Buddhanandi Debates Meaning

Keizan's commentary

The teacher was from Kāmarūpa and belonged to the Gautama clan. He had a fleshy protuberance on his crown and was quick and unhindered in debate. When the Seventh Ancestor, Venerable Vasumitra, traveled to teach in Kāmarūpa, he carried on the work of the Buddha widely. The teacher came before his jeweled seat and introduced himself: “My name is Buddhanandi. I have come to debate meaning with you.” Vasumitra said, “If you debate, it is not meaning. If it is meaning, it is not debate.” In truth, genuine meaning cannot be debated, and genuine debate does not carry “meaning.” Thus, where there is debate and where there is meaning, there is neither genuine meaning nor genuine debate. This is why he said, “If you intend to debate meaning, in the end it is no debate of meaning.” Finally there is not one dharma that can be made into meaning and not one dharma that can be made into debate. Yet the Buddha does not have two kinds of speech. To see Buddha-speech is to see the Buddha-body; to see the Buddha-body is to realize the Buddha-tongue. Therefore, even if you say that heart and objects are nondual, this is not yet genuine debate. Even if you say that it does not change, this is not yet meaning. Even to say that words cannot extend to it and principle cannot disclose it does not mean that meaning has passed through. To say that nature is true and heart is right—what sort of debate is that? To say that illumination and its object both disappear is still not genuine debate. For illumination and object not to disappear is not meaning either. Speaking of guest or host, one or same—none of this, in turn, is debate about meaning. Arriving here, even the great being Mañjuśrī saying “no words and no teaching” is not a genuine declaration. The great being Vimalakīrti sitting silently is not debate about meaning either. At this place Mañjuśrī still sees wrongly, and Vimalakīrti still speaks wrongly.¹ How much less Śāriputra, foremost in wisdom, and Maudgalyāyana, foremost in spiritual powers. They have not seen this meaning even in a dream. They are like people born blind who do not see the colors of things. The Buddha said that buddha-nature is something hearers and solitary buddhas have not known even in dreams. The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sutra says: “Good son, only a buddha can know buddha-nature in this way. It is not within reach of hearers or solitary buddhas.”² Even bodhisattvas of the tenth stage see a crane far away and mistake it: “Is that water, or is it a crane?” After deliberating and considering, they see correctly that it is a crane, but their knowledge is still not decisive. The same sutra says: Good son, it is like a thirsty person traveling through open country. Pressed by thirst, he searches everywhere for water. He sees a cluster of trees with white cranes among them. Confused and obstructed, he cannot distinguish whether it is water or trees. He examines it without stopping and at last recognizes white cranes and the cluster of trees. Good son, tenth-stage bodhisattvas see and know a small part of the tathāgata-nature in just this way. Even tenth-stage bodhisattvas do not see buddha-nature clearly. The sutra says that although they see the tathāgata-nature in their own bodies, it is not greatly clear. Relying a little on what the Tathāgata teaches, they know that there is an own-nature and rejoice: “Wonderful, World-Honored One! Through measureless births and deaths we have revolved without discerning this constant abiding because we were confused by no-self.”³ Even if you cut off seeing and hearing, forget body and heart, evade delusion and awakening, and leave defilement and purity, you still cannot see this meaning even in a dream. Therefore do not turn toward empty space to seek it. Do not seek it within form. How much less should you seek it in buddhas or ancestors? From vast ages until today, how many times have all of you passed through birth and death? How many times have you raised and extinguished body and heart? Some may think, “This birth and death, going and coming, is dream, illusion, and delusive thought.” That is especially laughable. What sort of story is this? Is there something that goes and comes through birth and death? What would you call the genuine human body? What would you call dream, illusion, and delusive thought? Do not understand it as false, and do not understand it as true. If you understand it as false or as true, then at this place beginning and end are wrong. You must investigate this one matter closely and penetrate it before you obtain it. Do not casually aim at emptiness or rightness and imagine that this is the place in question. Even if you understand it to be level as water and clean, spotless, and pure—like empty space without defilement or purity—you still have not clarified this place. When Master Dongshan studied with Isan and Ungan, he immediately investigated together with the ten thousand dharmas and understood that the whole body expounds Dharma. Even so, something remained incomplete. Ungan therefore consoled him once more: “Be very careful in taking responsibility for this matter.” A doubt still remained. Dongshan temporarily left Ungan and traveled elsewhere. While crossing a stream, he saw his reflection and swiftly obtained this matter. He spoke a verse: By all means, do not seek it from another, Or it will become remote from me. I now go alone, Yet everywhere I meet him. He now is precisely me; I now am not him. You must understand in this way Before you accord with thus-thus.⁴ Understanding in this way, he finally became Ungan's true heir and the root of the Dong lineage. He understood not only that the whole body expounds Dharma. Pillars and lanterns, every mote and every land, every dharma, and all three times expound it. Yet because he still had a place he had not reached, Ungan consoled him. How much more ridiculous are people today who understand it within knowing and seeing, take heart to be buddha or body to be buddha, or do not understand at all what the Buddha-way could be. They merely see spring flowers open and autumn leaves fall and think, “Each dharma abides in its Dharma-position.” This is laughable. If the Buddha-Dharma were only this, why did Śākyamuni appear in the world and Bodhidharma come from the west? From the World-Honored One above through the ancestral teachers of China, no one in the rank of buddhas and ancestors failed greatly to awaken. If people made meaning and debate by interpreting meaning from words, how many buddhas and ancestors could there be? Throw that away. Penetrate this place and obtain being a buddha and ancestor yourself. Thus, in the ancestral way, without great awakening and great penetration one is not that person. One does not remain in immaculate purity or in the lucidity of empty space. The Boatman therefore said: Where you hide the body, erase its tracks. Where no tracks remain, do not hide the body. For thirty years at Yakusan, I clarified only this matter.⁵ Immaculate purity is not a place to hide the body. Even if illumination and object are forgotten together, do not hide yourself in that place. There is then no place to speak of ancient and present and nothing to debate as delusion and awakening. When you investigate and penetrate in this way, no walls fall in the ten directions and no gate stands on any of the four sides. Everywhere is stripped bare, exposed, and clean. You must therefore be very careful. Do not be hasty. This morning, to disclose the encounter, I have a humble verse. Do you wish to hear it?