Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings (146 page)

The dowager empress, Zi Ning, ordered the construction of a temple to honor her ancestors. At the opening ceremony Zhenxie lectured to the assembled crowd, saying: “My previous teacher slapped me and all of my cleverness vanished. I was unable to open my mouth to speak. Was that like all of these fast-talking but shallow fellows we see today? If not, [then let them] take the iron bit in their mouths and suffer the whip, then let’s see what each of them can say.”

Zhenxie entered the hall and addressed the monks, saying, “Climbing to some mountain top, crossing some bridge, rushing about like this is how people these days travel to places high and low. But if they’ve really penetrated it, then without leaving their room their body pervades the ten directions. Not entering any gate, they are always in their room. But if someone doesn’t understand this, then when he feels a draught he goes and hauls a big load of firewood.”

Zhenxie addressed the monks, saying, “Looking everywhere it can’t be found. There’s just one place you can’t search, and there it is attained. What place is that?”

After a long pause, Zhenxie said, “The thief’s body is already exposed.”

Zhenxie said, “Is there anyone who hasn’t been stained by Xuansha? Even if you dip this stain in the four seas, you won’t be able to wash it out.”

A monk asked, “What is the self before the empty eon?”

Zhenxie said, “A white horse enters the flowers and reeds.”

A monk asked Zhenxie, “All the buddhas in the three worlds have turned the great wheel of Dharma into the flames. Has this ceased or not?”

Zhenxie laughed out loud and said, “I have doubts about it.”

The monk said, “Master, why do you have doubts about this?”

Zhenxie said, “The wild flowers’ fragrance fills the road. The secluded bird does not know it’s spring.”

A monk asked, “Without letting go of wind and color, is it still possible to pivot oneself or not?”

Zhenxie said, “Where the stone person walks, there’s no other activity.”

One day, Zhenxie went into the kitchen and saw a pot of boiling noodles. Suddenly, the bottom fell out of the pot.

The monks there were crestfallen, saying, “Oh, what a waste!”

Zhenxie said, “An overturned bucket is a joy. Why are you disturbed?”

A monk said, “The master can take delight in it.”

Zhenxie yelled, “Really, it’s a shame to waste a pot of noodles!”

Zhenxie died in [the year 1151]. His stupa, named “Flowering Paulownia Island,” was placed west of the temple. He received the posthumous name “Zen Master Enlightened Emptiness.”

HONGZHI ZHENGJUE, “TIANTONG”

HONGZHI ZHENGJUE (1091–1157) was a disciple of Danxia Zichun. He came from ancient Xi Province (now the area of Xi County in Shanxi Province). A brilliant young scholar, he excelled at studying the Confucian classics. Throughout his adult life, Hongzhi lived and taught in ancient Mingzhou, the area around modern Ningbo city in Zhejiang Province. His nickname, Tiantong, is derived from a famous Buddhist mountain monastery of that place. Tiantong was one of the “Five Mountains,” five principal Zen monasteries that served as administrative centers for the Zen monastic system during the Song dynasty.
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Hongzhi’s father practiced Zen under a teacher named Fotuo Xun. One day the Zen master pointed at the young Hongzhi and said to his father, “This child’s harmony with the Way is extraordinary. He’s not a person of the dusty world. If he ‘leaves home’ he will be a Dharma vessel.”

At age eleven, Hongzhi left home to enter a monastery. He was but fourteen when he received ordination at Ziyun (“Compassion Cloud”) Temple. At eighteen he departed to roam as a yunshui, taking a vow to his ancestors to not return until he had resolved the “great affair” of life and death.

Traveling to Xiangshan (“Fragrant Mountain”) in Ruzhou, Hongzhi studied with a Zen master and previous student of Danxia Zichun named Kumu Facheng.
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The name “Kumu” means “tree stump.” The term was earlier used to describe the students of Zen master Shishuang Qingzhu, who sat day and night in meditation like “tree stumps.” Facheng received this name by following in Shishuang Qingzhu’s footsteps, maintaining devotion to zazen as central to Zen practice. This practice greatly influenced Hongzhi’s personal outlook and practice. Later, Hongzhi became widely known as the proponent of “silent illumination Zen.” The phrase refers to the manifested buddhahood of sitting in silent meditation. This approach to practice attracted hundreds of monks to Tiantong Temple, which thus grew in size and stature. In this way, the practices of Zen master Qingzhu that occurred centuries before on Mt. Shishuang directly influenced and shaped the practice of the Caodong school of Zen.