Tashintsu

National Teacher Huizhong of Xijing's Guangzhai Temple was a man of Zhuji in Yuezhou, surnamed Ran. From the time he received the mind-seal, he resided at Dangzi Valley on Baiya Mountain in Nanyang for over forty years. He did not descend from the mountain gate, yet his practice of the Way became known in the imperial capital. In the second year of the Shangyuan era of Emperor Suzong of the Tang dynasty, an imperial edict was issued to the palace attendant Sun Chaojin, charging him to bear the summons and compel [Huizhong's] journey to the capital. He was received with the rites due a teacher. By imperial decree, he was lodged in the West Chan Hall of Qianfu Temple.

When Emperor Daizong ascended the throne, he was again welcomed and settled in the pure monastery of Guangzhai for sixteen years, expounding the Dharma according to the capacity [of his listeners]. At that time, there was one known as the Tripitaka Master Da'er from Western India who arrived at the capital. He claimed to have attained the wisdom-eye of knowing others' minds. The Emperor, by decree, ordered him to be tested with the National Teacher.

When Tripitaka Master Dangfang first saw the master, he bowed in reverence and stood to his right. The master asked, “Have you attained the power of reading others’ minds?” He replied, “I would not dare claim so.” The master said, “Tell me, where is this old monk right now?” Tripitaka said, “You, reverend, are the teacher of a nation—how can you be going off to Xichuan to watch the boat races?” The master asked again, “Where is this old monk right now?” Tripitaka said, “You, reverend, are the teacher of a nation—how can you be standing on Tianjin Bridge watching the monkey show?” The master asked a third time, “Where is this old monk right now?” Tripitaka was silent for a long while and could not discern his whereabouts. The master said, “This wild fox spirit—where is your power of reading others’ minds now?” Tripitaka had no reply.

A monk asked Master Zhaozhou, "The Great Ear Tripitaka, for the third time, could not see where the National Teacher was. I am not clear, where is the National Teacher?" Zhaozhou said, "He is on Tripitaka's nostrils." The monk asked Master Xuansha, "Since he is on his nostrils, why is it he cannot see him?" Xuansha said, "It is only because it is too near." A monk asked Master Yangshan, "The Great Ear Tripitaka, for the third time, why could he not see the National Teacher?" Yangshan said, "The first two times were the mind engaging with objects. Later, he entered the samādhi of self-enjoyment; therefore, he could not see." Master Haihui Duan said, "If the National Teacher were on Tripitaka's nostrils, why would it be difficult to see? He does not realize that the National Teacher is in Tripitaka's eyeballs." Xuansha questioned Tripitaka, saying, "You tell me, did he see in the first two times or not?" The Zen Master Xue Dou Ming Jue Chong Xian said, "A defeat, a defeat.

The case of National Teacher Daishō testing the Great-Eared Tripiṭaka is an old one, and while there are many stale fists that have offered comments and attempted to express it, there are in particular five venerable old fists. However, although each of these five venerable elders is not without some accurate and very accurate understanding, there are many points where they fail to perceive the National Teacher's conduct. Why is this? Because all the members, ancient and modern, generally think that in the first two instances, Tripiṭaka was not mistaken and knew the National Teacher's whereabouts. This is precisely a great error of the ancient worthies; later learners must not be unaware of it. Now, there are two general reasons for doubting the five venerable elders. First, they do not know the original intent of the National Teacher's testing of Tripiṭaka. Second, they do not know the National Teacher's body and mind.

To say they do not know the original intent of the National Teacher's testing of Tripiṭaka means that the original intent of the National Teacher's first question, "Tell me, where is this old monk right now?" was to test whether Tripiṭaka possessed the eye that sees and hears the Buddha-Dharma. It was to test whether Tripiṭaka naturally possessed the supernatural power of reading minds within the Buddha-Dharma. If Tripiṭaka had possessed the Buddha-Dharma at that time, when asked, "Where is this old monk right now?" there would have been a way to step forth; it would have allowed for a direct, intimate convenience.

What is called the National Teacher's saying, "Where is this old monk right now?" is like asking, "What is this old monk?" "Where is this old monk right now?" is asking, "What season is right now?" "In what place?" is expressing, "What place is here?" There is a principle of what is called "old monk." The National Teacher is not necessarily an old monk; the old monk is necessarily a fist.

Although the Great-Eared Tripiṭaka came from the distant Western Heavens, his not knowing this mind is because he had not studied the Buddha-Way; it is because he had vainly studied only the paths of non-Buddhists and the Two Vehicles. The National Teacher asks again, "Tell me, where is this old monk right now?" Here, Tripiṭaka again offers vain words. The National Teacher asks again, "Tell me, where is this old monk right now?" At that time, although Tripiṭaka hesitated for a long while, he was blank and made no reply.

The National Teacher then rebuked Tripiṭaka, saying, "This wild fox spirit, where is your supernatural power of reading minds?" Although rebuked like this, Tripiṭaka still said nothing, made no reply, and had no passage through. Yet, the ancient worthies all think that the National Teacher's rebuking Tripiṭaka was because in the first two instances he knew the National Teacher's whereabouts, and only in the third instance he did not know, did not see, and therefore was rebuked by the National Teacher. This is a great error. The National Teacher's rebuking Tripiṭaka is, in general, rebuking that Tripiṭaka from the start had not even dreamt of the Buddha-Dharma.

It is not rebuking that he knew the first two times but did not know the third. In general, it is rebuking that while claiming to have attained the supernatural power of reading minds, he did not know that power. The National Teacher first questioned and tested whether there is a supernatural power of reading minds in the Buddha-Dharma. He had already said, "I dare not," and it is heard as "there is." After that, the National Teacher thought: even if one says there is a supernatural power of reading minds in the Buddha-Dharma, if one makes that supernatural power into the Buddha-Dharma, it would be like this. If there is no place to express it, it cannot be the Buddha-Dharma.

Even if Tripiṭaka had managed to say something the third time, if it were like the first two times, it would not be a place of expression, and he would still be entangled and worthy of rebuke. Now, the National Teacher's testing by questioning three times is repeatedly making a threefold questioning to see if Tripiṭaka could grasp hearing the National Teacher's question. Second, there are no ancient worthies who know the National Teacher's body and mind.

What is called the National Teacher's body and mind is not something Tripiṭaka the Dharma Master could easily see or know. The Ten Saints and Three Worthies do not reach it; it is not clarified by those in the stage next to buddhahood or by those of equal enlightenment. How could Tripiṭaka, a scholar and ordinary person, know the National Teacher's whole body? This principle must be firmly settled. To say that Tripiṭaka the scholar should know or see the National Teacher's body and mind is to slander the Buddha-Dharma. To acknowledge him as equal to a master of sutras and treatises is extreme madness.

Do not study thinking that those who have attained the supernatural power of reading minds should know the National Teacher's whereabouts. In the Western Land of India, there are sometimes those among the common people who cultivate and attain this. It is not based on arousing the mind of enlightenment, nor on the correct view of the Great Vehicle. Among those who have attained the supernatural power of reading minds, we have never yet heard of a superior trace of one who verified and realized the Buddha-Dharma through the power of that supernatural ability.

Even after cultivating and attaining the supernatural power of reading minds, if one then arouses the mind and practices like an ordinary person, one will naturally be able to enter the verification of the Buddha-Way. If one could know and see the Buddha-Way solely by the power of the supernatural power of reading minds, then all the ancient sages would first have cultivated and attained that power and used its strength to know the fruit of buddhahood. Such a thing has never occurred, even with the appearance of a thousand buddhas and ten thousand ancestors. If it were unsuitable for knowing the way of the Buddhas and Ancestors, what use would it be?

It should be said to be useless for the Buddha-Way. One who has attained the supernatural power of reading minds and an ordinary person who has not are simply the same. In preserving and maintaining buddha-nature, the one with supernatural power and the ordinary person should be equal. Companions in learning the Buddha, do not think that the five or six supernatural powers of non-Buddhists and the Two Vehicles are superior to those of ordinary people.

One who has the mind for the Way and studies the Buddha-Dharma is superior to the five or six supernatural powers. It is like the sound within the egg of the kalaviṅka bird, which surpasses that of all other birds. Moreover, what is now called the supernatural power of reading minds in the Western Heavens should be called the power of reading others' thoughts. When a thought arises, it slightly connects, but before a thought arises it is blank; it is laughable. How much more so since mind is not necessarily thought, and thought is not necessarily mind. When mind is thought, the supernatural power of reading minds cannot be known.

When thought is mind, the supernatural power of reading minds cannot be known. Therefore, the five and six supernatural powers of the Western Heavens cannot reach even the weeding and field-tending of this land. They are completely useless. For this reason, east of the Land of Tang, the ancient virtues all did not delight in cultivating the five and six supernatural powers, because they are not essential. A foot-long jade disk may still be considered essential; the five or six powers are not essential.

A foot-long jade disk is still not a treasure; an inch of shadow is the essential pivot. Who would cultivate the five or six powers, valuing another's inch of shadow? The principle that the power of the supernatural power of reading minds cannot reach the limits of buddha-wisdom must be decisively determined. Yet, the five venerable elders all share the mistaken view that Tripiṭaka knew the National Teacher's whereabouts in the first two instances. The National Teacher is a Buddha-Ancestor; Tripiṭaka is an ordinary person. How could they even be discussed in terms of seeing each other?

The National Teacher first says, "You say, where is this old monk right now?" This question has no hidden place; there is a place of the Way that is manifest. It is not a fault that Tripitaka does not know it; it is an error that the five venerable elders do not hear it or see it. Since the National Teacher says, "Where is this old monk right now?" he does not further say, "You say, where is this old monk's mind right now?" He does not say, "Where is this old monk's thought right now?" It is originally a place of the Way that should be heard and known, seen and investigated. Yet, not knowing, not seeing, not hearing, not seeing the National Teacher's place of the Way.

Therefore, they do not know the National Teacher's body and mind. Because he is a National Teacher who has a place of the Way, if he had no place of the Way, he could not be a National Teacher. How much more so, one cannot know that the National Teacher's body and mind are not large or small, not self or other. It is as if one has forgotten having a crown of the head, having nostrils. Even if the National Teacher had no baggage, how could he plan to become a buddha?

Therefore, one must not pick up a buddha and treat it comparatively. The National Teacher already has the body and mind of the Buddha Dharma; one cannot measure it with spiritual powers and practice-realization. One cannot raise 'cutting off thought and forgetting conditions' and deliberate about it. It should not be within the reach of deliberation or non-deliberation. The National Teacher is not 'has buddha-nature,' is not 'has no buddha-nature,' is not an empty-space body. Such body and mind of the National Teacher are entirely unknown. Now, in the assembly under Caoqi, besides Qingyuan and Nanyue, there is only the Greatly Verified National Teacher who is that Buddha Ancestor. Now, the five venerable elders should likewise see through this.

Zhaozhou said, “Because the National Teacher is on Tripitaka’s nostrils, he says he does not see him.” This statement is not complete. How could the National Teacher be on Tripitaka’s nostrils? Tripitaka does not yet have nostrils. If we allow that Tripitaka has nostrils, then the National Teacher should in turn see Tripitaka. Even if we allow that the National Teacher sees Tripitaka, it would only be nostrils facing nostrils. Tripitaka should not meet the National Teacher. Xuansha said, “Only because it is too close.” Indeed, “too close” may be so, but it does not yet hit the mark. What is this “too close”?

Consider that Xuansha does not yet know “too close,” has not realized “too close.” Why? Because he only knows that in “too close” there is no meeting, but does not know that meeting is “too close.” It should be said, “In the Buddha Dharma, it is far beyond far.” If we call only the third time “too close,” then the first two times must be “too far.” Let us ask Xuansha for a moment: What do you call “too close”? Do you mean the fist? Do you mean the eye?

From now on, do not say there is no seeing in “too close.” Yangshan said, “The first two times were the mind involved with objects; the later entry was the samādhi of self-enjoyment; therefore he did not see.” Yangshan, though you are in the Eastern Land, your reputation as a little Śākyamuni spreads to the Western Heaven, yet your present statement has a great error. “The mind involved with objects” and “the samādhi of self-enjoyment” are not different. Therefore, one cannot say that because “the mind involved with objects” and “self-enjoyment” are different, he did not see.

Thus, even if one establishes a reason for “self-enjoyment” and “the mind involved with objects,” that statement is not yet a true statement. If one says that when in the samādhi of self-enjoyment, others cannot see me, then self-enjoyment cannot verify self-enjoyment, there can be no practice and verification. Yangshan, if you think that in the first two times Tripitaka actually saw the National Teacher’s whereabouts, and study this as if knowing it, you are not yet a man who studies the Buddha.

Generally speaking, Great Ear Tripitaka did not know the National Teacher’s whereabouts in the first two times either, he did not see. If it is as this statement says, then not only did Tripitaka not know the National Teacher’s whereabouts, but it must also be said that Yangshan does not yet know the National Teacher’s whereabouts. Let us ask Yangshan for a moment: “Where is the National Teacher right now?” At this time, if Yangshan prepares to open his mouth, he should be given one shout. Xuansha’s probing question said, “Did he still see in the first two times?” Now this single phrase, “Did he still see in the first two times?” sounds like something that should be said.

Xuansha should study his own words. This one phrase is good precisely because it is good. However, it is merely like saying “seeing is like not seeing.” Therefore it is not it. Hearing this, Zen Master Xuedou Mingjue Chongxian said, “A defeat, a defeat.” When one takes what Xuansha says as the Way, one may say this, but when one does not take Xuansha’s saying as the Way, one should not say this. Haihui Duan said, “If the National Teacher is on Tripitaka’s nostrils, what is difficult to see?

He does not realize that the National Teacher is in Tripitaka’s eyes.” This also only discusses the third time. He does not condemn what should be condemned: that in the first two times he also did not yet see. How could one know the National Teacher is on Tripitaka’s nostrils or in his eyes? If one speaks thus, it must be said one has not yet heard the National Teacher’s words. Tripitaka does not yet have nostrils, does not yet have eyes. Even if Tripitaka tries to maintain his own eyes and nostrils, if the National Teacher comes and enters the nostrils and eyes, Tripitaka’s nostrils and eyes would both be shattered at that very moment.

Once shattered, they are not the National Teacher’s holes. The five venerable elders all do not know the National Teacher. The National Teacher is an ancient buddha of that generation, a tathāgata of one world. He clearly transmitted the Buddha’s True Dharma Eye Treasury. He truly maintained the bead-eye. He transmitted it correctly to his own buddha, and transmitted it correctly to other buddhas. Although he studied together with Śākyamuni Buddha, he studied together with the Seven Buddhas.

He studied together with all buddhas of the three times; he attained the Way before Empty King Buddha, he attained the Way after Empty King Buddha. He correctly studied together and attained the Way with Empty King Buddha. Although the National Teacher originally made the sahā world his land, the sahā world is not necessarily within the Dharma realm, not within the entire ten-direction world. Śākyamuni Buddha, being the lord of the sahā land, does not seize the National Teacher’s land, does not obstruct it. For example, although the buddhas and ancestors before and after each attained the Way in various ways, they do not seize from each other, do not obstruct each other. The attainment of the Way by the buddhas and ancestors before and after is like this precisely because they are all unobstructed in their attainment of the Way.

As clear evidence that Daijō Sanzō did not know the National Teacher, it should be definitively established that śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, those of the Lesser Vehicle, do not know the ultimate extent of the Buddhas and Ancestors. One should clearly study the principle by which the National Teacher reprimanded Sanzō. The argument that, even if he were the National Teacher, since his whereabouts were known the first two times but only slightly unknown the third time, he should be reprimanded—this reasoning does not hold. To know two parts out of three is to know the whole. If it were like that, he should not be reprimanded. Even if reprimanded, it would not be a case of complete ignorance. What Sanzō thought was the National Teacher's embarrassment. If he were to be reprimanded merely for the third time being slightly unknown, who would believe in the National Teacher? With the power by which he knew the first two times, Sanzō should have reprimanded the National Teacher as well.

The principle by which the National Teacher caused Sanzō to be reprimanded is that he reprimanded him because, from the beginning through all three times, he did not know the National Teacher's whereabouts, thoughts, body, or mind. Because this principle exists, from the first to the third time, he questioned him with the same words. The first time, Sanzō said, "Reverend, you are the teacher of a nation. Why do you go to Xichuan to watch the boat races?" Even when he said this, the National Teacher did not yet speak; he did not grant that "you, Sanzō, truly know this old monk's whereabouts." He merely pressed the question repeatedly three times.

Not knowing or clarifying this principle, in the hundreds of years since the National Teacher, elders everywhere have randomly given comments and expounded theories. All the statements made by each of these previous figures are not in accord with the National Teacher's original intent and do not match the principle of the Buddha's Dharma. It is pitiful how these old veterans, earlier and later, each missed the mark.

Now, if within the Buddha's Dharma one speaks of "the penetration of others' minds," then there should equally be "the penetration of others' bodies," "the penetration of others' fists," and "the penetration of others' eyes." Since it is thus, there should equally be "the penetration of one's own mind" and "the penetration of one's own body." Since it would be like this, the self-grasping of one's own mind should now be "the penetration of one's own mind." To express and manifest in this way would be "the penetration of others' minds" that is naturally one's own, from one's own mind. Let us question this for a moment: Is grasping "the penetration of others' minds" also it? Is grasping "the penetration of one's own mind" also it? Speak quickly, speak quickly! Leave aside that for now. "You have attained my marrow"—is this "the penetration of others' minds"?