The Eyes of Man and the Heavens

Hello, everyone. I want to introduce a book written over a period of twenty years and completed in 1188 by Huiyan Zhizhao, who was in the tradition of Dahui (1089–1163). This book is 人天眼目 Rentian Yanmu, or "The Eyes of Man and the Heavens," and consists of six volumes detailing the teachings of the five houses of Guiyang, Linji, Yunmen, Fayan, and Caodong, as well as an additional section of various information that doesn't necessarily fit into the mold of those five traditions. It became an extremely influential book and was reprinted (that means someone paid to have the whole book re-carved in wooden printing blocks) several times throughout the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dyasties, as well as in Korea and Japan, and is included in the standard corpus of Chinese Buddhist material, the Da Zang Jing. Throughout the years, possibly because of the relative anonymity of the author, the contents were rearranged and various prefaces and epilogues added: although he is referred to as "Preceptor," heshang, as well as Chan Master, chanshi, there appears to be little information about him.

In its structure, the book simply introduces the founder of each of the five houses, as well as his well-known phrases, poems, and methods. It then moves on to stories involving the protagonists of the tradition, and attempts, as the author claims, to be as objective and honest as possible in description of the various traditions. But since he belonged to Dahui's lineage in the Linji tradition, his section on the Linji house is substantially longer than those of the other houses. There are notes added in, most of which relate a certain passage to something Dahui said. I don't know yet how closely the contents overlap with other well-known books from the very productive 12th century, but since it's not really necessary for me to keep posting things by Dahui given Cleary's new translation (although I'm still working on that and it will still be published), I was trying to think of something else I could do for fun that people might find interesting. The other book I was considering is a book called Chanlin Baoxun ("Valuable Advice from the Zen Forest"), which is a 1378 expansion by a monk named Jingshan of a hundred anecdotes collected by Dahui and Zhu'an Shigui 竹庵士珪 (1083–1146, dharma heir of Foyan).

In other news, Jeffrey Broughton has published a complete translation of Dahui's letters (also known by the abridged translation, Swampland Flowers): http://ift.tt/2u0kUSR

Anyway, here's the first part of the Linji section after the intro.

~

One day, when Preceptor Linji left Huangbo and had just arrived at Linji Monastery in the southeast of Zhenzhou in Hebei Province to assume his responsibility over it, he saw the two elder monks Puhua and Kefu sitting in elevated positions. He said to them, “I am getting ready to institute the buddhadharma of the great master Huangbo here. You two can help me accomplish this great undertaking.” When Puhua and Kefu heard this, they committed solemnly to do so, and got down from their seats.
After three days, Puhua paid a visit to Linji and asked him, “Preceptor, what was it you told us three days ago?” Linji’s only reply was to hit Puhua. Three days later, Kefu also paid a visit to Linji, and asked him, “Why did you hit Puhua that day, Preceptor?” When Linji saw Kefu asking him such a question, he still gave no response other than to hit Kefu with his staff. After Linji had hit Puhua and Kefu, during a small evening gathering, he said: “Sometimes I negate the person but not the object; sometimes I negate the object but not the person; sometimes I negate both the person and the object; sometimes I negate neither the person nor the object.”
A monk asked, “What is negating the person but not the object?”
Linji said, “The warm sun emerges and spreads out bright embroidery on the earth. When hair first sprouts on a baby’s head, it is white as silk.” Dahui says: of these two phrases, one keeps the object, and one negates the person.¹
A monk asked, “What is negating the object but not negating the person?”
Linji said, “When a king issues an order, it is already as good as carried out throughout all the land; a general in the distant frontier regions cuts a swathe through the smoke and dust.” Dahui says: the first is negating the object; the second keeps the person.
A monk asked, “What is negating both the object and the person?”
Linji said, “It is like the severing of trust between the states of Bingzhou and Fenzhou, and each dwelling alone in one area.” Dahui says: When I first began, I read the Zen records of all the houses and came across this case of “severing trust between Bingzhou and Fenzhou.” I was very uncertain about it, and though I asked all the revered elders to teach me about it, they were all careless and undiscriminating. Only once I read the record of Linji did I learn that the two words “severing trust” were the names of two states Bing and Fen. When the monk asked about negating both the object and the person, with the answer “each resides alone in one region,” its meaning became clear. It was then that I learned that the records of all masters are marred by mistaking the word 鳥 niao for the word 焉 yan.”²
A monk asked, “What is negating neither the object nor the person?”
Linji said, “A king ascends into a majestic throne hall; in the wild countryside, the people sing rustic folk songs.” Dahui says: this is negating neither the person nor the object.

1. It's not clear in what sense Dahui "says" these comments. I think it means "based on what Dahui teaches, we can say that..." Also, those notes are sort of painfully obvious and unsubstantial, except for the last quote, which seems pretty specific and might actually originate somewhere.
   
2. The two characters were often mixed up because they look similar. This is the subject of a philosophical debate.

Submitted July 27, 2017 at 03:22AM by OneManGayPrideParade http://ift.tt/2tLaICj