Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings (61 page)

“When persons of high ability hear these words they are clear about what’s being said. Those of middle or low ability continue rushing around. Why don’t you just directly face life and death? Don’t tell me you still want the buddhas and ancestors to live and die in your place! People who understand will laugh at you.

“If you still don’t get it, then listen to this verse:

Belaboring life and death,
Just seeking Buddha’s quarter,
Confused about the truth before your eyes,
Poking a fire to find a cool spot.”

A monk asked, “There has always been meaning attributed to the teachings of the buddhas and ancestors. Why does the master say there isn’t any?”

Jiashan said, “Don’t eat for three years and you won’t see anyone hungry.”

The monk said, “If no one is hungry, why can’t I gain awakening?”

Jiashan said, “Because awakening has confused you.”

Jiashan then recited this verse to make his point:

Clear and luminous, no Dharma of awakening,
Awakening confuses people.
In paradise with two feet and eyes,
Nothing false, and nothing true.

Jiashan entered the hall and addressed the monks, saying, “I’ve been living on this mountain for twenty years, and the whole time I’ve never spoken a word about the essential teaching of Zen.”

A monk asked, “Is the master saying that you’ve been here for twenty years and you’ve never spoken about the central matter of Zen?”

Jiashan said, “Yes.”

One of the monks then overturned the meditation platform.

Jiashan stopped speaking and went out.

The next day, all the monks were called to assemble. The master dug a hole and had his assistant call out the monk who had overturned the platform the day before.

Addressing the monk, Jiashan said, “For twenty years I’ve been speaking meaninglessly. So today I invite you to kill me and bury me in this hole. Do it! Do it! If you can’t kill me then kill yourself and bury yourself in this hole!”

The monk went to the monks’ hall and packed his bag. He then quietly stole away.

On the seventh day of the eleventh month in [the year 881], Jiashan called together his principal monks and said, “I’ve talked extensively for many years. As to the Buddhadharma, each of you should know for yourself. Now I’m just an empty form. My time is up and I must go. Take care of the teaching as if I were still here. Don’t be like people of the world and be grief stricken after I’m gone.”

Upon saying these words, Jiashan suddenly passed away. His remains were kept in a stupa built on the mountain. He received the posthumous name “Great Teacher Transmitting Clarity.”

SHISHUANG QINGZHU

SHISHUANG QINGZHU (807–88) was a disciple of Yaoshan Weiyan. He came from the city of Xingan near ancient Luling. He was ordained by Zen master Xishan Shaolong on Mt. Tai at the age of twenty-three, and then proceeded to study the Vinaya. Finding this path to be too slow, he traveled to Mt. Gui, where he studied with Guishan Lingyou and worked preparing food in the kitchen.

In a famous exchange between Guishan and Shishuang, Guishan chided him for overlooking a grain of rice that had accidentally dropped on the floor.

Shishuang went to Mt. Gui, where he served as a rice cook. Once when he was preparing the rice, Guishan said to him, “Don’t lose anything offered by our patrons.”

Shishuang said, “I’m not losing anything.”

Guishan reached down and picked up a single grain of rice that had fallen to the ground and said, “You said you haven’t lost anything, but what’s this?”

Shishuang didn’t answer.

Guishan said, “Don’t lightly regard this one grain, a hundred thousand grains are born from this one.”

Shishuang said, “A hundred thousand grains are born from this one, but from what place is this one grain born?”

Guishan laughed, “Ha, ha,” and went back to his room.

That evening Guishan entered the hall and addressed the monks, saying, “Everyone! There’s an insect in the rice. You should all go and see it!”

When Shishuang met Daowu, he said, “What is the transcendent wisdom that meets the eye?”

Daowu called to an attendant and he responded. Daowu said to him, “Add some clean water to the pitcher.”

After a long pause, Daowu said to Shishuang, “What did you just come and ask me?”

Shishuang started to raise his previous question when Daowu got up and left the room. Shishuang then had a great realization.

When Daowu was about to die, he said, “There’s something in my mind. An old trouble. Who can get rid of it for me?”

Shishuang said, “All things in your mind are unreal. Get rid of good and bad.”

Daowu said, “Worthy! Worthy!”

Later, Shishuang hid from the world. He lived in obscurity in Liuyang as a potter’s assistant. In the morning he would go to work and in the evening he would return home. No one knew him [to be an adept]. Dongshan Liangjie sent a monk to find him.

Shishuang asked him, “What does Dongshan say to provide instruction to his disciples?”

The monk said, “At the end of the summer practice period he said to the monks, ‘The fall has begun and the summer has ended. If you brethren go traveling, you must go to the place where there isn’t a blade of grass for ten thousand miles.’

“After a long pause, Dongshan said, ‘How can one go to a place where a single blade of grass isn’t found for ten thousand miles?’”

Shishuang said, “Did anyone respond or not?”

The monk said, “No.”

Shishuang said, “Why didn’t someone say, ‘Going out the door, there’s the grass’?”

The monk went back and relayed what Shishuang said to Dongshan.

Dongshan said, “This is the talk of wonderful knowledge appropriate for [an abbot of] fifteen hundred people.”