Seonmun yeomsong jip: The Collected Gongan of Seon Buddhism
Case
Baizhang revisited Mazu for a consultation. Mazu raised his fly whisk. The master said, “Is this its function or beyond its function?” Mazu hung his whisk back in its old spot. The master paused for a while. Mazu said, “Later when you open your lips how will you care for others?” The master thereupon snatched the whisk and raised it. Mazu said, “Is this its function or beyond its function?” The master also hung the whisk back up. Mazu immediately gave out a shout. The master thus became deaf for three days.
[Later, Huangbo arrived on Mt. Baizhang. One day he bid farewell and tried to go and pay his respects to Mazu. Baizhang said, “Mazu has already passed away.” Huangbo said, “What did Mazu say?” Baizhang thereupon raised the account of him revisiting Mazu for a consultation and said, “At that time I received a shout from Mazu and thus became deaf for three days.” Huangbo heard what was raised and he inadvertently stuck out his tongue. Baizhang said, “Later will you or will you not succeed Mazu?” Huangbo said, “I won’t. Because of what the master raised today I was able to see the functioning of Mazu’s great skill. But I do not recognize Mazu. If I succeed Mazu, I will bring ruin to my descendants.”]
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Fenyang Shanzhao’s Verse
Everyday without causing any trouble I attended the master,
The master pointed to the whisk hanging on the corner of the corded chair,
He raised it and put it down so I returned to my original place,
The shout can still be clearly heard even to this very day.
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Dajue Huailian’s Verse
The yu note is hit and the shang note resonates—whatever you touch works,
Master and disciple mutually displayed the lineage style.
Give out an authoritative shout—frost descends and whirlwinds rise,
Even though (the shout) manifests refinement he does not hear it.
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Jianfu Benyi’s Verse
When they met again on Great Hero’s Peak,
Grass had grown thick on the path that they tread together.
Heaven and earth grow dark as he turns his head and gives out a shout.
Deaf in both ears, he is aware of nothing.
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Jiangshan Faquan’s Verse
He releases and collects—who says there is no slandering and deceiving!
Have you seen the mechanism that was leaked?
The thunder-like shout hurts anyone who hears it.
Three days of being deaf is not all that long.
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Haiyin Chaoxin’s Verse
Those in the Chan grove who can discern the shout are rare,
In the past and in the present they try to force their needles into deaf ears.
The lantern claps its hands and laughs, ha, ha.
The exposed pillar lowers its head and raises its eyebrows.
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Zhenjing Kewen’s Verse
The consciousness of a guest changes with every step he takes and person he meets.
He possesses a great, authoritative radiance but cannot manifest it.
A sudden shout and both ears go deaf.
Nata’s eyes open on Huangbo’s face.
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Baoning Renyong’s Verse
The wooden horse stomped the people of Jambudvīpa to death,
The clay dragon drank up the water of the vast ocean.
A thunderbolt fills the empty mountain and the marchmount crumbles,
Take a look at the waves rising on level ground.
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Donglin Changcong’s Verse
Having not yet illuminated the great wisdom he revisits Mazu for a consultation,
They each take turns giving and taking but their function was not arbitrary.
Slice the waves and cut the flows and the whole body manifests.
Deaf for three days—who understands his tune?
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Shangfang Riyi’s Verse
The rainy day is clearing up but the clouds have not yet gone back.
A sudden crack of thunder on a clear day.
The plum blossoms of the Yu mountain range have already received news of spring.
This cannot be compared to the mountain peach flowers that blossom all at once.
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Foyin Zhiqing’s Verse
Mazu intimately transmitted the mind of the old buddhas,
Huaihai of Great Hero’s Peak is his sympathetic friend.
A single shout at that time made him deaf for three days.
Not seeing and not hearing continues even to this day.
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Chongsheng Yuangong’s Verse
A single shout turns things over and causes him to be deaf for three days,
When they met who would have known that he was a great virtuoso?
Although the spring sunlight does not possesses a personal force,
Why does it cause the face of the flower to gradually blush?
And does it gradually blush!
The third son of the Xie family is no longer an old fisherman.
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Foyan Qingyuan’s Verses
Deaf after being scolded for hanging the fly whisk,
How could a patch-robed monk testify to the style of the lineage?
Pull out the iron rod from the back of the Vajrasattva’s head,
The three peaks of Mt. Hua stand upside down facing the sky.
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When the house is well off it produces filial sons,
When the country is powerful there are wise advisors,
A blow to the mouth,
And it will never have to come to not having descendents.
[This verse is about Huangbo sticking out his tongue in astonishment]
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Cishou Huaishen’s Verse
Father and son meet each other and they smell alike,
Sharpen the precious dragon spring sword again,
If you wish to clarify Mazu’s shout of those years,
The great earth, mountains, and rivers will all become deaf.
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Jiangshan Keqin’s Verse
Stand the fly whisk upright and hang it back up,
Skill in its entirety appears and disappears,
“Is this it or beyond this?”
Lecturers thus draw simple straight lines,
Right on the top of the head a thunderbolt booms,
Extract the needle from the gaohuang pressure point and rid yourself of the terminal illness,
Make the shout your own and become deaf for three days,
With divine authority the lion, doing as he pleases, pounces and twirls,
Pure gold refined a hundred times over loses its color,
Again I say, “Is there one?” “Is there one?”
Huh!
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Yunmen Zonggao’s Verse
The colt shouted and harmed the lineage style,
This revealed fact has reached everywhere within the four seas,
Dredging up the moon from raging flames,
Loftily sitting alone on Great Hero’s Peak.
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Zhu’an Shigui’s Verse
Jiangxi’s (Mazu’s) shout shook heaven and earth,
Great function and perfected skill is the gate to extinction,
Three days of deafness goes by like wind passing by a tree,
Huangbo got involved and ruined his descendants.
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Baiyun Bing’s Verse
The great skill and great function is not transmitted lightly,
The fly whisk is hung and he is berated—how could it be a coincidence?
After the painted vase is shattered,
Darkness is extended endlessly for all eternity.
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Xinwen Tanfen’s Verse
The dragon winds itself around the twilight and returns to the grotto palace,
The wild goose drags the fall colors and passes by Hengyang,
A mountain pass where one could not bear to turn one’s head,
The leaves fall and the gibbons cry—how truly heartbreaking!
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The August Emperor of Great Song’s Verse
The fly whisk on the corner of the bench,
Raise it or put it down—both are already wrong,
How dimwitted is Baizhang,
After a shout he enters into subtlety.
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Layman Wujin’s Verse
A single shout takes down Great Hero’s Peak,
Deaf in both ears of the skull for three days,
As soon as he hears the account, Huangbo sticks his tongue out in astonishment,
With this Jiangxi was able to establish his family style.
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Layman Benran’s Verse
What a great shout!
Just like shooting a thousand pounds of cross-bow arrows,
Incredibly difficult to make the shout your own on the spot,
Not a cloud for ten-thousand miles, look at the expansive sky,
The whisk, once raised, has the power to take or give life.
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Layman Yuezhai’s Verse
Extraordinary ways of toying around with a fly whisk,
Its warp and weft are known by few,
Just as the lotus withers at the end of autumn,
It’s the tenth month when the green tangerines become yellow and ripe.
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Weishan asked Yangshan, “In the account of Baizhang revisiting Mazu for a consultation and Mazu raising the fly whisk, what was the intent of these two venerable worthies?” “This is a manifestation of the function of great skill.” Weishan said, “Mazu produced eighty four good teachers—how many of them acquired great skill?” Yanghsan said, “Baizhang acquired great skill, Huangbo the great function, and the rest are all proselytizers.” Weishan said, “Quite so, quite so.”
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Xuedou Chongxian's Comment
“Great Chan virtuosos, how odd! Nowadays those who line up their branch lineages are many, but those who investigate their origins are very few. They all say Baizhang had a great awakening because of a shout, but is really the case or not? Although diao and dao are similar, yu and lu are at variance. If it is a clear-eyed fellow, he cannot be fooled even for a bit. Take, for example, ‘Mazu said, “Later when you open your lips how will you care for others.” Baizhang raised the fly whisk.’ Is this either like insects leaving patterns on wood or a hen and chick pecking simultaneously at the eggshell? Do all of you wish to understand being deaf for three days? Gold refined by a great goldsmith will never change color.”
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Fenyang Shanzhao's Comment
“Once awakened then you rest. What is this about being deaf for three days?”
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Shimen Wencong's Comment
“If he had not become deaf for three days how could he have attained awakening?” Fenyang heard this and said, “If you compare what I said earlier with what Shimen said there is a half-month gap.”
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Donglin Changqing's Comment on Fenyang's and Shimen's Comments
“If you speak, you cannot avoid the danger of having your tongue cut; if by a stove you cannot avoid the danger of being burned by sparks. How could the Buddha dharma be bent to conform to the whims of people? Today I will enter the cave of the legendary black dragon and snatch away the jewel. It is not that Baizhang did not go deaf for three days. How can Fenyang and Shimen, either man, avoid the fate of becoming blind fellows? In fact, have these three old men attained awakening or not? After a pause he said, “A patriarch fails to perform the ancestral rites and calamities reach his descendants.”
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Jiangshan Keqin's Comment on Fenyang's, Shimen's, and Xuedou's Comments
“In that case the virtuosos each gave a lecture sermon. Although each had their own way of caring for people, they were only able to clarify Mazu and Baizhang’s great skill and have not yet clarified Mazu and Baizhang’s great function. I will risk losing my own eyebrows and reveal the facts. I also wish to have the teachers everywhere examine and reproach me for what I have to say. Do you know this shout? It is just like resounding thunder and a bolt of lightning. Those who hear it will be scared out of their wits and lose their souls. Do you wish to understand going deaf for three days? It is just like striking the poisoned drum. Those who hear it lose their lives.” He raised a fly whisk and said, “If someone asks, ‘Is this its function or beyond its function,’ hit him as you hear him say this and afterwards give him a shout.” Again he said, “Have you now seen Mazu and Baizhang?”
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Changlu Zongze's Comment
“This public case has spread for quite a while now. Only Huangbo and Yangshan got it entirely. I will not hide from ridicule and try to pass a judgment. At that time Baizhang raised the fly whisk and just attained Mazu’s great skill but he hung the whisk back in its old spot and did not attain Mazu’s great function. Do you wish to understand Mazu’s shout? Not only is it a blade that kills but it is also a sword that gives life. Do you wish to understand going deaf for three days? Baizhang only understood Mazu’s ‘release’ and not his ‘control’.”
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Tiangtong Zhengjue's Comments
“Mazu gave out a shout and Baizhang went deaf for three days—what does this mean?” The master said, “Sound lies in the ear and the ear lies in sound.” The monk said, “This can be called sloughing off objects and sense organs and flattening out the revealed facts.” The master said, “Never force needles in.”
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“Take Mazu’s shout for example. Is this a matter that is beyond our endowment? Is there a place to create meaning beyond our endowment? Even if at that time Baizhang had made the shout his own and not been careless karmic consciousness would have still flown back in. If he had been able cut it off or pry (the shout) open, not allowing even a single thread or grain of rice to stand therein, then what does it mean to say that he revisited Mazu for a consultation? In this space not a single strand of hair is allowed. If he had applied himself even a bit beyond his endowment, we cannot say he went deaf for three days. Have you not heard Xuedou say, ‘Gold purified by a great goldsmith never changes color’? But today there are run-of-the-mill fellows who have not had a realization and have not seen thoroughly and (thus) use hooks and needles to fabricate the truth. They bury themselves and drag in the former teachers of our tradition. If one does not clean oneself until one’s pure and liberate oneself thoroughly, then another layer (of misleading interpretation) will be added. We can say this is like washing a lump of dirt in mud.”
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Longmen Wuxin's Comment
“It is difficult for a message to reach the lofty summit of an imposing peak; a light shout tests skill and the ears go deaf. For three days it is unknown where he went, but tonight as usual he spreads the true tenet. A long time ago Baizhang visited Mazu again for a consultation and later Xuedou said, ‘Great Chan virtuosos, how odd … Gold refined by a great goldsmith will never change color.’” The master said, “Today I (Yunyan) saw something unjust on the road and wish to ask Xuedou. If this is gold refined by a great goldsmith, there should be no change in color. Why then did Baizhang go deaf for three days? Do you understand? ‘No one ever sees the hard-working horse. All they do is repeatedly discuss the merits of the hero.’ ”
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Foyan Qingyuan's Comment
“Great assembly! What are we calling going deaf in both ears for three days? As soon as I beat the drum and ascend the hall, the entire great assembly gathers like clouds; the monks’ hall cuts across and swallows the buddha hall. The exposed pillar hangs upside down on the lantern. Heaven is high and the earth is thick. The moon is bright and the wind is clear. The rain is orderly and the wind is well regulated. The river is clear and the ocean is calm. When hungry I eat bitter vegetables with you. When thirsty I drink the cold spring water with you. Even if it rains flowers somewhere at the outskirts of Heaven, how could this compare to returning to the hall and drinking some tea?”
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Yunmen Zonggao's Comment
“I will bring ruin to my descendants.” The master said, “Baizhang was shouted at and immediately went deaf for three days. When Huangbo heard what Baizhang raised he inadvertently stuck out his tongue. Baizhang wondered whether Huangbo would succeed Mazu. Later, when Linji asked the grand intent of the Buddha dharma on three different occasions he was given sixty blows. Just then Baizhang, who had gone deaf for three days, could exhale and Linji thereupon understood that the staff that struck him is just like a fly whisk made of a wormwood branch. I ask the great assembly, if there is a common basis to what is transmitted between masters, then why is it that their functions are so different? Do you understand? Had the waves from Caoxi been identical limitless numbers of ordinary beings would have been buried alive.”
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Baiyun's Comment
“Mazu’s shout came straight out of the matter before the primordial Buddha. Although Baizhang had gone deaf for three days, in the end he has only made half of the truth his own.”
Submitted March 18, 2021 at 02:02AM by The_Mahdoubt https://ift.tt/2P0w3TG
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