Immo

Master Hongjue of Yunju Mountain was the direct heir of Dongshan. He was the thirty-ninth generation dharma descendant from Shakyamuni Buddha and the founding patriarch of the Caodong lineage. One day he addressed the assembly, saying: "To attain such a matter, one must be such a person. Since one is such a person, why worry about such a matter?" This means that one who wishes to attain such a matter must necessarily be such a person. Since one is already such a person, why should one be troubled about such a matter?

The essential point of this teaching directly points to unsurpassed bodhi; for the moment, we call it "such." The full manifestation of this unsurpassed bodhi is such that even the entire ten-direction world is but a small part of unsurpassed bodhi. It should even surpass the entire realm of bodhi. We ourselves are also all the implements within that entire ten-direction world. How do we know that it is "such"? We know it is so because both body and mind are fully manifested within the entire realm, and because they are not our own.

The body is no longer one's own, and life shifts with the passing light and shadow, impossible to detain even for a moment. Where have the ruddy cheeks of youth gone? Seeking them, one finds no trace. Upon careful reflection, it is clear that past events will not return. The sincere heart does not remain fixed but drifts about in fragments. Even if there is something true, it does not linger around the self. In such a state, there are those who, for no particular reason, arouse the bodhicitta. From the arising of this mind, they cast aside what they have been amusing themselves with until now.

They wish to hear what they have not yet heard and seek to realize what they have not yet realized. This is not at all a personal doing. Know that it is because they are such a person that it is so. How does one know they are such a person? It is known because they think to attain such a matter. Since they already have the countenance of such a person, one should not worry about the present such matter. Even worrying is itself such a matter, therefore it is not worry. Furthermore, even when there is suchness within such a matter, one should not be startled.

Even if there is a suchness that startles and causes doubt, it is still precisely suchness. There is a suchness that says one should not be startled. This cannot be measured by the measure of a buddha, nor by the measure of mind, nor by the measure of the dharmadhatu, nor by the measure of the exhausted realm. One should simply be precisely such a person; why worry about such a matter? Therefore, the suchness of sounds and forms should be suchness; the suchness of body and mind should be suchness; the suchness of all buddhas should be suchness. For example, when one falls due to the ground, one understands the moment as suchness. When the moment of necessarily rising due to the ground is suchness, one does not doubt the falling due to the ground.

From ancient times it has been spoken, from the Western Heavens it has been spoken, from the heavens above a Way has been spoken. It is said: if one falls because of the ground, one rises again because of the ground; to seek to rise apart from the ground is ultimately without reason. It is said that the Way is such that one who falls by means of the ground must necessarily rise by means of the ground; to seek to rise without relying on the ground is furthermore inadmissible. Recognizing this, they esteemed the attainment of great awakening and made it the Way that strips away body and mind.

Therefore, even if one asks what is the principle of all buddhas attaining the Way, it is said to be like one who falls because of the ground rising because of it. By investigating this, one should penetrate past and future, and penetrate the very moment of right now. Great awakening or no awakening, losing delusion or being deluded, being hindered by awakening or being hindered by delusion—all are equally the principle of one who falls because of the ground rising because of it.

This is the expression of the Way throughout heaven and earth, the expression in the Western Heavens and the Eastern Land, the expression from ancient times to the present, the expression of ancient and new buddhas. This expression is not at all an incomplete Way, nor is it a deficient Way. Yet, if one only understands it in this way and has no understanding that is not this way, it is as if one has not investigated these words. Even if the expression of the ancient buddhas has been transmitted in this way, when an ancient buddha, as an ancient buddha, hears and grasps the Way of the ancient buddhas, there must be a hearing and grasping that goes beyond.

Though it has not yet been expressed in the Western Heavens nor in the heavens above, there is nonetheless a principle of expressing and grasping. For one who falls because of the ground, if one seeks to rise by means of the ground, even after passing through immeasurable kalpas, one still cannot rise. One must find rising through a single vital path. It is said that one who falls because of the ground necessarily rises because of emptiness, and one who falls because of emptiness necessarily rises because of the ground.

If it were not so, one could never rise. All buddhas and all ancestors were precisely like this. If someone asks what this means—how far apart are emptiness and ground? When questioned thus, one should reply to them: emptiness and ground are one hundred and eight thousand miles apart. If one falls because of the ground, one necessarily rises because of emptiness; to seek to rise apart from emptiness is ultimately without reason. If one falls because of emptiness, one necessarily rises because of the ground; to seek to rise apart from the ground is ultimately without reason. If one has not yet expressed it thus, one does not yet know the measure of ground and emptiness in the Buddha's Way, one has not yet seen it.

The Seventeenth Patriarch, the Venerable Sanghanandi, had as his dharma-successor Gayashata. Once, hearing the sound of a wind-bell hanging from the eaves stirred by the wind, he asked Gayashata, "Is it the wind that rings, or is it the bell that rings?" Gayashata replied, "It is not the wind ringing, nor is it the bell ringing; it is my mind ringing." The Venerable Sanghanandi said, "What, then, is the mind?" Gayashata replied, "Both are utterly tranquil." The Venerable Sanghanandi said, "Excellent, excellent. Who but you shall succeed me in the Way?" He then transmitted to him the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye. This is to learn the ringing of my mind where there is no ringing of wind.

It is to learn the ringing of my mind when there is no ringing of the bell. Even though my mind rings thus, both are utterly tranquil. Since this karmic occasion was transmitted from the Western Heavens to the Eastern Land, and from ancient times down to the present day, it has been taken as a standard for learning the Way, yet there are many who err.

Gayashata's expression, "It is not the wind ringing, nor is it the bell ringing; it is the mind ringing," means that at the very moment of hearing thus, a thought arises; this thought is called mind. If this mental thought were absent, how could it encounter the ringing sound? Because hearing is accomplished by means of this thought, and because it can be called the root of hearing, it is said that the mind rings. This is a mistaken understanding. It is so because one has not attained the power of a true master. It is like the explanations of debaters who rely on subjective proximity. Such a view is not the profound study of the Buddha Way.

However, for those who have studied under the legitimate heirs of the Buddha Way, the Unsurpassed Enlightenment, the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, is called tranquility, called non-action, called samadhi, called dharani. The principle is that if one single dharma is utterly tranquil, then all dharmas are together utterly tranquil. Because the wind-blowing is tranquil, the bell-ringing is tranquil.

Therefore, it is said "both are utterly tranquil." One expresses that the mind's ringing is not the wind's ringing, the mind's ringing is not the bell's ringing, the mind's ringing is not the mind's ringing. Rather than exhaustively analyzing such intimacy, it is better to simply say: it is the wind ringing, it is the bell ringing, it is the blowing ringing, it is the ringing ringing. It is not that it is thus because of any particular reason for being thus; it is that it is thus precisely because it is unrelated to any particular reason.

The thirty-third patriarch, Great Mirror Zen Master, before he had his head shaved, was lodging at Faxing Temple in Guangzhou. There were two monks engaged in a debate. One monk said, "It is the banner that moves." The other monk said, "It is the wind that moves." As they went back and forth in this debate without ceasing, the Sixth Patriarch said, "It is not the wind moving, nor the banner moving; it is your mind moving." Upon hearing this, the two monks immediately accepted it in faith. These two monks had come from the Western Heavens. Therefore, this expression of the Way points out that wind, banner, and movement are all mind, as the Sixth Patriarch articulated.

Even if one hears the Sixth Patriarch's Way now, one does not know the Sixth Patriarch's Way. How much less could one articulate the Sixth Patriarch's attainment of the Way? Why speak in this manner? Hearing the so-called "your mind moving" and then saying "your mind moves" as an articulation is to not see the Sixth Patriarch, to not know him, and to not be his dharma descendant.

Now, as a child and grandchild of the Sixth Patriarch, to articulate his Way and to articulate having attained his very body, hair, and skin, one should speak thus. The so-called "your mind moving" is as it is, but one should further say "the mover moves." Why speak in this manner? Because the mover is moving, and because the person is a person. Since one is such a person, one speaks thus. In the past, the Sixth Patriarch was a woodcutter from Xinzhou. He delved into mountains and fathomed waters.

Even if he worked on his practice beneath the green pines and severed the root, how would he know, while at ease by the bright window, that there existed the ancient teaching of illuminating the mind? From whom did he learn to cleanse himself? Once, he heard a sutra; this was not something he awaited himself, nor was it urged by another. He lost his father while still young and supported his mother as he grew up. He did not know that at this time, a single luminous pearl was already illuminating the entire universe. From the moment he suddenly realized this, he abandoned his aged mother to seek a teacher—a rare act for a person. Who would take affection and love lightly?

It was because he valued the dharma more and took affection lightly that he renounced that love. This is the principle of "if one who has wisdom hears, they are immediately able to believe and understand." So-called wisdom is not learned from others, nor is it produced by oneself. Wisdom transmits itself to wisdom; wisdom seeks wisdom itself. The five hundred bats, wisdom naturally forms their bodies. There is no further body, no mind. The ten thousand swimming fish, because they are intimately the body of wisdom, though it is not due to conditions or causes, understand immediately upon hearing the dharma. It is not a coming, not an entering. It is like the eastern lord encountering spring. Wisdom is not having thought; wisdom is not lacking thought. Wisdom is not having mind; wisdom is not lacking mind. How much less is it concerned with large or small, or the discussion of delusion and enlightenment?

What is said is that one does not know how the Buddha-dharma exists; since one has not heard it from before, one does not follow it or wish for it, yet upon hearing the dharma, taking affection lightly and forgetting oneself occurs because the body and mind of one who has wisdom are already not one's own. This is called "immediately able to believe and understand." Unaware through how many cycles of birth and death, one wanders in vain dust and toil while possessing this wisdom. It is like a stone enclosing a jewel, not knowing the jewel is enclosed by the stone, nor the stone knowing it encloses the jewel. A person knows it; a person extracts it.

This is precisely where the jewel does not expect it and the stone does not hinder it, not due to the stone's perception, nor the jewel's deliberation. Though person and wisdom do not know each other, the Way is inevitably heard by wisdom. There is a saying: "Lacking wisdom, one doubts and finds it strange; thereby it is forever lost." Wisdom is not necessarily existent, nor is it necessarily non-existent; there is a being like spring pines for a time, and a non-being like autumn chrysanthemums.

At this time of lacking wisdom, the three bodhis all become objects of doubt; all dharmas are doubted. At this time, "forever lost" is "thereby." The Way that should be heard, the dharma that should be realized, are all doubted. It is not me; there is nowhere in the entire world that is hidden. It is not anyone; it is a single iron rod across ten thousand miles. Even if one draws out a branch like this, within the Buddha-lands of the ten directions, there is only the One Vehicle. Even if leaves fall like this, this dharma abides in its dharma-position; the forms of the world are eternally abiding. Since this is such a matter, having wisdom and lacking wisdom become the sun-face and moon-face. Because he was such a person, the Sixth Patriarch also realized this. Finally, he went to pay respects to Zen Master Daman on Huangmei Mountain, and was assigned to the work hall.

Pounding rice day and night, after barely eight months had passed, one time late at night in the deep watch, Daman himself secretly came to the hulling room and asked the Sixth Patriarch, "Is the rice white yet?" The Sixth Patriarch said, "It is white, but it has not yet been sifted." Daman struck the mortar three times with his staff, and the Sixth Patriarch winnowed the rice in the basket three times. This moment is called the meeting of the Way between teacher and disciple. Though one does not know it oneself, and others do not comprehend it, the transmission of the dharma and the robe is precisely such a true and timely season.

Master Wuji of Nanyue Mountain, who is also known as Yaoshan, said: "I have a rough understanding of the three vehicles and the twelve divisions of the teachings. I have long heard that in the south there is the direct pointing to the human mind, seeing one's nature and becoming a Buddha, but in truth I have not yet clarified this. I humbly beg the master, out of compassion, to give instruction." This is Yaoshan's question. Yaoshan was originally a lecturer. He was thoroughly versed in the three vehicles and the twelve divisions of the teachings. Therefore, it seemed as if the Buddha-dharma held no further obscurity for him.

In former times, separate schools had not yet arisen; clarifying the three vehicles and the twelve divisions of the teachings was the family style of the scholastic tradition. Most people today are dull and sluggish; each establishes their own sectarian doctrine and measures the Buddha-dharma by it, but this is not the true standard of the Buddha Way. The master said: "To be like this is not it; not to be like this is not it; to be like this or not like this, neither is it. What will you do?" This is precisely the Way that the master presents for Yaoshan.

Truly, because neither like this nor not like this is it, therefore to be like this is not it, and not to be like this is not it. "Like this" speaks of "like this." It is not a limited functioning of the Way, nor is it an unlimited functioning of the Way. One must study "like this" through "not it"; one must inquire into "not it" through "like this." This "like this" and "not it" are not solely concerned with the measure of Buddha. They are "cannot be grasped," "cannot be awakened to."

The Sixth Patriarch of Mount Sokei, the Great Mirror Zen Master, was once asked by his teacher, the Great Wisdom Zen Master of Nangaku, "What is this thing, and how did it come thus?" This inquiry into the Way reveals that "thus" is itself non-doubt, and because it is uncomprehended, because it is "what thing," one must thoroughly investigate how all things are truly "what thing." One must thoroughly investigate how each and every thing is truly "what thing." "What thing" is not a matter of doubt and attachment; it is "coming thus."

The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, "In This Manner," Volume Seventeen.

At that time, on the twentieth day of the third month in the third year of Ninji, the cyclical year mizunoe-tora, while residing at Kannon-dori Kosho Horin-ji temple, this was presented to the assembly; it was transcribed on the fourteenth day of the fourth month in the first year of Kangen, the cyclical year mizunoto-u, in the attendants' quarters by Kaijo.