Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings (137 page)

Huitang entered the hall and said, “Before the appearance of skilled craftsmen, jade could not be separated from stone. Without skilled metallurgists, gold can’t be removed from sand. Can someone gain enlightenment without a teacher or not? Come forward and let’s check you out.”

Huitang then raised his whisk and said, “Tell me, is it gold or is it sand?”

After a long pause, he said, “Don’t think of it as here before you. Imagine it a thousand miles away.”

Huitang entered the hall and recited a verse:

Not going,
Not leaving,
Thoughts of South Mountain and Mt. Tiantai,
The silly white cloud with no fixed place,
Blown back and forth by the wind.

Huitang, when interviewing a monk in the abbot’s quarters, would often raise a fist and say, “If you call it a fist I’ll hit you with it. If you don’t call it a fist you’re being evasive. What do you call it?”

Before he died, Huitang ordered that his funeral be conducted by his disciples and by [his student] Wang Tingjian, the local governor. During the cremation ceremony, Linfeng tried to light the pyre with a candle on behalf of the governor. The pyre would not light.

Governor Wang then spoke to Huitang’s senior disciple, Sixin, saying, “The master is waiting for our senior brother to light the fire.”

Sixin ritually refused Wang’s request, but the governor urged him to take the candle.

Finally, taking the candle, Sixin raised it before the assembly and said, “What evil have I committed that brings me to this? A great crime is hard to absolve! [Then facing the pyre, Sixin said,] Now, Master, you go on foot into emptiness. If you can’t ride an ox, please use a donkey!”

Sixin then drew a circle in the air with the candle, saying, “Here, all defilement is purified!”

He then threw the candle onto the pyre, which instantly erupted into flames.

Huitang’s remains were interred on the east side of the “Universal Enlightenment Stupa.” The master received the posthumous title “Zen Master Precious Enlightenment.”

BAIYUN SHOUDUAN

BAIYUN SHOUDUAN (1025–72) was a disciple of Yangqi Fanghui. He came from Hengyang (a city in Hunan Province). As a youth, he was skilled at scholarly arts. He received ordination at age twenty from a Zen master named Chaling You. He later traveled to study with Yangqi Fanghui, the great teacher of the Linji lineage, with whom he attained enlightenment. After spending a long period as Yangqi’s attendant, Baiyun traveled and taught at a number of different temples, everywhere gathering large crowds of students. He eventually lived and taught at Baiyun Mountain (located seventy kilometers east of Tongcheng County in Anwei Province). The
Wudeng Huiyuan
offers an account of Baiyun’s awakening.

One day Yangqi suddenly asked Baiyun, “Under what teacher were you ordained?”

Baiyun said, “Master Chaling You.”

Yangqi said, “I heard that he stumbled while crossing a bridge and attained enlightenment. He then composed an unusual verse. Do you remember it or not?”

Baiyun then recited the verse:

I possess a lustrous pearl
Long locked away by dust and toil.
Now the dust is gone and a light shines forth,
Illuminating myriad blossoms with the mountains and rivers.

Yangqi suddenly laughed out loud and jumped up. Baiyun was shocked [by this behavior] so much that he hardly slept that night.

Early the next morning Yangqi questioned Baiyun about what had happened the night before. He asked, “Did you witness an exorcism last night?”

Baiyun said, “Yes.”

Yangqi said, “You don’t measure up to
it
.”

This startled Baiyun. He asked, “What do you mean?”

Yangqi said, “
It
enjoyed someone’s laughter. You fear someone’s laughter.”

[Upon hearing these words] Baiyun experienced great enlightenment.

Baiyun then served as Yangqi’s attendant for a long period of time. He (later) took leave of Yangqi and traveled to Yuantong Temple where, at the recommendation of [the abbot] Zen master Yuantong Na, he then assumed the abbacy of and taught at Chengtian Temple.
²⁰¹
There his reputation became widely known.

Zen master Baiyun Shouduan entered the hall and addressed the monks, saying, “In former times there was an assembly at Vulture Peak where the World-Honored One held up a flower, and Mahakashyapa smiled. The World-Honored One said, ‘I have
The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye
. I pass it to Mahakashyapa.’ This was then passed on in succession down to the present day.

“I say to this assembly that if it was really the true Dharma eye, then old Shakyamuni didn’t have it, and so how could he have passed it on? How could it have been transmitted? How can such a thing be said?

“In fact, each of you possesses the treasury of the true Dharma eye. But every day after you get out of bed, there’s ‘yes, yes,’ and ‘no, no,’ dividing up ‘south’ and ‘north,’ and other acts of bifurcation, all of which taken together are the light of the treasury of the true Dharma eye.

“When this eye opens, the entire universe and the great earth, the sun, moon, stars, and constellations, the myriad forms of the universe, though all right before your eyes, do not manifest a single bit of form. Before the eye opens, it is extinguished in the eyes of all people.

“Today it has already opened, and it is not limited to this place. But as to those of you for whom the eye has not opened; I don’t lack the ability, so I’ll open it and let you see.”

Baiyun then raised his hand with two fingers extended vertically and said, “Look! Look! If you can see it then it’s the same as I’ve said. If you can’t see
it
, then I’ll have to recite another verse:

The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye of each of you,
Cannot be matched by the thousand sages,
The line passes through you,
Brilliantly filling the great Tang.

Mt. Sumeru walks into the sea,
In June a cold frost descends,
Though I speak of it thus,
No words can describe it.

“Monks! I’ve spoken a mouthful. So why is it that no words can describe it?”

Baiyun then shouted and said, “Each of you has two places to see it!”