Empty, No Holiness

Blue Cliff Record: Case I

Emperor Wu of Liang asked the great master Bodhidharma, "What is the highest meaning of the holy truths?" Bodhidharma said, "Empty, without holiness." The Emperor said, "Who is facing me?" Bodhidharma replied, "I don't know." The Emperor did not understand. After this Bodhidharma crossed the Yangtse River and came to the kingdom of Wei.

Later the Emperor brought this up to Master Chih and asked him about it. Master Chih asked, "Does your majesty know who this man is?" The Emperor said, "I don't know." Master Chih said, "He is the Mahasattva Avalokitesvara, transmitting the Buddha Mind Seal. " The Emperor felt regretful, so he wanted to send an emissary to go invite (Bodhidharma to return). Master Chih told him, "Your majesty, don't say that you will send someone to fetch him back. Even if everyone in the whole country were to go after him, he still wouldn't return."

As note to "What is the highest meaning of the holy truths?" Yuan Wu says "What a donkey-tethering stake this is."

Blyth translates Mumon as pointing to the introduction to BCR case 2 in case 30 of the Mumonkan; the excerpt is:

To say the word "Buddha" is trailing mud and dripping water; to say the word "Ch'an" is a face full of shame.

Case 30 GG:

Mazu was asked by Damei, "What is Buddha?"

Zu said: "This Mind is Buddha."

If I wanted to read Chan as the road to acting like a Buddha to reap the rewards of the Buddha, that would be easy cherry-picking; the lines are all over. Then what is this talk of mud, of donkey tethering? In case 30, what is Mazu suggesting?

Foyan says you are the donkey (4, Cleary). So am I the Buddha or not? Or is there something more going on here? Why does Huangbo say in the Transmission of Mind (31, Blofeld):

If you are not absolutely convinced that the Mind is the Buddha, and if you are attached to forms, practices and meritorious performances, your way of thinking is false and quite incompatible with the Way.

Can I be like Wu and get covered in mud trying to be the Buddha; Wu who can build churches but can't have a conversation with a wandering mendicant? "Empty, without holiness", was jarring to Wu, but we are so used to that talk it becomes barely worth a glance.

Yuan Wu writes:

My late Master Wu Tsu once said, "If only you can penetrate 'empty, without holiness,' then you can return home and sit in peace." All this amounts to creating complications; still, it does not stop Bodhidharma from smashing the lacquer bucket [ignorance] for others.

The commentary tells a story:

When Bodhidharma first met Emperor Wu, the Emperor asked, "I have built temples and ordained monks; what merit is there in this?" Bodhidharma said, "There is no merit." He immediately doused the Emperor with dirty water. If you can penetrate this statement, "There is no merit," you can meet Bodhidharma personally.

We know about dirty water; poor Wu is running around wondering if they are more or less Buddha than they thought! But this is not what Bodhidharma said! "There is no merit" is drinking up entire rivers in one gulp!

Then what is "Empty, without holiness" in reference to the fact that real and conventional truth are not two. Which concept do I dance to? Understanding a "single phrase", according to "an Ancient", rewards one with the super ability to "leap over hundreds of millions." Master swordsman cuts down Mara's legions. Or we can be Master Chih and add more hats, or as Yuan Wu puts it, "How stupid!"

Huangbo warns us (106-7):

Above all, have no longing to become a future Buddha; your sole concern should be, as thought succeeds thought, to avoid clinging to any of them. Nor may you entertain the least ambition to be a Buddha here and now. Even if a Buddha arises, do not think of him as ‘Enlightened' or ‘deluded', ‘good' or ‘evil'. Hasten to rid yourself of any desire to cling to him. Cut him off in the twinkling of an eye! On no account seek to hold him fast, for a thousand locks could not stay him, nor a hundred thousand feet of rope bind him. This being so, valiantly strive to banish and annihilate him.

Finally, Yuan Wu makes their point:

Tell me, where is Bodhidharma right now? You've stumbled past him without even realizing it.

The classic question is why did Bodhidharma come from the West, or what was the meaning. Perhaps we could answer what they were doing.

Yuan Wu says Bodhidharma was:

...intent on his mission, purely to transmit the Mind Seal, to arouse and instruct those mired in delusion. Without establishing written words, he pointed directly to the human mind (for them) to see nature and fulfill Buddhahood. If you can see this way, then you will have your share of freedom. Never again will you be turned around pursuing words, and everything will be completely revealed.

Yuan Wu suggests that Bodhidharma only transmitted the "mind seal". He quotes Wu Yeh as saying they did so (Case 19):

...in order to instruct those on the paths of illusion. Those who attain it do not choose between ignorance and wisdom, between worldly and holy. Much falsehood is not as good as a little truth. Anyone who is powerful will immediately rest right this moment and abruptly still the myriad entanglements, thus passing beyond the stream of birth and death and going far beyond the usual patterns.

Perhaps a hint to what the mind seal is, the trap Bodhidharma carried with them, is in Hsueh Tou's words (Case 62):

Within heaven and earth, through space and time, therein is a jewel; it lies hidden in the mountain of form. It is hung on a wall; for nine years Bodhidharma did not dare to look at it straight on. If any patch-robed monk wants to see it now, I will hit him right on the spine with my staff.

Was this jewel the Patriarch blocked out what Dahui was referring to when he asked of an enlightened monk “What can be done about forming false imaginations in front of the skull?” (477. Dahui's Shobogenzo Vol.2)

The pointer for case 69 says:

There is no place to bite into: the Patriarchal Teacher's Mind Seal is formed like the works of the Iron Ox [cutting off the flooding of the Yellow River]...Without falling into entangling ties, how will you act?

We have hints here, but is there any clarity as to why Yuan Wu would say that it is reward for seeing this transmission as Bodhidharma's principle action in coming from the West?

Not seeing holiness where there is none. Not seeing merit where there is no merit. Sealing the mind off from the myriad shiny entanglements.

Linji said (236, Sasaki):

Followers of the Way, if you want insight into dharma as it is, just don’t be taken in by the deluded views of others. Whatever you encounter, either within or without, slay it at once. On meeting a buddha slay the buddha, on meeting a patriarch slay the patriarch, on meeting an arhat slay the arhat, on meeting your parents slay your parents, on meeting your kinsman slay your kinsman, and you attain emancipation. By not cleaving to things, you freely pass through.

Huangbo (49):

The Bodhisattva's mind is like the void, for he relinquishes everything and does not even desire to accumulate merits...When everything inside and outside, bodily and mental, has been relinquished; when, as in the Void, no attachments are left; when all action is dictated purely by place and circumstance; when subjectivity and objectivity are forgotten—that is the highest form of relinquishment...[This] is like a blazing torch held to the front which makes it impossible to mistake the path...

Foyan (39):

Was there any Buddhism before the founder came here? How can you say there was none? If you say there was none, that is just self-deception. When Bodhidharma was facing a wall for nine years, were there so many verbal teachings and public cases? To see through in this way is a very economical shortcut.

And, perhaps most importantly, let's not pass over Yuan Wu's own words in case 56:

The Buddhas never appeared in the world-there is nothing to be given to people. The Patriarch never came from the West-he never passed on the transmission by mind. Since people of these times do not understand, they frantically search outside themselves. They are far from knowing that the One Great Matter right where they are cannot be grasped even by a thousand sages.

Verse

The holy truths are empty;/How can you discern the point?/"Who is facing me?"/ Again he said, "I don't know."/Henceforth, he secretly crossed the river;/How could he avoid the growth of a thicket of brambles?/Though everyone in the whole country goes after him, he will not return;/ (Wu) goes on and on vainly reflecting back./Give up recollection!/What limit is there to the pure wind circling the earth?/The Master Hsueh Tou looked around to the right and left and said, "Is there any patriarch here?"/He answered himself, "There is."/"Call him here to wash this old monk's feet."

We will fall back to the verse, because I cannot help but get lost because I don't have the talent of Hsueh Tou, who Yuan Wu claims settles the case in only 4 lines; specifically the first 4 lines:

The holy truths are empty;/How can you discern the point?/"Who is facing me?"/ Again he said, "I don't know."

After Yuan gets done telling us we are dunces for not understanding immediately, they give us their meaning plainly; earlier Yuan notes that Master Chih's "I don't know [Bodhidharma]" is different from Bodhidharma's not knowing, and here says:

Now tell me, are "empty" and "I don't know" the same or different? If you are someone who has personally understood completely, you will understand without anything being said. ISomeone who has not understood completely will undoubtedly separate them into two.

Remember, we are concerned primarily with mud and jewels; what good is this talk of one or two? If we get stuck in the Patriarch's "thicket of brambles", the we become Wu "on and on vainly reflecting back". Instead, You gives us the opportunity to meet Bodhidharma ourselves!; "...Is there any patriarch here?"/He answered himself, "There is."

And in one last compassionate warning, Yuan tells us "The frequently expressed opinion that Hsueh Tou is employing the Patriarch fortunately has nothing to do with it."

Submitted August 27, 2020 at 06:57AM by surupamaerl https://ift.tt/2YEYJDF