Hui Ch'ao Asks about Buddha

Blue Cliff Record: Case VII

A monk (named Hui Ch'ao) asked Fa Yen, "Hui Ch'ao asks the Teacher, what is Buddha?"

Fa Yen said, "You are Hui Ch'ao."

So easy to slip on a muddy road. One of the confusing parts studying Zen is all the answers to what is Buddha. We can look at these only if you agree that it is Huichao asking Fayan, and so we need to find out why.

CAUTION!

Huangbo:

1.1.The One Mind alone is the Buddha, and there is no distinction between the Buddha and sentient things, but that sentient beings are attached to forms and so seek externally for Buddhahood.

2.9.There is only the One Mind, Mind which is neither Buddha nor sentient beings, for it contains no such dualism. As soon as you conceive of the Buddha, you are forced to conceive of sentient beings, or of concepts and no-concepts, of vital and trivial ones, which will surely imprison you between those two iron mountains.

1.7.Away with all thinking and explaining. Then we may say that the Way of Words has been cut off and movements of the mind eliminated. This Mind is the pure Buddha-Source inherent in all men.

2.37.Pointing to the identity of Mind and the Buddha, [Huangbo] demonstrated how the highest forms of Enlightenment could be transcended.

Matsu

Sermons 1."'Those who seek the Dharma should not seek for anything.'" Outside of mind there is no other Buddha, outside of Buddha there is no other mind. Not attaching to good and not rejecting evil, without reliance on either purity or defilement, one realizes that the nature of offence is empty: it cannot be found in each thought because it is without self-nature

...

Dialogues 3.Paichang asked, "What is the direction of the Buddhas?"

"It is the very place where you let go of your body and mind." replied the Patriarch.

Linji

XVIII.What are you looking for in these lands of dependent transformations! All of these, up to and including the Three Vehicles’ twelve divisions of teachings, are just so much waste paper to wipe off privy filth. Th e Buddha is just a phantom body, the patriarchs just old monks.

...

X.Bring to rest the thoughts of the ceaselessly seeking mind, and you will not differ from the patriarch-buddha. Do you want to know the patriarch-buddha? He is none other than you who stand before me listening to my discourse. But because you students lack faith in yourselves, you run around seeking something outside. Even if, through your seeking, you did find something, that something would be nothing more than fancy descriptions in written words; never would you gain the mind of the living patriarch.

Joshu

49.An official asked, "When the Buddha was alive, the people found deliverance in him. Now that the Buddha is no more, where should the people turn to?"

Joshu said, "There is no such thing as 'the people.'"

The official said, "Am I not here asking?"

Joshu said, "If so, then what Buddha are you looking for?"

...

126.A monk asked, "The right-in-front-of-the-eyes Buddha - what is it?"

Joshu said, "The Buddha [statue] in the main hall."

The monk said, "That is a physical Buddha. What is Buddha?"

Joshu said, "It is mind."

The monk said, "If you define it as mind, you limit it. What is Buddha?"

Joshu said, "It is no-mind."

The monk said, "You say 'mind'; you say 'no-mind.' Am I allowed to choose?"

Joshu said, "'Mind' and 'no-mind' - it was all your choice. Is there anything you want me to say that will satisfy you?"

...

107.Joshu preached to the people. He said: "Among eight hundred people aiming at becoming a Buddha, it is hard to find even one real person."

(Also see: 60, 207, 376)

Mumon Case 18

Dongshan’s Three Pounds of Hemp

When a monk asked Dongshan, “What is the Buddha?” Dongshan said, “Three pounds of hemp.”

Wumen said, Old man Dongshan had learned a bit of oyster Zen: as soon as he opens his shell, he shows his guts. Nevertheless, tell me, where will you see Dongshan?

Abruptly uttered: “Three pounds of hemp.”/The words are close [to truth] and the intent even closer. /Those who come to talk of affirmation and denial/Are just affirmation-and-denial people.

Dahui's Shobogenzo

1. A monk asked Master Ciming, "What is Buddha?"

He said, "Water emerging form a high source."

"How is it when traveling but not meeting anyone?"

"The fishing line presses the water."

(Why not drink water from the tap?)

...

1. Master Dalong was asked by a monk, "What is Buddha?" He said, "You are." The monk said, "How to understand?" He said, "Do you still object to your bowl having no handle?"

...

55.A monk asked the Venerable Yanyang, "What is Buddha?"

He replied, "A clod of earth."

"What is Dharma?"

"The earth moving."

"What is Sangha?"

"Eating gruel, eating rice."

"What is the water of revival?"

"In the river right in front of you."

Yuanwu has this to say:

Pointer

The thousand sages have not transmitted the single word before sound; if you have never seen it personally, it's as if it were worlds away. Even if you discern it before sound and cut off the tongues of everyone in the world, you're still not a sharp fellow. Therefore it is said, "The sky can't cover it; the earth can't support it; empty space can't contain it; sun and moon can't illumine it." Where there is no Buddha and you alone are called the Honored One, for the first time you've amounted to something. Otherwise, if you are not yet this way, penetrate through on the tip of a hair and release the great shining illumination; then in all directions you will be independent and free in the midst of phenomena; whatever you pick up, there is nothing that's not it. But tell me, what is attained that is so extraordinary?

...

Ch'an Master Fa Yen had this ability of breaking in and crashing out at the same time," and also the use of this ability; thus he could answer like this. This is what is called passing beyond sound and form, achieving the great freedom, letting go or taking back as the occasion requires, where killing or bringing life rests with oneself. He is undeniably extraordinary. Nevertheless, people from all over who deliberate over this public case are many, and those who make intellectual interpretations to understand it are not few. They do not realize that whenever the Ancients handed down a word or half a phrase, it was like sparks struck from flint, like a flash of lightning, directly opening up a single straight path.

Yuanwu says that saying Huichao is Buddha is to go against yourself. This case is a remedy to being "constantly engrossed in investigation". A Superintendent Tse came to ask Fayan if they have understood with these words:

"I asked, 'What is Buddha?' Lin said, 'The Fire God comes looking for fire.'

These are good words. Here is a verse to which Fayan gives their Seal of Approval^™️ :

The summit of the peak of the mystic crossing/Is not the human world;/Outside the mind there are no things-/Blue mountains fill the eyes.

If the matter isn't settled for you yet, I doubt Xuedou's verse will push you through the gate. Why not take a look and prove me wrong? Yuanwu points:

Hsueh Tou is an adept: where the Ancients are hard to gnaw on and hard to chew, hard to penetrate and hard to see, an impenetrable riddle, he produces it in verse to let people see. He is indeed extraordinary. Hsueh Tou knew Fa Yen's key device, and he also knew where Hui Ch'ao was at. Still, he feared that people in the future would turn to Fa Yen's words and mistakenly conceive an understanding, so he came out with this verse.

CAUTION!

Verse

In the river country the spring wind isn't blowing;/Deep within the flowers partridges are calling./At the three-tiered Dragon Gate, where the waves are high, fish become dragons,/Yet fools still go on scooping out the evening pond water.

Where do I learn to hear partridges in flowers? How do I turn fish into dragons? Where are the extraordinary teachers of today, teaching the teaching of the extraordinary? I will tell you you can find them just about anywhere. Ha! Can we not trust Yuanwu when they say, "Do you want to have no seam or gap? Clearly I tell you, [Xuedou's] speech is to the point, his words are to the point; they cover heaven and earth." They also say:

Hsueh Tou is extremely compassionate in the third and fourth lines; all at once he explains completely for people. Ch'an Master Ch'ao's great awakening is likened to fish becoming dragons where the waves are high at the three-tiered Dragon Gate, while fools still go on dragging through evening pond water.

More!:

Nowadays, on the third day of the third month, when the peach blossoms bloom, and heaven and earth are ready, if there is a fish that can get through the Dragon Gate, horns sprout on his head, he raises his bristling tail, catches hold of a cloud, and flies away. Those who cannot leap through fail and fall back.

Fall back to where?! Read this verse!:

A copper of bright money/Buys a fried cake;/He gobbles it down into his belly,/And from then on no longer feels hunger.

Yuanwu says "too crude". How about this?:

In the old days Librarian Ch'ing liked to ask people, "What is 'Fish turn into dragons at three-tiered Dragon Gate where the waves are high'?" For me, it's not necessary, but now I'm asking you: having turned into a dragon, where is he now?

I'm telling you this; it was all there before Huangbo even opened their mouth! Trollolololol!

Submitted September 11, 2020 at 08:37PM by surupamaerl https://ift.tt/2FpDRcQ