3
Next the Master made a visit to Kuei-shan 11 and said to him, "I have recently heard that the National Teacher Chung of Nan-ch'üan 12 maintained the doctrine that nonsentient beings expound the Dharma. 13 I have not yet comprehended the subtleties of this teaching.
Kuei-shan said, "Can you, Acarya, remember the details of what you heard?"
"Yes, I can," said the Master.
"Then why don't you try to repeat it for me?" said Kuei-shan.
The Master began, "A monk asked Hui-chung, 'What sort of thing is the mind of the ancient buddhas?' 14
"The National Teacher replied, 'It's wall and tile rubble.' 15
'Wall and tile rubble! Isn't that something nonsentient?' asked the monk.
'It is,' replied the National Teacher.
"The monk said, 'And yet it can expound the Dharma?'
'It is constantly expounding it, radiantly expounding it, expounding it without ceasing,' replied the National Teacher.
"The monk asked, 'Then why haven't I heard it?'
"The National Teacher said, 'You yourself haven't heard it, but this can't hinder those who are able to hear it'
'What sort of person acquires such hearing?' asked the monk.
'All the sages have acquired such hearing,' replied the National Teacher.
"The monk asked, 'Can you hear it, Ho-shang?'
'No, I can't,' replied the National Teacher.
"The monk said, 'If you haven't heard it, how do you know that nonsentient beings expound the Dharma?'
"The National Teacher said, 'Fortunately, I haven't heard it. If I had, I would be the same as the sages, and you, therefore, would not hear the Dharma that I teach.'
'In that case, ordinary people would have no part in it,' said the monk. 16
'I teach for ordinary people, not sages,' replied the National Teacher.
'What happens after ordinary people hear you?' asked the monk.
'Then they are no longer ordinary people,' said the National Teacher.
"The monk asked, 'According to which sutra does it say that nonsentient beings expound the Dharma?'
'Clearly, you shouldn't suggest that it's not part of the sutras. Haven't you seen it in the Avatamsaka Sutra? It says, "The earth expounds Dharma, living beings expound it, throughout the three times, everything expounds it." ' " 17 The Master thus completed his narration.
Kuei-shan said, "That teaching also exists here. However, one seldom encounters someone capable of understanding it."
Tung-shan said, "I still don't understand it clearly.Would the Master please comment."
Kuei-shan raised his fly wisk, 18 saying, "Do you understand?"
"No, I don't. Please, Ho-shang, explain," replied Tung-shan.
Kuei-shan said, "It can never be explained to you by means of the mouth of one born of mother and father."
Tung-shan asked, "Does the Master have any contemporaries in the Way who might clarify this problem for me?"
"From here, go to Yu-hsien of Lu-ling where you will find some linked caves. 19 Living in those caves is a man of the Way, Yün-yen. 20 If you are able to 'push aside the grass and gaze into the wind,' 21 then you will find him worthy of your respect" said Kuei-shan.
"Just what sort of man is he?" asked Tung-shan.
Kuei-shan replied, "Once he said to this old monk, 22 'What should I do if I wish to follow the Master?'
"This old monk replied, 'You must immediately cut off your defilements.'
"He said, 'Then will I come up to the Master's expectation?'
"This old monk replied, 'You will get absolutely no answer as long as I am here.' "
4
Tung-shan accordingly took leave of Kuei-shan and proceeded directly to Yün-yen's. Making reference to his previous encounter with Kueishan, he immediately asked what sort of person was able to hear the Dharma expounded by nonsentient beings.
Yün-yen said, "Nonsentient beings are able to hear it."
"Can you hear it, Ho-shang?" asked Tung-shan.
Yün-yen replied, "If I could hear it, then you would not be able to hear the Dharma that I teach."
"Why can't I hear it?" asked Tung-shan.
Yün-yen raised his fly wisk and said, "Can you hear it yet?"
Tung-shan replied, "No, I can't."
Yün-yen said, "You can't even hear it when I expound the Dharma; how do you expect to hear when a nonsentient being expounds the Dharma?"
Tung-shan asked, "In which sutra is it taught that nonsentient beings expound the Dharma?"
Yün-yen replied, "Haven't you seen it? In the Amitābba Sūtra it says, 'Water birds, tree groves, all without exception recite the Buddha's name, recite the Dharma.'" 23
Reflecting on this, Tung-shan composed the following gāthā:
How amazing, how amazing!
Hard to comprehend that nonsentient beings expound the Dharma.
It simply cannot be heard with the ear,
But when sound is heard with the eye, then it is understood.
5
Tung-shan said to Yün-yen, "I have some habits 24 that are not yet eradicated."
Yün-yen said, "What have you been doing?"
Tung-shan replied, "I have not concerned myself with the Four Noble Truths." 25
Yün-yen said, "Are you joyful yet?" 26
Tung-shan said, "It would be untrue to say that I am not joyful. It is as though I have grasped a bright pearl in a pile of shit."
Notes
11 Ling-yu of Kuei-shan (771-853), in the third generation of Ma-tsu's line, was the patriarch of the Kuei-yang House, the earliest of the "Five Houses of Zen." He left home to become amonk at the age of fifteen and began by studying the sutras and monastic discipline (Vinaya). He eventually found his way to Pai-chang's center, where he became the leading disciple. In his book, the Kuei-shan Ching Tse, he discusses what he perceives to be the general degeneration of Buddhism in his time and proposes the means for its revival. Kuei Mountain was located in T'an-chou, modern Ch'ang-sha in Hunan. CTL 9 (translated in Chang, 1971, pp. 200-208).
12 Tzong of Nan-ch'üan is Hui-chung (d.775), a disciple of Liu-tsu Hui-neng. According to his biography, until he was sixteen, he never spoke, nor did he leave the immediate vicinity of his house. However, when he saw a Zen monk passing his house one day, he began speaking and requested ordination. As a result, the monk directed him to Hui-neng. He is said to have lived forty years on Po-yai Mountain in Nan-yang, modern Honan, without leaving. However, by 761 his fame had spread, and he was summoned to the capital, where he received the title National Teacher (kuo-shih). TTC3, CTL27.
13 The question of whether nonsentient beings possess Buddha Nature and thus, by extension, are capable of expressing Dharma?a major controversy in early T'ang China?grew out of differing interpretations of the Nirv?na S?tra, T.374, particularly the line, "All beings, without exception, possess Buddha Nature." Hui-chung was a prominent spokesman for the belief that nonsentient beings are included under "all beings." On one occasion he cited the Avatam?saka S?tra, "The Buddha's body completely fills the Dharma Realm and is manifest to all beings." ( TTC3, 63a) Often cited in opposition to this is the following passage from the Nirv?na S?tra: "Such nonsentient things as walls, tile, and stones lack Buddha Nature. All else can be said to have Buddha Nature." (T.12, 581a) Huichung could not have been unaware of this passage when he used wall and tile rubble as examples of the mind of the ancient Buddhas.
14 "Ancient buddha" is a term commonly used in Zen literature to refer to distinguished former masters, e.g., Yüan-wu Fuo-kuo's description of the Sixth Patriarch: The Reverend Ts'ao-hsi was truly an ancient buddha, T.48, 807b.
15 Chuang Tze, when asked in the "Chih pei yu" chapter whether the Tao was found among the lowly, replied that the Tao "exists in the crickets,...in the grasses,...in tiles and bricks,...and in shit and piss."
16 In the Chinese the object of "no part" is left unstated. Yanagida translates it, In that case, people would be completely without hope (1974, p. 294), and has suggested that "salvation" or "nirvana" might be the object. It is also possible that the Dharma taught by nonsentient beings is the object here?which, in the end, is simply another way of saying "salvation."
17 Avatamsaka Sutra, T.9, 611a. The "three times" are past, present, and future, i.e., always.
18 The fly wisk usually consisted of the tail hair of some animal attached to a handle. According to tradition, the Buddha had approved of its use by the monks as a means of brushing off bothersome insects without killing them. However, because there was a tendency to use rare and expensive materials to construct the wisk, the Buddha stipulated that only certain ordinary materials be used: felt, hemp, finely torn cloth, tattered items, or tree twigs. Paintings of Buddhist monks indicate that in China this stipulation was ignored. In Zen it was a symbol of authority, generally held, when teaching, as an indication that the teaching was the correct Dharma.
19 Yau-Yün of Lai-Ling is in the northwest part of Ch'ang-sha in modern Hunan.
20 T'an-sheng of Yün-yen (780-841), although in the third generation of the Shih-to'u line, began his career as a monk together with Kuei-shan under Paich'ang in the Ma-tsu line. He remained with Pai-ch'ang for over twenty years before going to Yao-shan, a disciple of Shih-t'ou. Yün-yen Mountain is in T'anchou, modern Ch'ang-sha, Hunan. TTC6, CTI, 14.
21 "To push aside the grass and gaze into the wind" is a play on a line from the Confucian Analects suggesting the ability to distinguish the superior man from ordinary people. "The superior man's deportment is like the wind; ordinary people's is like grass. When the wind blows over it, the grass bends." Lun-Yü 12: 19.
22 "This old monk" is a self-deprecating term often used by monks to refer to themselves.
23 The sentence quoted from the Amitabha Sutra, T. 12, 378a, is part of Shakyamuni's description of the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, the Western Paradise. Thus, since Yün-yen could not have been unaware of this fact, it must be assumed that he has tacitly equated this world with the Pure Land.
24 In place of "habits," TTC6, 101b has "karma."
25 A similar exchange occurred between the Sixth Patriarch, Hui-neng, and his disciple Hsing-szu (d.740):
Hsing-szu asked, "What must be done to avoid falling into [the practice of] stages?"
Hui-neng responded, "What have you been doing?"
Hsing-szu said, "I have not concerned myself with the Four Noble Truths."
"What stages have you fallen into?" asked Hui-neng.
Hsing-szu said, "What stages exist if there is no concern with the Noble Truths?" ( CTL5)
Tung-shan, whose lineage is traced back to Hui-neng through Hsing-ssu, appears indirectly to acknowledge the place he will assume in that lineage through his choice of words in this case. The Four Noble Truths, part of the earliest strata of Buddhist teaching, assert that there is suffering, its cause, its cessation, and a path leading to its cessation. Implicit in such a teaching is a belief in the existence of defilements or habits to be eradicated and of a gradual process or stages by which that eradication is achieved.
26 The Chinese term for "joyful" translates the Sanskrit, pramudita, the name of the first of ten levels (bhumi) attained by a bodhisattva in his ripening to perfect enlightenment. Though he attains sainthood at this level, certain defilements remain.
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