Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings (123 page)

A monk asked, “What is the buddha within the city?”

Dayu said, “A stone banner at the main intersection.”

A monk asked, “How can
it
be expressed without words?”

Dayu said, “The universe three feet too long. The cosmos six feet too short.”

The monk said, “I don’t understand what you mean.”

Dayu said, “All samsaric ground is excessive or lacking.”

A monk asked, “Formerly, at the assembly at Vulture Peak, what was it that the Second Ancestor witnessed?”

Dayu said, “Do you remember?”

The monk remained silent for a long while.

Dayu then struck the meditation platform and said, “After so many years, you’ve forgotten!”

Then Dayu said, “Stop! Stop! If you try to grasp the function from within the words, it will be like seeing shadows when you’re dizzy. If you speak of the ancient vehicle, it’s like talking in your sleep. Although it is thus, officially, not a single needle can be inserted into it, but privately a cart and horse can pass through it. But if you allow a road there, it will be a place of creepers and reeds.”

Dayu then struck the meditation platform again and said, “‘The three worlds,’ ‘all the buddhas,’ these phrases are all just a headache. What I say to you all is, can you avoid it? Is there a single person who can avoid it by finding a place where it doesn’t exist? Not avoiding it, the ocean-seal radiates brilliantly.”

Dayu then raised his whisk and said, “This is the seal. Where is the light? This is the light. Where is the seal? The function flashes, yet you students stand around and think about it! Do you understand? I am speaking a dream, yet what do you say is to be seen in this dream. If you still don’t understand, then listen to this verse:

Mt. Sumeru suspended in the Big Dipper,
The tip of the staff upholds the sun and moon.
Forests and springs conversing,
The waning summer cleaved by the autumn wind.

“Take care!”

Dayu ascended the seat. Displaying a lighted stick of incense to his disciples, he said, “When the brightness comes, unite with the brightness. When the darkness comes, unite with the darkness. When the Way is attained, the world is ordered. When the Way is not attained, the world is disordered.”

The following passages are taken from the
Chan Lin Seng Bao Zhuan
.

A monk asked, “The innumerable dharmas are like illusory reflective bubbles. Would the master please bring forth a matter of substantial truth?”

Dayu said, “If two sections are not the same, the text is long.”

The monk then asked, “The whole body is the Dharma eye. Where is the mouth?”

Dayu said, “Three leaps.”

The monk drew close and said, “I don’t understand.”

Dayu said, “At the end of the essay are the words, ‘In autumn finished, songs and verses are renewed in the spring.’ Among the great numbers of monks, one stands out above the rest. It’s like the verse by Yang Danian in this era that says,

For the one who walks within the eight-sided millstone,
Even Manjushri’s lion is a cur.
If you plan to conceal yourself within the Northern Dipper,
Then clasp your hands behind the Southern Cross.
¹⁷¹

Dayu then said, “If you want to understand, then know that a single verse spreads in all directions, obstructing and cutting off the words of patch-robed monks.”

Dayu also said, “When Luzu saw a monk approach he faced the wall. Nanquan said, ‘You must comprehend what is before the Buddha appears in the world.’ But until now there hasn’t been a single one, or even a half of one, who understands. I say to you emphatically that if you do not realize your nature that existed before the womb, then you will be chopped in two at the waist.”

The official Mi Jianli of Nanchang invited the master to become the abbot of a temple at Cuiyan [“Emerald Crag”] on West Mountain. At his first lecture in the new hall, Dayu addressed the sacred Buddhist images, saying, “The profound affair is promulgated, the Dharma wheel is again turned.” [He then said to the assembly] “Speaking of the Dharma wheel, what is it that turns? Do you understand? You must, at the very top, laugh out, and pivot yourself. But you just come in the hall and cross your legs. Ha, ha, ha. What’s that? The food is in the basket, but you sit starving. You must be at ease in the mud and water. Who will you be with? When nobles hear it they are happy and at peace. When commoners hear it they are unselfish.”

LANGYE HUIJUE, “KAIHUA GUANGZHAO”

LANGYE HUIJUE (n.d.) was a disciple of Fenyang Shanzhao. He came from ancient Xiluo. Case 100 of the
Book of Serenity
states that Langye’s father was the governor of Hengyang (a city in southern Hunan Province). His father died there, and Langye, fulfilling his filial obligation, carried his father’s casket back to their native home. While passing through Lizhou (the modern Li County in Hunan Province), Langye climbed up Mt. Yao to see the ancient monastery there. He was surprised to find that the monastery seemed completely familiar, as though he’d lived there before. Because of this, he left home to become a monk. He studied under Zen master Fenyang Shanzhao and became his Dharma heir. Later, he lived at Chuzhou (the modern Chu County of Anwei Province) where he spread the influence of the Linji school of Zen. His teachings, along with those of his Zen contemporary Xuedou Chongxian (Mingjue), were jointly called “the two gates of sweet dew.”
¹⁷²

A monk asked Langye, “What is Buddha?”

Langye said, “Copper head, iron forehead.”

The monk said, “What does that mean?”

Langye said, “Bird beak, fish gills.”