Kokū

Because this very place is where one is, the Way manifests fully and makes one a buddha-ancestor. Since the Way of the buddha-ancestors manifests fully of itself, generation after generation, it is the whole body of skin, flesh, bones, and marrow—it is the hanging void. This void is not one among the group of the twenty kinds of emptiness. Generally, emptiness is not merely the twenty kinds of emptiness; there are eighty-four thousand emptinesses, and there should be that many.

Master Huizang of Shigong in Fuzhou asked Master Zhizang of the Western Hall, “Do you understand how to grasp the void?” The Western Hall said, “I understand how to grasp it.” The Master said, “How do you grasp it?” The Western Hall made a gesture of grasping the void with his hand. The Master said, “You do not understand how to grasp the void.” The Western Hall said, “How do you grasp it, Elder Brother?” The Master seized the Western Hall’s nostrils and pulled. The Western Hall cried out in pain, “You’re killing me!

Pulling someone’s nostrils—you’ll tear them right off!” The Master said, “Only when you can grasp it like this is it truly grasping.” Shigong’s saying, “Do you understand how to grasp the void?” is asking, “Are you, too, your whole body hands and eyes?” The Western Hall’s saying, “I understand how to grasp it,” is “a single lump of void, touched and defiled.” From this defilement, the void has fallen to the ground. Shigong’s saying, “How do you grasp it?”—even if changed to “thusness,” it has already altered. Yet, though it is like this, it follows change and goes as thusness.

The Western Hall’s making a gesture of grasping the void with his hand—he only knows how to ride the tiger’s head, not yet how to grasp the tiger’s tail. Shigong’s saying, “You do not understand how to grasp the void,” is not only not understanding how to grasp; he hasn’t even dreamt of the void. Yet, though it is like this, the ages are deep and far; I do not wish to illustrate it for him. The Western Hall’s saying, “How do you grasp it, Elder Brother?”—the Elder too should speak half; do not rely entirely on me.

Shigong’s seizing the Western Hall’s nostrils and pulling—for a while, you should study; within the Western Hall’s nostrils, Shigong hides his body. Or, there is the Way manifesting where the nostrils pull Shigong. Yet, though it is like this, the whole mass of void bumps and strikes. The Western Hall’s crying out in pain, “You’re killing me! Pulling someone’s nostrils—you’ll tear them right off!”—though one always thinks one meets another, suddenly one meets oneself. However, defiling oneself is not permissible; one must cultivate oneself.

Shigong’s saying, “Only when you can grasp it like this is it truly grasping”—it is not that there is no “grasping like this,” but Shigong and Shigong do not together extend a single hand’s grasping. Because void and void do not together extend a single hand’s grasping, one has not yet exerted one’s own effort. Generally, though throughout the whole world there is no gap that can contain the void, this one episode has long been the thunderbolt of the void. After Shigong and the Western Hall, there were many students who became masters of the five houses, but few who saw, heard, or measured the void.

Before and after Shigong and the Western Hall, there were many faces among those who tried to play with the void, but few who laid hands on it. Shigong grasped the void; the Western Hall did not get a glimpse of the void. The Great Buddha should practice the Way with Shigong; as for the so-called grasping of the nostrils of the Western Hall of old—if it is to be grasping the void, one must grasp one’s own nostrils. You should understand grasping a finger with a finger. However, Shigong knew a little of the dignified manner of grasping the void. Even if one is a skilled hand at grasping the void, one must study the inside and outside of the void. One must study the killing and enlivening of the void. One must know the lightness and heaviness of the void. You should maintain that the diligent practice and discernment of the Way, the arousing of the mind, cultivation, realization, speaking, and questioning of all buddhas and ancestors is precisely grasping the void.

The late master Tiantong, the ancient Buddha, said, "The whole body is like a mouth hanging in empty space." I have clearly realized: the whole body of empty space is hung upon empty space.

The head monk Ryō of Mount Seizan in Kōshū went to visit Master Baso. Baso asked, "What sūtra do you lecture on?" The monk said, "The Heart Sūtra." Baso said, "With what do you lecture?" The monk said, "I lecture with the mind." Baso said, "The mind is like the principal actor, consciousness is like the supporting actor.

The six senses are the companions—how could they possibly understand lecturing on a sūtra?" The monk said, "If the mind cannot lecture, then could it be that emptiness lectures?" Baso said, "Indeed, it is emptiness that lectures." The monk shook his sleeves and turned to leave. Baso called out, "Head monk!" The monk turned his head. Baso said, "From birth to old age, it is just this." The monk thereupon had an insight. He subsequently retired to Mount Seizan, and no further news of him was heard. Therefore, both buddhas and patriarchs are lecturers of sūtras. Lecturing on sūtras is invariably emptiness. If it is not emptiness, one cannot lecture on a single sūtra.

Whether lecturing on the Heart Sūtra or lecturing on the Body Sūtra, in both cases one lectures by means of emptiness. By means of emptiness, thinking is made manifest, and not-thinking is made manifest. There is knowledge with a teacher, there is knowledge without a teacher. There is innate knowledge, and there is knowledge acquired through learning—both are emptiness. To become a buddha, to become a patriarch—it should equally be emptiness.