Aśvaghoṣa

The Twelfth Ancestor, the Venerable Ashvaghosha, asked the Venerable Bashyashas, 'I wish to know the Buddha. What thing is it?'The Venerable said, 'You wish to know the Buddha. That which is not known is it.'The Master said, 'If one does not know the Buddha, how can one know it is so?'The Venerable said,

'If one does not know the Buddha, how can one know it is not?'The Master said, 'This is the meaning of the saw.'The Venerable said, 'That is the meaning of the wood.'He asked further,

'What is the meaning of the saw?'The Master said, 'It emerges level with the master.'He asked again, 'What is the meaning of the wood?'The Venerable said, 'You are severed by me.'

The Master was suddenly awakened.

He was a man of Varanasi. He was also named Gunashri. He was so named because, among all merits, whether conditioned or unconditioned, his were the most excellent.

He went to the place of the Venerable Bashyashas and first asked, saying, 'I wish to know the Buddha. What is it?'The Venerable said,

If you wish to know the Buddha, it is precisely that which does not know.

Indeed, the very first thing one must inquire into when beginning the study of the dharma is this Buddha. All buddhas of the three times and all ancestral teachers through the generations are said to be those who study the Buddha. If one does not study the Buddha, all are named outsiders. Therefore, one should not seek through sound, nor should one seek to know through form and appearance. Thus, the thirty-two marks and eighty excellent characteristics are not sufficient to be called Buddha. Hence, I wish to know the Buddha. 'What is it that is precisely this?'one comes and asks. Then it is shown, saying: 'If you wish to know the Buddha, it is precisely that which does not know.'What is called 'that which does not know'is precisely the Venerable Ashvaghosha. How could it be another? From times before knowing to times of knowing, there is no separate upholding, no other appearance. Therefore, from past to present, it is just like this. Sometimes it bears the thirty-two marks and eighty excellent characteristics, sometimes it bears three heads and eight arms. Sometimes it sinks into the five decays and eight sufferings, sometimes it is covered with hair and wears horns, sometimes it carries iron yokes and chains. Always dwelling within the three realms, it upholds its own practice, emerging and submerging within one's own mind, bringing forth different faces. Therefore, even when coming into birth, one does not know what this is. Even when passing into death, one does not know what this is. Though one may try to attach a form, this is not a dharma that can be fabricated. Though one may try to assign a name, this too is not something that can be established. Therefore, from kalpa to kalpa, it has never been known; even though it follows me and accompanies me, it is entirely beyond discrimination.

Having heard the foregoing circumstances, many understand and say: 'If there is any knowing whatsoever, that would be contrary to Buddha. Not knowing and not making distinctions—that must be precisely Buddha.'

If one understands the present 'not knowing'in this way, why would the Venerable Bashyashita have troubled to show it thus? Entering darkness from darkness, it is just so, yet because it is not entirely 'thus,'he directly showed it, saying: 'That which does not know is Ashvaghosha.'Still not clear, one merely takes 'never having known'from the past to understand the present point of showing. Therefore, it is said: 'If one does not know the Buddha, how can one know that this is it?'The Venerable again showed: 'Since one does not know the Buddha, how can one know that this is not Buddha?'It is not to be sought elsewhere; that which does not know is precisely Buddha. How could one say it is not so?

The Master said: 'This is the meaning of the saw.'The Venerable said: 'That is the meaning of the wood.'Bashyashita again asked: 'What is the meaning of the saw?'The Master said: 'Equal emergence with the teacher.'Ashvaghosha also asked: 'What is the meaning of the wood?'The Venerable said: 'You are understood by me.'The Master suddenly awakened with great clarity.

Truly, you are thus, and I am thus. Opening wide in eight characters, entrusting with both hands. You receive not a single dot; I borrow not a small portion. Accordingly, equal emergence is exactly like a saw.

Therefore, it is said: the meaning of the saw. The master explained and said: I am the meaning of wood. The Venerable said: He is the meaning of wood. Why? Because it is pitch black, completely unknowable. Not attaching to a single point. Not borrowing a single knowing. Just like a block of wood, also like a pillar. Without mind, it is thus. Ultimately, there is no place for discrimination. Since one understands thus, it is said: He is the meaning of wood.

From the Extensive Record of Chan Master Hongzhi: 'Not receiving a single speck of dust, suddenly meeting on the road.'However, such understanding still retains residual habits and does not know the master's meaning. Here, the Venerable, out of compassionate descent, again asks: What is the meaning of the saw? The master said: Equal emergence with the master. Reaching this point, he again speaks for himself, and further asks: What is the meaning of wood? Yasas again extends his hand, entrusts him, and says: You are understood by me. Here, the way of master and disciple connects, ancient and present feelings are broken, making a path in a dream, walking through emptiness. Therefore, it is said: You are understood by me. Reaching this, mindless coagulation quickly dissolves, emerging from the cave of clarity, suddenly opening to enlightenment, and he is finally ranked as the Twelfth Patriarch.

The Venerable addressed the assembly saying: This great being was formerly a king in the country of Vaisali. In that country, there was a type of people who were naked like horses. The king, employing divine power, divided his body and became a silkworm. They then obtained clothing. That king was later born in Central India. The horse-people, feeling longing, cried out mournfully. Therefore, he was named Horse-Neigh. The Tathagata prophesied saying: After my nirvana, in six hundred years, there will be a wise one named Horse-Neigh. In Varanasi, he will crush heretical paths and widely liberate humans and devas, liberating countless people, and will transmit the teaching after me.

Now, precisely this is the time, it is said. Yasas then entrusted him with the Tathagata's True Dharma Eye Treasury.

Regarding this entire passage from beginning to end, do not mistakenly take the point of not knowing and not receiving as a place of everywhere not knowing. Even if it is not knowing, it is at the place before conception; carefully observing, carefully pondering, one seeks the face of Buddha, the face of ancestors, but does not attain it. One seeks the faces of humans, ghosts, animals, but does not attain them. This is not non-changing. This is not moving. It has never been empty. There is no discourse of inner and outer, no separation of right and partial.

Awakening to know that this is precisely one's own original face, even if it manifests as ordinary beings, sages, and sentient beings, even if it divides into the two realms of environment and beings, it entirely comes and goes within this, arises and ceases within this. Just as ocean water gives rise to waves, though they arise and arise, not a single drop of water increases. Also like waves ceasing; though they cease and cease, not a single drop is lost. Within the realms of humans and devas, it is temporarily called various Buddhas, called ghosts and animals. Just as on a single face, various faces are provisionally manifested. To call this the Buddha-face is not it; to call it the ghost-face is not it.

Yet the matter at the gate of establishing transformation, having come forth through knocking and singing, truly involves cultivating the samadhi of illusion, performing buddha-work within a dream. Through this, the transformative guidance of the Western Heaven as illusion-art continues unbroken to this day, circulating through the three countries, turning from the ordinary to enter the sacred. If one can thus transform and cultivate, then one's own faults become distant, and one's own birth-and-death no longer causes confusion. This indeed is the true original-faced monk.

Today, in raising up the causal conditions that have just come, there is, as usual, humble speech. Do you wish to hear it?

In the wild village, red peach blossoms know. Further instructing Lingyun to reach no doubt.