Ganzei

The eyes that gather and make whole the practice undertaken over countless kalpas are the eighty-four thousand eyes. When my late teacher, the Ancient Buddha Tiāntóng, was residing at Ruìyán, he ascended the hall and addressed the assembly, saying: "The autumn wind is clear, the autumn moon is bright. The great earth, mountains, and rivers reveal their eyes. Ruìyán, having dotted and blinded, meets again. Sticks and shouts crisscross, testing the patch-robed monk." Now, saying "testing the patch-robed monk" means testing whether one is an Ancient Buddha. The essential point is to make the sticks and shouts crisscross; this is the dotting and blinding.

Such a living understanding of the present is the eye. The mountains, rivers, and great earth are the signs within the eye, not struck. "The autumn wind is clear" is one oldness. "The autumn moon is bright" is one non-oldness. The clarity of the autumn wind cannot be compared even to the four great seas. The brightness of the autumn moon is clearer than a thousand suns and moons. Clarity and brightness are the mountains, rivers, and great earth which are the eye. The patch-robed monk is the buddhas and ancestors.

One does not choose great awakening, nor does one choose non-awakening; one does not choose signs before or after; that which is the eye is the buddhas and ancestors. The test is the eye revealed. Blindness is manifesting, it is the living eye. Meeting is encountering. Encountering and meeting is the tip of the eye-brow, it is the eye as a thunderclap. Generally, do not think that because the whole body is large, the whole eye must be small. Often, even those who think themselves venerable and great understand that the whole body is large and the whole eye is small. This is because they have not yet fully possessed the eye.

Master Dongshan Wuben, while attending Yunyan’s assembly, encountered Yunyan making straw sandals. Dongshan addressed Yunyan, saying, “I beg the master for an eye.” Yunyan said, “To whom would you give your own?” Dongshan said, “I have none.” Yunyan said, “If you had one, where would you apply it?” Dongshan was silent. Yunyan said, “Is the one begging for an eye itself an eye or not?” Dongshan said, “It is not an eye.” Yunyan gave a shout. Therefore, the full manifestation of practice and study is begging for an eye. Practicing the Way in the sōdō, ascending to the Dharma hall, entering the master’s quarters in the sleeping hall—all are begging for an eye.

In general, following the assembly in going to practice, following the assembly in returning from practice, is one’s own begging for an eye. It is clear that the eye is neither oneself nor another. It is said: Dongshan already had the request for instruction of begging his teacher for an eye. He realized that if it were oneself, it could not be begged from another; if it were another, it could not be begged for.

Yunyan pointed out, “To whom would you give your own?” There is a time for “your own,” there is a place for “to whom.” “I have none”—this is the eye’s own expression. Such expression being present, one should quietly investigate and study thoroughly. Yunyan said, “If you had one, where would you apply it?” This Way of the eye: the “none” of “I have none” is “where would you apply it?” “Where would you apply it?” is “having.” One should investigate that this is how it is spoken. Dongshan’s silence was not mere bewilderment; it is a mark of karmic consciousness standing alone.

Yunyan, demonstrating, said, “Is the one begging for an eye itself an eye or not?” This is the crucial point of poking out the eye, of smashing the eye alive. What is called the essential principle of Yunyan’s Way is the eye begging for an eye. It is water drawing water, mountain joining mountain. It is walking among different kinds, being born among the same kind. Dongshan said, “It is not an eye.” This is the eye’s own raising and proclamation.

Where there are body, mind, consideration, and knowledge that are “not an eye,” and where there is form, one should recognize it as the living eye of self-raising. The buddhas of the three times have immediately listened to the eye turning the great Dharma wheel, preaching the great Dharma wheel. Ultimately, in the inner hall of investigation, one leaps into the eye and there arouses the mind, practices, and realizes great bodhi. This eye, from the very beginning, is neither oneself nor another. Because it is entirely without obstruction, such great matters are also without obstruction. Therefore, an ancient said, “How wonderful! The buddhas of the ten directions are originally flowers in the eye.” That is to say, the buddhas of the ten directions are the eye; flowers in the eye are the buddhas of the ten directions. Now, advancing and retreating, sitting in zazen and sleeping—all are just thus by inheriting the power of the eye itself. It is holding fast and letting go within the eye.

Our late teacher, the ancient buddha, said, "Pluck out the eye of Bodhidharma and make it into a mud-ball to strike people." He then said loudly, "Hit!" "The sea dries up, revealing the bottom; the waves slap the heavens, rising high." This was spoken by the abbot of Seiryōji temple for the sake of the assembly of monks. Therefore, "striking people" is like saying "making people." Because of this striking, each and every person has their own original face. It is, for example, said that people are made using the eye of Bodhidharma. They are made. The principle of striking people is like this.

Because people are those who are born from being struck by the eye, now the fist of the monk's hall that strikes people, the staff of the dharma hall that strikes people, the bamboo whisk or fly-whisk of the abbot's quarters that strikes people—these are precisely the eye of Bodhidharma. To have plucked out the eye of Bodhidharma, made it into a mud-ball, and strike people with it—people today call this "visiting for instruction and seeking benefit," "morning attendance and morning audience," "the effort of seated meditation." What person is struck?

It is said: "The sea dries up, revealing the bottom; the waves are high, slapping the heavens.

Our late teacher, the ancient buddha, ascended the hall and praised the Tathāgata’s attainment of the Way, saying: “For six years he fell among the grasses, a wild fox spirit; leaping out, his whole body is entangled vines. Having lost his eye, there is nowhere to seek it; deceiving people, he boldly declares he awakened at the morning star.” That “awakening at the morning star” is the talk of a bystander at the very moment of losing the eye. This is the entangled vines of the whole body; therefore, it is easy to leap out. Seeking a place to seek—there is nowhere to seek even in what is already present, and nowhere to seek in what is not yet present.

Our late master, the ancient buddha, once said in a lecture, "When Gautama lost his eyes, in the snow there was only a single branch of plum blossoms. Now everywhere has become thorns and brambles, yet we laugh at the spring wind blowing in tangled confusion." Moreover, let it be said: Gautama's eyes are not merely one, two, three. Which eyes, then, are lost now? If there are eyes that can be called 'lost eyes,' then furthermore, within such a state, there are the eyes of 'in the snow only a single branch of plum blossoms.' These precede spring and reveal the marrow of spring.

My late master, the ancient buddha, once said in a lecture, "A drenching great rain, a wide-open great clearing. Frogs cry, earthworms sing. The ancient buddha has never passed away, he manifests the diamond eye. Bah! Entanglement, entanglement." This so-called diamond eye is the drenching great rain, is the wide-open great clearing. It is the frogs crying, it is the earthworms singing.

Precisely because it has never passed away, it is the ancient buddha. Even if the ancient buddha were to pass away, it would not be the same as the passing away of a non-ancient buddha.

Our late teacher, the ancient buddha, once said in a dharma hall discourse, "On the day the sun reaches its southernmost point, light is emitted from within the eyes, and breath comes forth from within the nostrils." Now, the continuous, unbroken single yang and triple yang, where the sun and moon are eternally at their zenith, is the complete falling away, even of the very bottom. This is the light emitted from within the eyes; this is seeing the mountains within the sun. The inner activity and dignified manner within this are precisely thus.

My late teacher, the ancient buddha, once gave a formal lecture at Jingci Monastery in Lin’an Prefecture, saying: "This morning, the first day of the second month, the whisk’s eye protrudes. Bright as a mirror, black as lacquer. Abruptly leaping, it swallows the whole universe. Yet, within the gate of the monochrome patch-robed monks, it is still just crashing into walls, bumping into barriers. After all, how is this? Casting away all sentiment, laughing heartily—ha! ha!—I simply leave it to the spring breeze, helpless." Now, what is called "crashing into walls, bumping into barriers" is wholly crashing into the wall, wholly bumping into the barrier. This is the eye.

This morning, the second month, and the first day are each and every one the eye; this is the so-called whisk’s eye. Because it abruptly leaps, it is this morning. Because it swallows the whole universe, countless times over, it is the second month. The moment of casting away all sentiment is the first day. The eye’s living activity of seeing and accomplishing is like this.

The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, Case 58: The Eye