Kōmyō

The Great Master Zhaoxian of Changsha in Hunan, within the Great Song, ascended the hall and addressed the assembly, saying: The entire ten-direction world is the eye of a monk. The entire ten-direction world is the everyday speech of a monk. The entire ten-direction world is the whole body of a monk. The entire ten-direction world is one's own radiance. The entire ten-direction world is oneself within that radiance. In the entire ten-direction world, there is not a single person who is not oneself. One must diligently study the Buddha Way; one must not turn increasingly distant and estranged. It is rare indeed to encounter a true adept who has mastered this radiance.

In the Later Han dynasty of the land of China, during the reign of Emperor Xiaoming, whose personal name was Zhuang and temple name was Xianzong, the fourth son of Emperor Guangwu, in the tenth year of the Yongping era, the monks Motengjia and Dharmaratna first transmitted the Buddha Dharma to the Han nation. They subdued the heretical Daoists before the Terrace of the Burning Sutras, revealing the divine power of the Buddhas.

Thereafter, during the reign of Emperor Wu of Liang, in the Putong era, the First Patriarch himself came from the Western Heavens to Guangzhou in the Southern Sea. He is the legitimate heir of the true transmission of the treasury of the true dharma eye, the twenty-eighth generation dharma descendant from Shakyamuni Buddha. He resided at Shaolin Temple on Mount Song's Shaoshi Peak. He correctly transmitted the Dharma to the Second Patriarch, the Great Master Dazu; this is the intimate lineage of the Buddha Patriarch's radiance. Before this, the radiance of the Buddha Patriarch had not been seen or heard, much less had one's own radiance been known.

Even if one were to shoulder that radiance from the crown of one's head and encounter it, if one does not study it with one's own eye, one will not clarify the radiance's length or brevity, its squareness or roundness, nor its rolling out, stretching, gathering, or releasing. Because one rejects the encounter with radiance, radiance and radiance become increasingly distant and estranged. Even if this estrangement is radiance, one is obstructed by the estrangement itself.

Those stinking skin-bags who turn increasingly distant imagine that the Buddha's light and one's own radiance must be red, white, blue, or yellow, like the light of fire or water, like the light of pearls or jade, like the light of dragons and devas, like the light of sun and moon. Even if one learns from a teacher or from sutras, when hearing the teachings on radiance, one thinks it must be like the light of a firefly, which is not at all studying with the eye or the crown of the head. From the Han through the Sui, Tang, Song, and up to the present day, such lineages are many. Do not study under mere scholars of letters; do not listen to the wild talk of false Chan masters.

The so-called radiance of the Buddha Patriarch is the entire ten-direction world; it exhausts all Buddhas and all Patriarchs; it is only Buddha with Buddha. It is Buddha-light; it is light-Buddha. The Buddhas and Patriarchs made Buddhas and Patriarchs their radiance. By practicing and realizing this radiance, one becomes Buddha, sits as Buddha, attains Buddhahood. Therefore, this light illuminates the eastern direction, with ten thousand eight thousand Buddha-lands; this is a path of expression.

This is the radiance of a hua-tou. This light is Buddha-light; illuminating the east is the east being illuminated. The east is not a worldly debate about 'here' and 'there'; it is the center of the dharmadhatu, the center of the fist. Even if one is obstructed by the east, it is the eight ounces of radiance. There is an east in this land, an east in other lands; one must study the principle that within the east there is an east. 'Ten thousand eight thousand' means: 'ten thousand' is half a fist, half is the mind. It is not necessarily ten thousand, nor is it myriad, hundred-million, and so on. 'Buddha-lands' means within the eye.

To hear the words 'illuminates the east' and to imagine studying them as if dragging a strip of white silk off to the east is not studying the Way. The entire ten-direction world is precisely the east; to speak of the east is to speak of the entire ten-direction world. Therefore, the entire ten-direction world exists. The hua-tou that expounds 'the entire ten-direction world' is precisely what is heard in the ten thousand eight thousand Buddha-lands.

Emperor Xianzong of Tang was the imperial father to both Emperors Muzong and Xuanzong, and the grandfather to the three emperors Jingzong, Wenzong, and Wuzong. On the occasion of reverently inviting the Buddha's relics into the inner palace for veneration, they emitted a radiant light at night. The emperor was greatly astonished, and all his assembled ministers at the early morning audience presented congratulatory memorials, declaring it was due to His Majesty's sage virtue and sacred influence. At that time, there was one minister, the Duke of Letters Han Yu, whose courtesy name was Tuizhi. He had once participated in learning at the very edge of the Buddha-patriarchs' seat.

Duke Han alone did not present a congratulatory memorial. Emperor Xianzong proclaimed and asked: "All my ministers have presented congratulatory memorials; why do you alone not do so?" Duke Han replied in memorial: "This humble minister has seen in Buddhist texts that the Buddha's light is not blue, yellow, red, or white. What we have now is the light of dragon-spirit guardians." The emperor proclaimed and asked: "How could this be the Buddha's light?" Duke Han had no reply.

Now, although this Duke Han was a lay scholar, he possessed the will and spirit of a true man. One could say he had the talent to turn heaven and earth around. To study in this manner is the initial mind of learning the Way. Not studying thus is not the Way. Even if one lectures on sutras causing celestial flowers to rain down, if one has not yet reached this principle, it is merely futile effort. Even if one were among the ten sages and three worthies, when one maintains the same long tongue of discourse as Duke Han, that is the initial aspiration and that is the cultivation and realization.

Although this is so, Duke Han Yu still had not seen or heard of a certain point in the Buddhist texts. He had studied the teaching that the so-called Buddha's light is not blue, yellow, red, or white, and so on, but he had not studied where such a Way exists. If you, my lords, have the power of study to see blue, yellow, red, or white and discern it is not the Buddha's light, then further, when you see the Buddha's light, do not take it as blue, yellow, red, or white. If Emperor Xianzong had been a Buddha-patriarch, he would likely have made such a proclamation and inquiry.

Therefore, the clearly manifest light is the hundred grasses. The light of the hundred grasses, being already their roots, stems, branches, leaves, flowers, fruits, and colors, has not yet been given or taken away. There is the light of the five paths, there is the light of the six paths. Since here is "what place" this is, one speaks of light and speaks of brightness. How could mountains, rivers, and the great earth abruptly arise? One must carefully study Changsha's expression of the Way: "The entire ten-direction world is one's own light." One must study the light, the self, and the entire ten-direction world. Birth, death, going, and coming are the going and coming of light.

Transcending the ordinary and surpassing the sage is the indigo and vermilion of light. Becoming a Buddha or becoming a patriarch is the dark and yellow of light. Cultivation and realization are not non-existent; they are the staining of light. Grasses, trees, walls, fences, skin, flesh, bones, and marrow—this is the red and white of light. Mist, haze, water, stone, the bird's path, the dark road—this is the revolving cycle of light.

To see and hear one's own light is the verification of encountering the Buddha, the verification of seeing the Buddha. The entire ten-direction world is the self. The self is the entire ten-direction world. There can be no place to evade it. Even if there were a place to evade, that would be the living path of stepping forth. This present skull of seven feet is precisely the form, the image, of the entire ten-direction world. The entire ten-direction world cultivated and realized in the Buddha's Way is the skull, the physical frame, the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow.

The Great Master Kuangzhen of Dayun on Mount Yunmen is the thirty-ninth generation descendant from the World-Honored Tathagata. He inherits the dharma from the Great Master Zhenjue of Xuefeng. Though he is a latecomer among the Buddha’s assembly, he is a hero in the ancestral seat. Who would say on Mount Yunmen that the Buddha of light has never appeared in the world? Once, ascending the hall to address the assembly, he said: “Everyone, without exception, possesses a luminous presence; yet when you look, you do not see it—it is dark and obscure. What, then, is this luminous presence that everyone possesses?” The assembly had no reply.

He answered for them: “The monks’ hall, the Buddha hall, the kitchen storehouse, the mountain gate.” Now, the Great Master’s saying “Everyone, without exception, possesses a luminous presence” does not declare that it will appear later, nor that it existed in the past, nor that it is the present accomplishment of an onlooker. One must clearly hear and uphold that everyone, of themselves, possesses a luminous presence.

It is as if a hundred thousand Yunmens were gathered to study together and made to speak in one voice: “Everyone, without exception, possesses a luminous presence.” “Everyone, without exception, possesses a luminous presence” is not Yunmen’s own fabrication; it is everyone’s light itself taking up illumination as the Way. “Everyone, without exception, possesses light” means the whole person is precisely this luminous presence. “Light” is everyone. Having taken up this light, he makes it the dependent and direct retribution.

It should be that light, without exception, is everyone present; light itself is everyone present; everyone themselves have everyone present; light upon light themselves have light upon light present; having, without exception, has having present; without exception, having is without exception present. Therefore, know that the light which everyone, without exception, possesses is the present, accomplished everyone. Light upon light is everyone, without exception. For a moment, ask Yunmen: what do you call “everyone”? What do you call “light”?

Yunmen himself says: “What, then, is this luminous presence?” This questioning phrase is the light of the doubt-killing hua-tou. Yet, speaking in this way, everyone is light upon light. At that time, the assembly had no reply. Even if there were a hundred thousand who could speak, it is taking up “no reply” and speaking it out. This is the Shobogenzo Nehan Myoshin, the treasury of the true dharma eye, the wondrous mind of nirvana, transmitted and employed by the Buddhas and ancestors.

Yunmen answered for himself: “The monks’ hall, the Buddha hall, the kitchen storehouse, the mountain gate.” Now, the self-substitution that is spoken is substituting for Yunmen, substituting for the great assembly, substituting for the light, substituting for the monks’ hall, the Buddha hall, the kitchen storehouse, the mountain gate. Yet, what does Yunmen call “the monks’ hall, the Buddha hall, the kitchen storehouse, the mountain gate”? One must not call the great assembly and everyone “the monks’ hall, the Buddha hall, the kitchen storehouse, the mountain gate.” How many monks’ halls, Buddha halls, kitchen storehouses, and mountain gates are there?

Are they Yunmen? Are they the Seven Buddhas? Are they the four sevens? Are they the twos and threes? Are they the fist? Are they the nostrils? The so-called monks’ hall, Buddha hall, kitchen storehouse, mountain gate—whichever Buddha or ancestor it may be—is something that does not escape everyone. Therefore, it is not everyone. Since it has been thus, there are Buddha halls with no Buddha and no-Buddha halls with no Buddha. There are light-Buddhas and no-light Buddhas. There is no-Buddha light and there is Buddha light.

The Great Master Zhenjue of Xuefeng Mountain addressed the assembly, saying, "Before the monks' hall, I have met with all of you." This is precisely the moment when Xuefeng's entire body is eyes, the season when Xuefeng gazes upon Xuefeng. It is the monks' hall meeting with the monks' hall. Baofu raised this and asked Ehu, "Setting aside 'before the monks' hall' for now, where is the meeting at Wangzhou Pavilion and Wushi Ridge?" Ehu strode swiftly back to the abbot's quarters. Baofu then entered the monks' hall. Now, returning to the abbot's quarters and entering the monks' hall—this is the koan emerging from the body. It is the principle of meeting, the monks' hall of "having met."

The Hongaku Master of Jizo-in said, "The tenzo enters the storehouse" (tenzo kudo ni hairu), and this koan is a matter from before the Seven Buddhas.

The fifteenth fascicle of the Shobogenzo is titled "Light."

On the night of the second day of the sixth month in the summer of the third year of Ninji, during the hour of the third watch and fourth point, I addressed the assembly at Kannon Dōri Kōshō Hōrin Temple. At that time, the rainy season poured down incessantly, with drops falling continuously from the eaves. What, then, is this light that is present? All of you, inevitably, must see through it as Yunmen said. This was written in the attendant's quarters of Daibutsu Temple in Esshū on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month in the first year of Kangen.