Wonhyo (617 - 686) - Warning: Not a Zen Master, nor did he study Zen. Not entirely his fault; he would've been alive around the same time as Huineng, before Chan really got going. Here, I'll share the partially apocryphal story of his enlightenment, followed by Foyan's eggplant case.
I read the Wonhyo story a few months ago; seeing Foyan relate a similar story carried the same pleasure I get when I find out a stranger and I share a mutual acquaintance. "You know Trevor? I know Trevor too!" There's no real "point" in discussing Trevor, but I'm compelled to investigate the situation anyway. (And, don't misunderstand my metaphor, I have no idea whether Foyan knew Trevor)
Wonhyo is a major figure in Korean Seon Buddhism. He produced an extensive body of commentary on Mahayana religious texts, with the goal of resolving a syncretic, "interpenetrated buddhism" from the hodgepodge of contradictory traditions floating around in Korea at the time. Korea is like East Asia's Ireland: eternally occupied and oppressed, but by the same token a hotbed of cultural exchange.
Wonhyo's writing is known for its clarity and thoughtfulness. His most famous work seems to be his commentary on the "Awakening of Mahayana Faith," a text which itself (Wikipedia tells me) influenced Chan's 'via negativa' approach to enlightenment by realization of the original mind. His commentary expounds a treatment of the "two hindrances" that Charles Muller (who seems to be the foremost Wonhyo translator working in English) believes is uniquely serious among all of Buddhist literature. Don't worry, I don't recommend it as complementary to texts by zen masters, just as an interesting piece of writing.
In 661, Wonhyo and his friend Uineng attempted to travel to Tang dynasty China, a common pilgrimage for Korean buddhist monks of his era. They intended to study Yogacara, a buddhist practice of phenomenological inquiry then prominent in China thanks to the monk Xuanzang, who had travelled to India in order to procure and translate then-unavailable religious texts (Xuanzang's pilgrimage was fictionalized in the important classical Chinese novel "Journey to the West").
They were waylaid one night by bad weather. Starving, parched, and soaking wet, they took shelter in a dark cave. Desperate for water, Wonhyo groped around the mouth of the cave until his hand found a gourd full of rainwater. He tasted it, found the water sweet, and drank deeply. He slept like a baby for the rest of the night.
In the morning, the light of day revealed that the cave he'd slept in was a tomb full of dead bodies. His "gourd" was a broken human skull, and the water brackish and swimming with larvae. After going off and retching somewhere for a while, he experienced a moment of realization:
"When a thought arises, the myriad dharmas arise. When thoughts subside, a cup and a skull are not different. The Tathagata thus said: 'the three worlds are only mind; how can I be decieved!'"
Seeing that all dharmas are Mind, he knew there was nothing to seek, and gave up the journey to China. He spent the rest of his life a layman.
Note that the best part of the story, the skull, is probably apocryphal. The oldest version of the story (from a biography of Uineng) has Wonhyo's realization of "One Mind" occurring after he noticed that they'd been sleeping in a tomb; the skull first crops up about 300 years later.
The reader wasn't drinking from a skull at all - it was in fact... a slightly more boring version of the same story!!!
I'm unable to find primary sources in translation, so I've cobbled the above together from A. Charles Muller's introduction to "Wonhyo: Selected Works," and Byeong-Jo Jeong's "Master Wonhyo: An Overview of His Life and Teachings."
OK, on to Foyan, who wants to make sure we know there wasn't a gourd, but there wasn't a skull, either. From Ferguson, Zen's Chinese Heritage, courtesy of a post comparing translations a few months ago
The great practice must be apart from thought. And within the gate of this practice the emphasis is on giving up effort. If only a person can give up emotional thoughts and recognize that the three worlds are empty, then he can realize this practice. Any other practice besides this will be terribly difficult.
Have you heard the old story of the Vinaya monk? He upheld all the precepts all of his life. When he was walking at night he stepped on something that made a loud noise. He thought it was a toad, and inside of this toad were countless toad eggs. The monk was scared out of his wits and passed out from fright. He dreamed that hundreds of toads were coming after him, demanding their lives. The monk was utterly terrified. When dawn came around he saw that he had just stepped on a dried-out eggplant. The monk, realizing the unreliable nature of his thoughts, then ceased such thinking, and realized the empty nature of the three realms. After this he could begin doing genuine practice.
Now I ask you all, was the thing the monk stepped on in the night a toad? Or was it an eggplant? If it was a toad, then in the morning how was it an eggplant? And if it was an eggplant, there still seemed to be toads who demanded their lives. Have you rid yourself of all these visions? I'll check to see if you understand. If you've gotten rid of the fear of the toads, do you still have the eggplant there? You must have no eggplant either!
The noon bell has been struck. You've stood here long enough!
It may not have been an eggplant, but at least it wasn't a frog. But, if it had been? An eggplant is free of karmic delusions, a dried out one even more so. A frog is not - it might object to the idea that the difference is in your head. A monk goes out of his way to step on a frog in broad daylight - Wonhyo retches - the frog is all at once greatly enlightened.
(I'm reading above my grade level here - please excuse and correct any inaccuracies/hubris)
Submitted January 12, 2020 at 03:27AM by in_dee_nile https://ift.tt/2NhlUye
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