Kasan Knows How to Beat the Drum

Engo's commentary on the case

Kasan taught, “Practicing study is called hearing. Cutting off study is called neighboring. Passing beyond these two is true passing.” This statement comes from the Baocang lun. Learning carried to no-learning is called cutting off study. Therefore it is said, “Shallow hearing, deep awakening; deep hearing, no awakening—this is called cutting off study.” Yongjia, who awakened in one night, said: From early years I accumulated learning and inquiry; I too searched commentaries and examined scriptures and treatises. When practiced study is exhausted, it is called “cutting off study—the leisurely person of nonaction.” Only upon cutting off study does one begin to draw near the Way. Directly passing beyond both kinds of learning is called true passing. The monk is undeniably acute. He immediately picks up this statement and questions Kasan. Kasan says, “I know how to beat the drum.” These are words without flavor, speech without flavor. To clarify this public case, one must be a person beyond. Only then can one see that the phrase does not concern principle or nature and leaves no place for discussion. Understand it directly, like the bottom falling from a bucket; only this is the secure place of a patch-robed monk and accords with the ancestral teacher's intent in coming from the west. Thus Unmon said, “Seppō rolls a ball; Kasan beats the drum; the National Teacher has a bowl of water; Jōshū drinks tea.” All are presentations of the matter beyond. The monk asks again, “What is ultimate truth?” Kasan says, “I know how to beat the drum.” Ultimate truth establishes not one dharma; conventional truth possesses all the myriad things. Ultimate and conventional are not two: this is the sages' truth, the first meaning. The monk says, “I will not ask about ‘mind itself is Buddha.’ What is neither mind nor Buddha?” Kasan says, “I know how to beat the drum.” “Mind itself is Buddha” is easy to seek; reaching “neither mind nor Buddha” is difficult, and few arrive. The monk asks, “When a person beyond comes, how do you receive him?” Kasan says, “I know how to beat the drum.” A person beyond is one who has penetrated, cast off, and become free. These four phrases are treated everywhere as a lineage standard and called Kasan's Four Beatings of the Drum. A monk asked Kyōsei, “At the beginning of the new year, is there Buddha Dharma?” Kyōsei said, “There is.” “What is the Buddha Dharma at the new year's beginning?” “The primal first day opens good fortune; the myriad things are all renewed.” The monk said, “Thank you for the answer.” Kyōsei said, “Today this old monk has lost the advantage.” Answers of this kind have eighteen varieties of losing the advantage. Another monk asked Master Jingguo, “What about a crane standing on a solitary pine?” Jingguo said, “A bout of embarrassment beneath its feet.” “What about snow covering a thousand mountains?” “A bout of embarrassment after the sun rises.” “During the Huichang suppression, where did the Dharma-protecting spirits go?” “A bout of embarrassment for the two fellows outside the triple gate.” These are called Jingguo's Three Embarrassments.² Hofuku asked a monk, “What buddha is in the hall?” The monk said, “Master, determine it and see.” Hofuku said, “Old Śākyamuni.” The monk said, “Do not deceive people.” Hofuku said, “Instead, you deceive me.” Hofuku asked another monk his name. “Xianze,” the monk answered. Hofuku asked what happened if the waters dried up. The monk asked who was dried up. Hofuku said, “I am.” Again the monk warned him not to deceive people, and Hofuku returned, “Instead, you deceive me.” He asked another, “What occupation do you practice that lets you eat so much?” The monk said, “Master, you are not small either.” Hofuku crouched. The monk warned him not to deceive people; Hofuku again returned the warning. He asked the bath master, “How wide is the bath cauldron?” The bath master invited him to measure it. Hofuku made a measuring gesture. The bath master warned him not to deceive people; Hofuku again returned the warning. These are called Hofuku's Four Deceptions. Seppō's Four Lacquer Buckets are another such cluster. All are mechanisms by which lineage teachers from antiquity brought forth a profound and subtle intent to receive people. In the latter part, Setchō draws in another trailing vine. Following a public teaching of Unmon, he versifies this case. One day, during communal labor at Guizong, the community was dragging stones. Guizong asked the rector where he was going. “To drag stones.” Guizong said, “The stone may follow you as you drag it, but you must not move the tree at the center.” Whenever a newcomer arrived, Muping first ordered him to carry three loads of earth. Muping taught the community in verse: The eastern mountain's road is narrow; the western mountain is low. New arrival, do not refuse three loads of mud. I lament that you have traveled the road for so many days: clearly failing to understand, you instead become confused. A monk later asked, “I will not ask about within the three loads. What is the matter outside the three loads?” Muping said, “The Iron-Wheel Sovereign's command within the realm.” The monk had no words, and Muping struck him. Therefore Setchō says, “One: dragging stone. Two: carrying earth. To release the mechanism requires a thousand-jun crossbow.” He compares Kasan's saying to such a crossbow so that one sees where Kasan helps people. Thirty jin make one jun; a thousand jun are thirty thousand jin. Such a crossbow is used for fierce dragons, tigers, wolves, and savage beasts. It must not be lightly discharged at a tiny wren. Thus a thousand-jun crossbow does not release its trigger for a house mouse.³ “The old teacher at Elephant Bone once rolled a ball.” One day Seppō saw Gensha coming and rolled three wooden balls together. Gensha made the gesture of chopping a tablet, and Seppō deeply approved him. Although all of these display whole mechanism and great function, none compares with Kasan's “I know how to beat the drum.” How direct it is—yet difficult to understand. Therefore Setchō asks, “How could that compare with Kasan knowing how to beat the drum?” He then fears that people will make a livelihood only on the phrase and not know its source, remaining vague and careless. Therefore he says, “I report it for you to know: do not be careless and crude.” One must truly reach this ground. To avoid carelessness, “The sweet is sweet; the bitter, bitter.” Although Setchō picks up and plays with it in this way, in the end he too cannot leap free.⁴