Ōsaku Sendaba

Phrases and no-phrases are like vines and trees. The donkey leans, the horse leans; they penetrate water, they penetrate clouds. Since it is already thus, in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, the World-Honored One says: It is like a great king who announces to his various ministers, "Bring sendhapava." Sendhapava is one name with four realities. First, salt; second, a vessel; third, water; fourth, a horse. These four things share a single name. A minister with wisdom knows this name well. If the king, when washing, requests sendhapava, he immediately offers water. If the king, when eating, requests sendhapava, he immediately offers salt.

If the king, having eaten and wishing to drink a decoction, requests sendhapava, he immediately offers a vessel. If the king, wishing to go out, requests sendhapava, he immediately offers a horse. Thus, a wise minister skillfully understands the king's four kinds of secret words. This king's requesting sendhapava and the minister's offering sendhapava have come down from long ago, transmitted the same as the Dharma robe.

Since the World-Honored One could not avoid raising and holding it up, his descendants have frequently raised and held it up. If one doubts, even to have studied together with the World-Honored One is to practice sendhapava; if one has not studied together with the World-Honored One, then one must buy straw sandals anew and go on pilgrimage, advancing one step to begin to attain. The sendhapava within the house of the Buddhas and Ancestors has secretly leaked out; there is sendhapava within the house of the great king.

The ancient Buddha Hongzhi of Mount Tiantong in Qingyuan Prefecture in the Great Song dynasty, ascending the hall and instructing the assembly, said: “I raise [this case]: A monk asked Zhaozhou, ‘When the king demands the sendaba, what then?’ Zhaozhou bent his body and folded his hands.” Xuefeng, raising [the case], said: “Demanding salt, he is presented with a horse.” The Master [Dōgen] says: Xuefeng is a master of a hundred years ago; Zhaozhou is an ancient Buddha of a hundred and twenty years. If Zhaozhou is right, then Xuefeng is wrong; if Xuefeng is right, then Zhaozhou is wrong. I ask you, ultimately, what is it? The ancient Buddha of Tiantong cannot avoid adding a footnote: “A discrepancy of a hair’s breadth leads to an error of a thousand miles. If you understand, it is like beating the grass and startling the snake; if you do not understand, it is like burning paper money and attracting ghosts.

The wild field does not select old Juzhi; it is just what is now freely picked up by hand.” When my late Master, the ancient Buddha, ascended the hall, he always said, “the ancient Buddha Hongzhi.” However, the one who truly saw Hongzhi as an ancient Buddha was solely my late Master, the ancient Buddha. In Hongzhi’s time, there was the Chan master Dahui Zonggao of Mount Jingshan, who must have been a distant descendant of the Nanyue lineage. The whole country of the Great Song thought that Dahui must be equal to Hongzhi, or even that he was the greater man, surpassing Hongzhi.

This error arose because the monastics and laypeople within the Great Song were both superficial in their learning, their eye for the Way not yet clear, lacking in the clarity of knowing people and lacking the power of knowing themselves. That which Hongzhi attained involved true, genuine resolve. One must study the principle of Zhaozhou, the ancient Buddha, bending his body and folding his hands. Precisely at such a time, is this the king demanding the sendaba or not? Is this the minister presenting the sendaba or not?

One must study the essential point of Xuefeng’s “demanding salt, he is presented with a horse.” So-called “demanding salt, he is presented with a horse”: it is both the king demanding the sendaba and the minister demanding the sendaba. When the World-Honored One demanded the sendaba, Mahākāśyapa broke into a slight smile. When the First Patriarch demanded the sendaba, the four disciples presented a horse, salt, water, and a vessel. When the horse, salt, water, and vessel are precisely the demanding of the sendaba, one must study the pivotal mechanism of presenting the horse and presenting the water.

One day, Nanquan saw Runyin Feng approaching, and so he pointed to a clean water jar and said, "This clean jar is precisely a circumstance. Within the jar there is water. Do not move or attach to the circumstance. Bring water for this old monk." Feng thereupon took the jar of water and poured it out before Nanquan. Nanquan immediately ceased. This is Nanquan seeking water, penetrating to the bottom until the ocean dries up. Runyin Feng presenting the vessel, the jar leaks and empties the pool. Even though it is thus, you must investigate that within the circumstance there is water, and within the water there is a circumstance. Has the water moved? Has the circumstance moved?

Master Xiangyan, the Lamp Successor, was once asked by a monk, "What is the king demanding Xiantuopo?" Xiangyan said, "Come over here." The monk went over. Xiangyan said, "How utterly dull!" Let us ask for a moment: Xiangyan's saying "Come over here"—is this demanding Xiantuopo, or is it offering Xiantuopo? I ask you to try and speak. Incidentally, the monk's going over—is it Xiangyan's demanding, or Xiangyan's offering, or Xiangyan's original intent?

If it is not the original intent, one should not say "How utterly dull!" If it is the original intent, it should not be "How utterly dull!" Although this is Xiangyan's lifelong, exhaustive expression of the Way, he still does not escape losing his body and forfeiting his life. It is like a defeated general still boasting of his martial prowess. Generally, speaking of yellow and speaking of black, the crown of the head and the eyeball—they themselves are the demanding and offering of Xiantuopo, examined minutely and in detail. Raising the staff, lifting the whisk—who could say they do not know? However, this is not the province of those who glue the pegs and tune the strings.

These fellows, because they do not know about gluing the pegs and tuning the strings, it is not their province.

One day the World-Honored One ascended the seat. Manjushri struck the gavel and said, "Contemplate well the Dharma of the Dharma King; the Dharma of the Dharma King is like this." The World-Honored One descended from the seat. Zen Master Mingjue Chongxian of Xuedou Mountain said, "Among the assembly of sages, only the adept knows; the Dharma King's Dharma decree is not like deception. If among the assembly there is a guest of sendaba, why must Manjushri strike the gavel?" Therefore, Xuedou's saying is such that even if the single strike of the gavel were like a body without openings, both the act of striking and not striking would equally be a shedding without openings.

If it is like this, then the single strike is precisely sendaba. Already being such a person, this is the one assembly of sages, the guest of sendaba. For this reason, "the Dharma of the Dharma King is like this." Making the twelve hours function—this is seeking sendaba. Being used by the twelve hours—this is seeking sendaba. If a fist is sought, offer a fist. If a whisk is sought, offer a whisk.

However, even those now called elders in the various mountains of the Great Song nation have not even dreamt of sendaba. How pitiful, how pitiful! The Way of the Ancestors is in decline. Do not neglect arduous study; you must surely continue the life-vein of the Buddhas and Ancestors. For example, consider the question, "What is Buddha?" Those who say "the very mind is Buddha"—what is their essential point? Is this not sendaba? You must carefully investigate who it is that says "the very mind is Buddha." Who knows the striking and knocking of sendaba?