, what then? It is said, “If you desire intimacy, do not bring a question to ask.” Later a monk asked Master Xiushan the same question. Xiushan answered, “It does not perish.” “Why not?” “Because it is the same as the thousand-world cosmos.” “It perishes” blocks people to death; “it does not perish” also blocks people to death. The original monk did not understand Daizui, but kept this affair in mind. He carried the question to Mount Touzi in Shuzhou. Touzi asked where he had come from. “Daizui in western Sichuan.” “What sayings does Daizui have?” The monk related the exchange. Touzi burned incense, bowed, and said, “An ancient buddha has appeared in western Sichuan. Return quickly.” The monk went back, but Daizui had already died. His whole effort ended in embarrassment. The Tang monk Jingzun wrote at Daizui: Clearly there is no separate Dharma— who says the southern seal is able? One phrase, “It goes along with it,” sends a patch-robed monk across a thousand mountains. A cold cricket cries among leaves by the steps; at night a ghost bows to the lamp in the shrine. My chanting ended outside the solitary window; I paced, unable to bear the grief.³ Setchō draws the two journeying lines into his verse. Now you must not interpret it as perishing, nor as not perishing. Ultimately, how do you understand? Look quickly. Setchō versifies directly at the working, and his phrases contain a place to emerge. “Within the kalpa fire's light he sets up his question. The patch-robed monk remains stuck at the double barrier.” Before asking, the monk already held both perishing and nonperishing. These are the double barrier. One who has attained has a place to emerge when saying “it perishes” and a place to emerge when saying “it does not perish.” “Pitiful, that single phrase ‘It goes along with it’; for ten thousand li, laboriously, he goes and returns alone.” This versifies the monk carrying the question to Touzi and then returning to Daizui. It was indeed a journey of ten thousand li.