Mitsugo

When investigating the great Way guarded and borne in mind by all buddhas as a kōan, you too are thus, I too am thus; guard and maintain it well—now it is verified and sealed. Master Hongjue of Yunju Mountain, on an occasion when an official sent offerings, asked: "The World-Honored One has a secret word; Mahākāśyapa did not conceal it. What is the World-Honored One's secret word?" The master called out: "Minister!" The man responded.

The master said: "Do you understand?" The minister said: "I do not understand." The master said: "If you do not understand, that is the World-Honored One's secret word; if you were to understand, that would be Mahākāśyapa not concealing it." This master, appearing as the direct descendant in the fifth generation from Qingyuan, is a teacher of humans and devas, a great good friend throughout the entire ten-direction world. He transforms sentient beings, he transforms insentient beings. As the buddha-heir of the forty-sixth buddha, he expounds the Dharma for the sake of the buddha-ancestors. At the abode of the hermitage master of Sanfeng, heavenly kitchens sent offerings.

From the time he received the Dharma and attained the Way, he had already transcended the realm of sent offerings. Now, the saying "The World-Honored One has a secret word; Mahākāśyapa did not conceal it," although it is the transmission of the forty-six buddhas, as the original face of the forty-six generations, is not obtained from another, does not come from outside. It is not originally attained; it has never been a new branch. This one matter's secret word appearing—it is not only Śākyamuni World-Honored One who has a secret word; all buddha-ancestors have a secret word. Since one is a World-Honored One, one necessarily has a secret word.

If there is a secret word, there is certainly Mahākāśyapa not concealing it. You should study without forgetting the principle that if there are a hundred thousand World-Honored Ones, there are a hundred thousand Mahākāśyapas. To study means you should not think to grasp it all at once; you should engage in careful effort a hundred times, a thousand times, like managing to cut through something hard. If there is someone speaking, you should not think you can grasp it right then and there.

Now Yunju Mountain, since he is a World-Honored One, possesses a secret word; there is Mahākāśyapa not concealing it. Do not study that calling "Minister!" and the minister's response is itself the secret word. The master, indicating to the minister on that occasion, said: "If you do not understand, that is the World-Honored One's secret word; if you understand, that is Mahākāśyapa not concealing it." This present saying—you must certainly resolve to exert effort in the practice of the Way over many kalpas.

When he says, "If you do not understand, that is the World-Honored One's secret word," this does not mean that present blankness is not understanding, nor that ignorance is not understanding. It is granting permission to the point where you should quietly study the principle of your saying "I do not understand." You should exert effort in the practice of the Way. Furthermore, the saying "if you were to understand"—this does not mean you already understand. There are many paths in studying the Buddha-Dharma. Among them, there is a pivotal point of understanding the Buddha-Dharma and not understanding the Buddha-Dharma.

If you do not meet a true teacher, you do not even know it exists; you vainly fixate on the eye-place and ear-place of cutting off seeing and hearing, and wildly assume there is a secret word. It is not that because you understand, it is Mahākāśyapa not concealing it; there is also the not concealing of not understanding. You should not study that not concealing is something anyone can see or hear. Since it is precisely this not concealing, at the very time when it is nowhere not concealed, you should personally investigate.

Therefore, it is not that you have studied and come to a realm you yourself do not know as a secret word; at the very time of rightly not understanding the Buddha-Dharma, this is one portion of the secret word. This is necessarily the World-Honored One's existence; it is the existing World-Honored One. Yet, those who have not heard the instruction of a true teacher, even if seated on the lion throne, have not even dreamed of this principle. They erroneously say: "The World-Honored One has a secret word" means he held up a flower and blinked on Vulture Peak before the assembly of a million.

Therefore, the Buddha's spoken teachings with words are shallow, as if entangled in names and forms. Wordless holding up a flower and blinking—this is the occasion of the secret word's being set forth. The million in the assembly could not grasp it. The reason is, it was a secret word for the sake of the million. "Mahākāśyapa did not conceal it" means that because Mahākāśyapa broke into a smile as if he had known the World-Honored One's holding up a flower and blinking beforehand, it is said of Mahākāśyapa that he did not conceal it. This is the true secret. It has been transmitted individually from one to another.

Those who hear this and truly believe it have formed communities throughout the land like rice, hemp, bamboo, and reeds. It is pitiful—the ruin of the Way of the buddha-ancestors originally arises from this. Clear-eyed persons should certainly see through each and every one. If you consider the World-Honored One's words shallow, then holding up a flower and blinking must also be shallow. If you consider the World-Honored One's words mere names and forms, you are not a person who studies the Buddha-Dharma.

Although you know that words are names and forms, you do not yet know that the World-Honored One is without names and forms. This is because ordinary feelings are not yet shed. The buddha-ancestors are those whose physical and mental passages are all shed. They expound the Dharma; they use words; they turn the Dharma wheel. There are many who see and hear this and gain benefit. Those of faith-practice and Dharma-practice receive transformation where there are buddha-ancestors, and partake of transformation where there are no buddha-ancestors. Would the million in the assembly necessarily not see and hear the holding up a flower and blinking as holding up a flower and blinking?

They would be shoulder to shoulder with Mahākāśyapa; they would be born together with the World-Honored One. The million and the million would be fellow students; they would arouse the mind together. They are fellow practitioners; they are of the same land. They see the Buddha and hear the Dharma with the wisdom of knowing; they see the Buddha and hear the Dharma with the wisdom of not knowing. From first seeing one Buddha, they advance to seeing buddhas as numerous as the Ganges sands.

At each and every Buddha's assembly, they would all be the million. They would see and hear that each and every Buddha's unfolding of holding up a flower and blinking occurs at the same time. The eye-place is not dark; the ear-place hears keenly. There is a mind-eye; there is a body-eye. There is a mind-ear; there is a body-ear. Mahākāśyapa's breaking into a smile—how do you understand it? Try to say. If it is as you people say, then this too could be called a secret word. However, to call this "not concealing" is the height of piled-up folly.

Later, the World-Honored One said, "I have the treasury of the true dharma eye, the wondrous mind of nirvana, and I entrust it to Mahākāśyapa." Such a statement—is it with words or without words? If the World-Honored One disliked words and loved holding up the flower, he should have held up the flower again later. How could Kāśyapa not have grasped it? How could the assembly not have heard it? Such talk from fellow practitioners should not be used. Generally, the World-Honored One has secret words, secret actions, and secret realization. However, foolish people think that "secret" means others do not know, while oneself knows; that there are those who know and those who do not know.

Those in India and China, past and present, who think and speak like this have not yet studied the Buddha Way. If one speaks like this, then for those without learning in worldly or transcendental matters, secrets would be many, while for those of universal learning, secrets would be few. Would not those of broad hearing have no secrets?

Moreover, when one possesses the divine eye and divine ear, the dharma eye and dharma ear, the buddha eye and buddha ear, and so on, it should be said that there are no secret words or secret meanings at all. The secret words, secret meanings, and secret actions of the buddha-dharma are not of this principle. When one meets a person, one directly hears the secret words and understands the secret words. When one knows oneself, one knows the secret action. How much more so do the buddhas and ancestors thoroughly investigate the secret meanings and secret words mentioned above.

You should know that at the very time of being a buddha and ancestor, secret words and secret actions conspicuously manifest. What is called "secret" is the principle of intimacy. It is uninterrupted; it is precisely the buddhas and ancestors. It is precisely you; it is precisely the self. It is precisely action; it is precisely substitution. It is precisely merit; it is precisely secret. The meeting of secret words with a secret person—the buddha eye also cannot see it. Secret action is not known by self or others. The secret self alone can know it. Secret others each do not understand.

Because the secret is right at your side, it is entirely reliant on the secret; it is half reliant on the secret. You should clearly practice and study such a principle. Generally, at the place of benefiting others, at the time of affirmation, one invariably presents the secret—that is the true legitimate heir of the buddhas and ancestors. Because "now, what time is it?" it is secret to oneself and secret to others. It is secret to the buddhas and ancestors and secret to different kinds. Therefore, on the very head of secret, there is anew the secret.

Such teaching, practice, and realization are precisely being a buddha and ancestor; therefore, one penetrates the secret of the buddhas and ancestors. Thus, one penetrates the secret. Ancestor Xuédòu instructed the assembly, saying, "The World-Honored One has secret words; Kāśyapa does not conceal them. One night, a rain of falling flowers; the whole city is fragrant with flowing water." Now, Xuédòu's saying, "One night, a rain of falling flowers; the whole city is fragrant with flowing water," that is intimacy. Presenting this, you should examine the eye and nostrils of the buddhas and ancestors.

It is not something Linjì or Déshān could reach. You should study and open the nostrils within the eye; you make the nose tip at the ear place acutely hear. Moreover, you make the whole body-mind, which within the ear, nose, and eye is neither old nor new. This is taken as the principle of the flower-rain world arising. The ancestor's saying, "the whole city is fragrant with flowing water," that is hiding the body, the more it is exposed. Because it is like this, in the everyday activity of the house of the buddhas and ancestors, one studies and penetrates "the World-Honored One has secret words; Kāśyapa does not conceal them." The Seven Buddhas, each and every buddha, study like this now. Kāśyapa and Śākyamuni have similarly investigated and realized like this now.