Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings (22 page)

On the anniversary of the death of the National Teacher, Danyuan held a memorial banquet.

A monk asked, “Is the National Teacher coming?”

Danyuan said, “We won’t have his mind.”

The monk asked, “Then why give this banquet?”

Danyuan said, “To not stop the truth of the world.”

Ninth Generation

BAIZHANG HUAIHAI

A FOREMOST DISCIPLE of Mazu, Baizhang Huaihai (720–814) was originally from the city of Changle in Fuzhou. He took his vows as a monk under the Vinaya master Fachao on Mt. Heng. Brilliant and learned as a young man, he traveled to study under the great teacher Mazu Daoyi. The
Wudeng Huiyuan
ranks him, along with Xitang Zhizang and Nanquan Puyuan, as one of the three most illustrious disciples of Mazu.

Baizhang represents how Bodhidharma’s Zen tradition put down roots and matured in China. From the perspective of spiritual practice, Baizhang’s teachings hewed to the tradition attributed to Bodhidharma of not relying on scripture but instead on “turning the light inward.” While this approach naturally led to a de-emphasis or outright rejection of religious symbolism and to iconoclastic tendencies, Baizhang kept Zen firmly grounded with his emphasis on ethical behavior and his “pure rules” for the monastery. This also reinforced the centrality of the home-leaving tradition. Here was a Zen teacher of clarity, who recognized that understanding the nature of the mind and observing the wheel of birth and death is not the final goal of Zen practice, but its source. He demonstrated that while the nature of consciousness is that it is not in the domain of the individual, the physical body is its vehicle—and he taught that overemphasis on “mind” while degrading the role of body leads to unethical behavior and nihilism. Here, Buddhism’s emphasis on the “middle way” takes complete form in a tradition too susceptible to philosophical idealism and metaphysics.

Baizhang established the “pure rules” for Zen monasteries and brought Zen’s unruly iconoclasm under greater control. These rules also reinforced the independence of Zen as a religious movement and forestalled the tradition’s absorption into China’s imperial religious establishment. The “pure rules” were part of the process of redefining Buddhist ethics so that the religion could survive independently in China. The new rules also provide evidence of the substantial changes that China needed to make to the tradition. Now monks who left the world could survive through their own labor, and not just through contributions from the lay community.

Baizhang counseled to not rely on doctrine or metaphysical ideas and nonetheless to not ignore the profound ethical implications of Bodhidharma’s Zen practice. His avoidance of metaphysics is most apparent in this passage from his recorded words:

If you cling to some fundamental [read: “metaphysical”] “purity” or “liberation,” or [to the idea] that you yourself are Buddha, or that you are someone who understands the Zen Way, then this falls under the false idea of “naturalism” [i.e. something not subject to cause and effect]. If you cling to [the idea of self or things’] “existence,” then this falls under the false idea of “eternalism.” If you cling to [the self or things’] “nonexistence” this falls under the false idea of nihilism. If you cling to either of the concepts of existence or nonexistence, this falls under the false idea of partiality. If you cling to a concept that things do not exist and also do not not exist, then this is the false idea of emptiness, and is also called the heresy of ignorance. One should only practice in the present without views of Buddha, nirvana, and so on, and without any ideas about existence or nonexistence, and so on; and without views about views, which is called the correct view; or what you have not heard or not not heard, for this is true hearing. This is all called “overcoming spurious doctrines.”

Baizhang’s “practice in the present” is how Zen follows Bodhidharma’s instruction about “observing” mind. It is the observation that the present is the only context for life and practice, yet not imbuing that observation with ideas of existence, nonexistence, etc. The “nature” of which Bodhidharma taught and Baizhang spoke is not a metaphysical substrata of the observable world, but an undefinable quality of consciousness that, as Shitou said, lies outside the perspectives of “temporary” or “everlasting.” To Baizhang, all such views fall short of what can be directly observed.

The idea of “overcoming spurious doctrines” again reveals the contrast between Zen and the Buddhism of Emperor Wu. It draws a clear line between Zen and the parts of Mahayana Buddhism that idealized the faith and expounded it in grand metaphysical terms. This grounding of Zen in the present and in ordinary life characterized Bodhidharma’s Zen tradition from its early times to the present.

The Lamp records relate the story of Baizhang’s enlightenment as follows:

One day Baizhang accompanied Mazu on a walk. A flock of wild ducks flew past them.

Mazu said, “What’s that?”

Baizhang said, “Wild ducks.”

Mazu said, “Where’d they go?”

Baizhang said, “They flew away.”

Mazu then twisted Baizhang’s nose so hard that he cried out.

Mazu said, “So you say they’ve flown away!”

Upon hearing these words Baizhang attained enlightenment.

Returning to the attendant’s room, Baizhang cried loudly.

One of the other attendants asked Baizhang, “Are you homesick?”

Baizhang said, “No.”

The attendant said, “Did someone curse at you?”

Baizhang said, “No.”

The attendant said, “Then why are you crying?”

Baizhang said, “Master Ma twisted my nose so hard that the pain was unbearable.”

The attendant said, “What did you do that offended him?”

Baizhang said, “You go ask him.”

The attendant went to Mazu and said, “What did attendant Hai do to offend you? He’s in his room crying. Please tell me.”

The Great Teacher said, “He himself knows. Go ask him.”

The attendant returned to Baizhang’s hut and said to him, “The master says that you already know, so I should come here and ask you.”

Thereupon Baizhang laughed out loud.

The attendant said, “A moment ago you were crying, so why are you laughing now?”

Baizhang said, “My crying a moment ago is the same as my laughing now.”

The attendant was bewildered by Baizhang’s behavior.

The next day Mazu went into the hall to address the monks. Just when the monks had finished assembling, Baizhang rolled up his sitting mat. Mazu got down from his chair and Baizhang followed him to the abbot’s room.

Mazu said, “Just now I hadn’t said a word. Why did you roll up your sitting mat?”

Baizhang said, “Yesterday the master painfully twisted my nose.”

Mazu said, “Is there anything special about yesterday that you’ve noticed?”

Baizhang said, “Today, my nose doesn’t hurt anymore.”

Mazu said, “Then you really understand what happened yesterday.”

Baizhang then bowed and went out.

On another occasion Baizhang was in attendance to Master Ma. He saw the abbot’s whisk sitting on its stand and said, “If someone uses this, can they also not use it?”

Mazu said, “In the future if you travel to some other place, how will you help people?”

Baizhang picked up the whisk and held it upright.

Mazu said, “If you use it this way, what other way can it be used?”

Baizhang placed the whisk back on its stand.

Mazu suddenly let out an earth-shaking shout so loud that Baizhang was deaf for three days.

From this thunderclap came a great vibration. Later, a prominent lay supporter invited Baizhang to come to the Xinwu district of Hongzhou and serve as abbot at a temple on Mt. Daxiong.
⁵⁷
This was a place of high and precipitous peaks. Thus came the name Baizhang (“Hundred Fathoms”).

Before Baizhang had even passed a month at the temple, new students seeking his spiritual guidance came from every quarter. Foremost among them were Huangbo and Guishan.

One day Baizhang said to the congregation, “The Buddhadharma is not a trifling matter. Formerly, Great Master Ma shouted so loudly that I was deaf for three days.”