Kattō

The authentic transmission of the Śākyamuni Buddha's treasury of the true dharma eye, the unsurpassed enlightenment, was solely to the great being Mahākāśyapa at the assembly on Vulture Peak. From heir to heir, through twenty-eight generations of true authentication, it reached the Venerable Bodhidharma. The Venerable One himself brought the ancestral model to the land of China and entrusted the treasury of the true dharma eye, the unsurpassed enlightenment, to the Great Master of Universal Enlightenment, the True Ancestor of the Orthodox Lineage, making him the Second Ancestor.

The twenty-eighth ancestor, who first brought the ancestral model to China, is called the First Ancestor, and the twenty-ninth ancestor is called the Second Ancestor; this is the convention of the Eastern Land. The First Ancestor, having personally received the direct transmission and authentication of the Buddha's instruction and the marrow of the Way from the Venerable Prajñātāra, took the root by means of the root; this is the basis of the branches and leaves.

Generally, although all sages tend toward the practice of cutting off the root of entanglements, they do not learn that cutting off entanglements with entanglements is called "cutting off," and they do not know that entanglements are served with entanglements. How much less could they know the succession of entanglements by means of entanglements? It is rare to recognize that the dharma succession is itself entanglement; there are none who have heard this. Those who have expressed the Way are not yet present; how could those who have authenticated it be many?

Our late master, the ancient buddha, said, "The gourd vine seed entwines the gourd." This instruction to the assembly is something never seen or heard in any quarter, past or present. For the first time, our late master alone proclaimed the Way. The gourd vine's entwining of the gourd vine is the investigating of buddha-ancestor by buddha-ancestor, and the verifying and realizing of buddha-ancestor by buddha-ancestor.

For example, this is the mind-to-mind transmission.

The Twenty-Eighth Patriarch said to his disciples, "The time is approaching. Why do you not each speak of your attainment?" At that time, the disciple Daofu said, "According to my present insight, I do not cling to words, nor am I separate from words, and yet I make use of them for the Way." The Patriarch said, "You have attained my skin." The nun Zongchi said, "My present understanding is like Ānanda seeing the land of Buddha Akṣobhya: seen once, it is never seen again." The Patriarch said, "You have attained my flesh." Daoyu said, "The four great elements are originally empty; the five aggregates are without existence.

And yet, in my seeing, there is not a single dharma to be attained." The Patriarch said, "You have attained my bones." Finally, Huike made three bows and then stood in his place. The Patriarch said, "You have attained my marrow." He indeed became the Second Patriarch, transmitting the Dharma and the robe. Now, you should study this: the First Patriarch's saying "You have attained my skin, flesh, bones, marrow" is the Patriarch's Way. The four disciples each had an attainment, each had a hearing and grasping.

That hearing and grasping, together with their attainment, are all leaping clear of the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow of body-mind; they are casting off the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow of body-mind. You should not try to see or hear the Patriarch through a single device of knowledge, view, understanding, or interpretation. It is not a matter of the ten aspects of subject, object, this, and that being fully realized. However, those without the true transmission think that because the four disciples' understandings each had a degree of closeness or distance, the Patriarch's Way also has differences of depth like skin, flesh, bones, and marrow.

They think skin and flesh are more distant than marrow, and that because the Second Patriarch's insight was superior, he received the seal of attaining the marrow. To speak in such a way is to have never studied the Buddhas and Patriarchs and to lack the true transmission of the Patriarch's Way. Know that the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow of the Patriarch's Way are not a matter of depth.

Even if there are differences in insight, the Patriarch's Way is simply "you have attained me." Its essential meaning is that the demonstration of "you have attained my marrow" and the demonstration of "you have attained my bones" are both for guiding people and receiving people; in picking up the grass and dropping the grass, there is no insufficiency. It is like holding up the flower; it is like transmitting the robe. What is expressed as the Way for the four disciples is, from the beginning, of one equal grade. Although the Patriarch's Way is of one grade, the four understandings are not necessarily of one grade.

Even if the four understandings are fragmentary, the Patriarch's Way is simply the Patriarch's Way. Generally, the expression of the Way and a person's insight are not necessarily in mutual accord. For example, when the Patriarch showed the four disciples, he expressed it by saying, "You have attained my skin." If there had been a hundred or a thousand disciples after the Second Patriarch, there would have been a hundred or a thousand ways of expressing it. It could not be exhausted.

Simply because there were only four disciples, there were temporarily four expressions—skin, flesh, bones, marrow—but many expressions remain unexpressed, many expressions that could be expressed. Know that even if he were expressing the Way to the Second Patriarch, he should have expressed it by saying, "You have attained my skin." Even if it were "You have attained my skin," he should have transmitted and entrusted the True Dharma Eye Treasury to him as the Second Patriarch. It is not due to a distinction of superiority or inferiority between attaining skin and attaining marrow.

Also, even if he were expressing the Way to Daofu, Daoyu, or Zongchi, he should have expressed it by saying, "You have attained my marrow." Even if it were "my skin," he should have transmitted the Dharma. The body-mind of the Patriarch is, in its skin, flesh, bones, and marrow, entirely the Patriarch. The marrow is not intimate; the skin is not distant. If you now equip the eye of study, to receive the seal of "you have attained my skin" is the thorough investigation that attains the Patriarch.

There is a Patriarch who is skin through his whole body; there is a Patriarch who is flesh through his whole body; there is a Patriarch who is bones through his whole body; there is a Patriarch who is marrow through his whole body. There is a Patriarch who is body-mind through his whole body; there is a Patriarch who is body through his whole body; there is a Patriarch who is mind through his whole body. There is a Patriarch who is Patriarch through his whole body; there is a Patriarch who is "you have attained me" through his whole body. When these Patriarchs, together with their full realization, express the Way to a hundred or a thousand disciples, they express it just as now, saying, "You have attained my skin." Even if the hundred or thousand expressions are skin, flesh, bones, marrow, an onlooker should not idly take them as expressions about skin, flesh, bones, and marrow and make a living out of that.

If there were six or seven disciples in the Patriarch's assembly, he could express it as "you have attained my mind," "you have attained my body," "you have attained my Buddha," "you have attained my eye," "you have attained my realization." The so-called "you" has occasions of being the Patriarch and occasions of being Huike; you should thoroughly investigate the principle of "attainment" in detail.

Know that there is "you have attained me"; there is "I have attained you"; there is "attaining me and you"; there is "attaining you and me." If, when you meet and see the body-mind of the Patriarch, you say that inner and outer are not one, that the whole body is not the entire body, then this is not the land where Buddhas and Patriarchs are fully realized. To attain the skin is to attain the bones, flesh, and marrow. To attain the bones, flesh, and marrow is to attain the skin, flesh, and face. Is it only that you should understand this as the true real substance of the entire universe? Further, it is skin, flesh, bones, and marrow.

Therefore, "you attain my robe"; "you attain the Dharma." Because of this, the expression of the Way is also each strand of leaping clear; teacher and disciple study together. The hearing and grasping is also each strand of leaping clear; teacher and disciple study together. The joint investigation of teacher and disciple is the entanglement of the Buddhas and Patriarchs; the entanglement of the Buddhas and Patriarchs is the life vein of skin, flesh, bones, and marrow. Holding up a flower and blinking is precisely entanglement. Breaking into a smile is precisely skin, flesh, bones, and marrow. Investigate this further: because the seed of entanglement has the power of the whole body, there are branches, leaves, flowers, and fruits that twine around the entanglement, and because there is mutual interchange and non-interchange, Buddhas and Patriarchs are fully realized, and kōans are fully realized.

Master Zhaozhou Zhenji addressed the assembly, saying, "Mahākāśyapa transmitted it to Ānanda. Now tell me, to whom did Bodhidharma transmit it?" A monk then asked, "What about the Second Patriarch's attainment of the marrow—how was that?" The master said, "Do not slander the Second Patriarch." The master also said, "Bodhidharma also spoke: 'Those on the outside gain the skin; those on the inside gain the bone.' Now tell me, what do those even further inside gain?" A monk asked, "What is the principle of attaining the marrow?" The master said, "Just recognize the skin.

In this old monk's place, even marrow is not established." The monk asked, "What is the marrow?" The master said, "If so, then even the skin is not yet touched." Therefore, know this: when even the skin is not yet touched, the marrow is also not yet touched. To touch and attain the skin is to attain the marrow. You should endeavor in the principle that "if so, then even the skin is not yet touched." When asked, "What is the principle of attaining the marrow?" he manifested it by saying, "Just recognize the skin.

In this old monk's place, even marrow is not established." The place where you recognize the skin, where even marrow is not established—this is made the true principle of attaining the marrow. For this reason, the question "What about the Second Patriarch's attainment of the marrow—how was that?" is manifested. When you rightly observe the occasion of Mahākāśyapa transmitting to Ānanda, Ānanda hides himself within Mahākāśyapa; Mahākāśyapa hides himself within Ānanda. Nevertheless, at the occasion of meeting within the transmission, they cannot avoid the activity of exchanging face, skin, flesh, bones, and marrow.

Because of this, he shows, "Now tell me, to whom did Bodhidharma transmit it?" When Bodhidharma transmits, it is Bodhidharma; when the Second Patriarch attains the marrow, it is Bodhidharma. Through investigating this principle, the Buddha-dharma remains the Buddha-dharma even to this day. If it were not so, the Buddha-dharma would not have reached the present day. Quietly endeavor and investigate this principle; you should express it yourself, you should have others express it. "Those on the outside gain the skin; those on the inside gain the bone.

Now tell me, what do those even further inside gain?" The purport and aim of what is now called "outside" and what is now called "inside" should both be exact. When discussing "outside," there is an outside for skin, flesh, bones, and marrow. When discussing "inside," there is an inside for skin, flesh, bones, and marrow. Therefore, now the four members of Bodhidharma have each individually investigated the upward way of the hundred thousand myriad skin, flesh, bones, and marrow. Do not think there is nothing beyond the marrow. There are further three or five layers beyond. The present address to the assembly by the ancient Buddha Zhaozhou is the Buddha Way. It is a place unreachable by others like Linji, Deshan, Dawei, and Yunmen, a place they have not even dreamt of—how could they speak of it? It is a place not even known to exist by the irresponsible elders of recent times. If it were explained to them, they would be shocked and terrified.

Master Xuefeng Yicun of the Snowy Valley says, "Zhao and Tan prefectures are ancient buddhas." Therefore, the Way of the ancient buddhas is the verification of the Buddha Dharma. It is one's own authentic expression. Master Xuefeng Zhenjue says, "Zhao Zhou is an ancient buddha." The buddhas and ancestors of the past praise him using the praise of an ancient buddha; the buddhas and ancestors of the future praise him using the praise of an ancient buddha. Know this: he is an ancient buddha who transcends all in the upward striving of past and present.

Therefore, the principle where skin, flesh, bones, and marrow entangle is the standard of "You have attained my..." shown by the ancient buddha to the assembly. One should diligently investigate and practice this standard. Furthermore, concerning the teaching that the First Ancestor returned to the West, one must study and realize that this is not so. What Song Yun saw is not necessarily true; how could Song Yun perceive the Ancestor's coming and going? One should take as correct learning only the tradition that after the Ancestor's parinirvāna, he was interred at Bear's Ear Mountain.