Uji

An ancient Buddha said:

"There is a time when one stands at the highest peak of the lofty summit. There is a time when one advances at the deepest depth of the ocean floor. There is a time when one has three heads and eight arms. There is a time when one is a body of sixteen feet or eight feet. There is a time when one is a staff or a fly-whisk. There is a time when one is a pillar or a lantern. There is a time when one is Zhangsan or Lisi. There is a time when one is the great earth or the vast emptiness."

What is called uji (有時, being-time): time is already this being. Being, in its totality, is time.

The golden body of sixteen feet is time. Because it is time, it possesses the splendor and radiant light of time. To study this is to study it within the twelve hours of the present moment. The three heads and eight arms are time. Because they are time, they must be in unity (ichinyo, 一如) with the twelve hours of the present moment.

The duration of the twelve hours — long, short — although we have not yet measured it, we call it "the twelve hours." Because the traces of coming and going are manifest, people do not doubt them. Yet not doubting them does not mean knowing them. What sentient beings do not know by nature, they call into doubt — because their doubt lacks fixity, the forward movement of this doubt does not necessarily coincide with the doubt of the present moment. There is only the doubt itself that is, for a brief instant, time.

I myself have arranged this and made it the entire universe (jinkai, 盡界).

Each head and each thing of this entire universe must be seen as times at every instant. Things do not obstruct one another — just as times do not obstruct one another. This is why there is the simultaneous arousal of awakening-aspiration; there is the time of the simultaneous awakening of aspiration. The practice and realization of the Way are of the same nature. I have arranged it myself, and it is I myself who sees this. Such is the logic of the self as time.

Because such is the logic, throughout the entire earth there are the ten thousand phenomena and the hundred grasses. One must explore and study each grass, each phenomenon in their existence throughout the entire earth. This coming and going is the starting point of practice. When one arrives on this ground, each thing is then a grass, each grass is a phenomenon. Understanding the phenomenon, not understanding the phenomenon. Understanding the grass, not understanding the grass.

Because there is only the time that is exactly-thus (shōtō inmo no toki), being-time is entirely integral time. Being-grass, being-phenomenon are together time. In each moment of time, there is integral being and the integral universe. One must contemplate: is there, or is there not, an integral being and an integral universe that would escape the time of the present moment?

However, for ordinary people who have not studied the Buddha-Dharma, upon hearing the teachings on uji, they think: "There was a time when I became three-headed and eight-armed; there was a time when I became a body of sixteen or eight feet" — as though one had crossed a river, crossed a mountain. The river and the mountain may still exist, but I have crossed them and now I am in a jade palace and vermilion pavilions. The mountain and the river on one side, I on the other — like heaven and earth. Yet the logic is not solely that line.

That is to say: at the time when one was climbing the mountain, crossing the river, I was there. There must be a time that belongs to me. I already exist; time cannot depart. If time is not of the nature of coming-and-going, the time of the moment of the ascent is the inmo (而今, the absolute now) of being-time. If time maintains within itself the nature of coming-and-going, then I have the inmo of being-time — that is what being-time is.

Does this time of climbing the mountain and crossing the river not encompass the time of that jade palace and those vermilion pavilions? The three heads and eight arms are the time of yesterday. The body of sixteen or eight feet is the time of today. Yet the logic of this yesterday and this today — it is simply the time when one enters directly into the heart of the mountain and takes in the thousand and ten thousand peaks with one's gaze. It is not that this has "passed."

Thus it is that the pine is time, and the bamboo is time.

One must not grasp time only as flying away. One must not study the fact of flying away as the sole capacity of time. If time were entirely abandoned to flight, empty intervals would appear. Not having heard the Way of being-time is because one has studied it only as "that which has passed."

To give the essence of it: all beings of the entire universe are, while being linked to one another, each moments of time. Because there is being-time, there is my being-time. Being-time possesses the merit of kyōreki (經歴, the traversed-journeyed). That is: one journeys from today to tomorrow. One journeys from today to yesterday. One journeys from yesterday to today. One journeys from today to today. One journeys from tomorrow to tomorrow.

Because kyōreki is the merit of time, past and present do not accumulate in an elementary fashion. Qingyan is time. Huangbo is time. Jiangxi [Mazu] and Shitou are likewise time. Since self and other are already time, practice and realization are the times of all things. Entering the mud, entering the water — likewise time.

Birth is time. The Buddha is time. In this time, through the three heads and eight arms, one realizes the entire universe. Through the golden body of sixteen feet, one realizes the entire universe. Exhausting the entire universe through the entire universe — that is what is called "examining to the end."

Examining to the end the integral time as integral being — there is no Dharma in excess. The leaping vitality (kappatsu-chi) of abiding in the position of the Dharma (jū hōi) — that is what being-time is.

Not considering time as moving uniformly forward only, without grasping that there is "that which has not yet arrived": because one recognizes it as coming-and-going, without ever penetrating to the being-time that abides in its position — no being has such penetrating vision.

Bodhi (awakening) and nirvāṇa are likewise a being-time whose sole appearance is that of coming-and-going. Being-time is present realization (genjō). The divine kings and celestial assemblies that manifest in this moment are in this moment my fully deployed being-time.

One must explore and study as follows: not a single Dharma, not a single thing manifests, traverses its path, without being-time. The entire universe is neither motionless nor without advancement nor without recession — it is kyōreki.

Kyōreki is like spring. Spring has many modalities — that is what is called kyōreki. One must explore and study that kyōreki occurs without an external object. For example, the kyōreki of spring necessarily traverses spring itself. Although kyōreki is not spring, because it is the kyōreki of spring, kyōreki has realized the Way in the time of spring. One must explore this carefully, going and returning.

Dialogue of Yaoshan and Mazu

The Great Master Yaoshan Hongdao, on the guidance of the Great Master Wuji, went to question the Great Zen Master Mazu of Jiangxi.

He asked: "What is the meaning of the coming from the West of the founding ancestor?"

The Great Master Mazu replied: "There is a time when I make him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes. There is a time when I do not make him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes. There is a time when making him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes is right. There is a time when making him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes is not-right."

Yaoshan, having heard this, attained great Awakening. He said to Mazu: "Formerly, when I was with Shitou, it was like a mosquito climbing onto an iron ox."

What Mazu says is not like the ordinary. The eyebrows and eyes must be mountains and seas. The mountains and seas must be eyebrows and eyes. This is why: "making him raise [the eyebrows]" — one must see the mountain. "Making him blink [the eyes]" — one must take the sea as foundation.

All of this together is being-time. The mountain is time. The sea is time. If it were not time, the mountain and the sea could not exist. In the inmo of the mountain and the sea, one must not suppose that there is no time. If time dissolves, the mountain and the sea dissolve as well. If time is indestructible, the mountain and the sea are indestructible. By this logic: the Morning Star manifests. The Tathāgata manifests. The Eye-pupil manifests. The Flower held up manifests. These are time. If they were not time, they would not be thus.

Teaching of Guisheng of Yexian

Zen Master Guisheng of Yexian is a Dharma descendant of Linji. One day, he showed the assembly this:

"There is a time when the intention arrives but the words do not arrive. There is a time when the words arrive but the intention does not arrive. There is a time when intention and words both arrive together. There is a time when neither intention nor words arrive."

Intention and words are together being-time. Arriving and not arriving are both being-time. The time of arriving remains unfinished, but the time of not arriving has come. Intention is the donkey. Words are the horse.

Being-time is thus: arriving is obstructed by arriving, without being obstructed by not arriving. Not arriving is obstructed by not arriving, without being obstructed by arriving. Intention contains intention and sees intention. Words contain words and see words. Obstruction obstructs obstruction — that is what time is.

Furthermore: intention is the time of genjō kōan (現成公案, present realization as kōan). Words are the time of the decisive barrier of kōjō (向上, beyond). Arriving is the time of the entirely liberated body. Not arriving is the time of "abiding there and parting from it." One must discern and affirm this.

One must be being-time. Even though the venerable ancients have all spoken thus, is there still a place of expression? Yes, there must be such exploration. Thus — exploring in coming, exploring in going, exploring in arriving, exploring in not arriving: that is the time of being-time.