TS’UNG SHEN of Chao Chou (778–897)
Known as Chao Chou, after the place in northern China where he lived and taught for the last forty years of his long life, Ts’ung Shen was one of the most famous and revered Ch’an masters of all time. He claimed to have seen over eighty of Ma Tsu’s successors during his long travels on foot; it was Nan Ch’uan to whom he succeeded.
One day Chao Chou asked Nan Ch’uan, “What is the Way?” Nan Ch’uan said, “The ordinary mind is the Way.” Chou said, “Is it still possible to aim for it?” Ch’uan said, “If you attempt to turn towards it, then you are turning away from it.” Chou said, “When I make no attempt, how do I know this is the Way?” Ch’uan said, “The Way is not in the realm of knowing or not knowing; knowing is false consciousness, and not knowing is insensibility. If it is true arrival on the Way where there is no doubt, it is like the great void, like a vacant hall, empty and open; how could one insist on affirming or denying it?”
At these words Chao Chou awakened to the Way.
After Nan Ch’uan’s death, Chao Chou resumed his travels for over twenty years more; only at the age of eighty did he settle down at the Kuan Yin Temple in Chao Chou, where he taught until his death at the age of one hundred and twenty. Chao Chou was also known for his asceticism: “It was the Master’s will to emulate the ancients, and his abbacy was austere. In the monks’ hall there were no shelves in front or rear. Vegetarian food was prepared. When one leg of his rope chair broke, he tied on a leftover piece of firewood with rope to support it. There were repeated requests to make a new leg for it, but the Master would not allow it.”
As abbot, Chao Chou upheld the custom of universal labor in the community of monks, a practice of the Ch’an school initiated by the Fourth Patriarch Tao Hsin and established as a rule by Pai Chang Huai Hai. (In older Chinese Buddhist monastic systems, only novices did manual labor.)
One day when he encountered a monk behind the monks’ hall, he asked, “Where have all the virtuous ones gone?” That monk said, “They have all gone to work.” The master then took a knife out of his sleeve and handed it to the monk, saying, “My tasks as abbot are many; I ask you, Elder, please cut off my head for me.” Then he extended his neck; the monk ran off.
Chao Chou’s manner of teaching was called “Lip Ch’an,” and it was said that light issued from his lips when he spoke. Many sayings of his are recorded, and his repeated appearance in The Blue Cliff Record is evidence of their currency.
In the closing decades of the ninth century Chao Chou, Hsueh Feng, and Yun Chu (Tao Ying, Tung Shan’s great disciple) were the most eminent Ch’an masters in China, but Chao Chou used to say, “Even if you come from Hsueh Feng or Yun Chu, you are still board-carrying fellows.”
Chao Chou’s teaching style was lofty indeed, and he produced thirteen enlightened successors, but there were few who could match, let alone surpass him, so his transmission line died out after a few generations. A monk asked, “In the aeon of emptiness, is there still someone cultivating practice?” The Master said, “What do you call the aeon of emptiness?” The monk said, “This is where not a single thing exists.” The Master said, “Only this can be called real cultivation.” A monk asked, “The Buddha Dharma is remote; how should I concentrate?” The Master said, “Observe how the Former Han and Latter Han dynasties held the whole empire; yet when the end came, they hadn’t a farthing.”
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FORTY-FIRST CASE: “Chao Chou’s Man Who Has Died the Great Death”
POINTER: Where right arid wrong are mixed, even the sages cannot know; when going against and with, vertically and horizontally, even the Buddhas cannot know. One who is a man detached from the world, who transcends convention, reveals the abilities of a great man who stands out from the crowd. He walks on thin ice, runs on a sword’s edge. He is like the unicorn’s horn, like a lotus flower in fire. When he sees someone beyond comparison, he knows they are on the same path. Who is an expert? As a test I’m citing this old case: look!
CASE: Chao Chou asked T’ou Tzu, “How is it when a man who has died the great death returns to life?” T’ou Tzu said, “He must not go by night: he must get there in daylight.”
Quotes from the Blue Cliff Record
Chao Chou’s lineage text is available here:
https://www.amazon.com/Recorded-Sayings-Zen-Master-Joshu/dp/157062870X
chadpills notes:
Q: “How is it when a man who has died the great death returns to life?”
One demonstrates understanding of addition by counting apples.
Insight?
An inside joke, how can it make anyone else laugh?
Chiding others about zen while you show wet turd? Better to put the turd back where it belongs, until you can pull out something that doesn’t stink to high heaven. Better yet, parade it through central square for all to smell where it came from.
Q: “One day when he encountered a monk behind the monks’ hall, he asked, “Where have all the virtuous ones gone?” That monk said, “They have all gone to work.” The master then took a knife out of his sleeve and handed it to the monk, saying, “My tasks as abbot are many; I ask you, Elder, please cut off my head for me.” Then he extended his neck;”
The scared monk could face no reply, he scampered away without a sound.
In times like these, blade in hand, who has the fearless conviction to cut mind free from flesh?
The blade of Chao Chou in hand — now where?
Submitted June 17, 2019 at 11:25PM by chadpills http://bit.ly/2x2SfA8
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