Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings (62 page)

Zen master Shishuang entered the hall and addressed the monks, saying, “Each of you has what is fundamental. There’s no point searching for it. It’s not to be found in right or wrong, nor in anything you can talk about. The entire source of the teaching of a lifetime, capable of setting people’s lives to order, all comes down to this very moment, directly to the fact that the Dharma body has no body. This is the ultimate teaching of our school.

“We monks have no set path. If we have partiality then we’ve strayed. We just impartially sit in the mud. Delusive speech, sight, and hearing all come from the mind’s intentions.”

“Cease. Stop. Have one thought for ten thousand years. Be a cold, ashen, decayed tree. A strip of white silk without words upon it.”

A monk asked, “What is the meaning of the First Ancestor’s coming from the west?”

Shishuang said, “A single slab of stone in the empty void.”

The monk bowed.

Shishuang said, “Do you understand?”

The monk said, “No.”

Shishuang said, “It’s good you don’t understand. If you understood I’d hit you on your head.”

Shishuang was in his abbot’s room and a monk just outside the room’s window said, “Master, why is it that you’re so near yet I can’t see your face?”

Shishuang said, “The entire world is not concealed.”

Later, a monk related this story to Zen master Xuefeng Yicun and asked, “‘The entire world isn’t concealed.’ What does this mean?”

Xuefeng said, “There’s no place that isn’t Shishuang.”

When Shishuang heard of this he said, “What kind of blasphemy is that old fellow blathering?”

When Xuefeng heard about Shishuang’s reaction, he said, “My mistake.” ([Later,] Zen master Dong Chanji commented, “Was it that Xuefeng understood Shishuang or not? If he understood, then why was he talking blasphemy? If he didn’t understand, what was it that he didn’t understand? Of course, the Dharma doesn’t differ. So why is their teaching different, and why is there a difference in their explanations?” Then Dong Chanji said, “First study the phrase, ‘The entire world is not concealed,’ and then you can begin to understand. Don’t speak nonsense.”)

The master was abbot at Mt. Shishuang for twenty years. There were some in the congregation who would constantly sit upright and never lie down, erect like tree stumps. Everywhere they were known as the “Dead Tree Congregation.” Emperor Tang Xi Zong heard of Shishuang’s reputation and praised him, offering him the honored purple robe. The master resolutely declined it. In the year 888, the master became ill and died. His ashes were interred at the northwest corner of the monastery. He received the posthumous name “Great Teacher Universal Understanding.”

TOUZI DATONG

TOUZI DATONG (819–914) was a disciple of Cuiwei Wuxue. He came from ancient Shuzhou (in the southern part of modern Anwei Province). As a young man he left home to study under a Zen master named Bao Tangman. He first studied meditation techniques of the Anapana Sutra.
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Some time later he read the Flower Garland Sutra and proceeded to study under Cuiwei Wuxue. After his enlightenment under Cuiwei, he roamed throughout China, eventually returning to his old home and settling on Mt. Touzi. There he built a thatched hut and remained obscure for more than thirty years. Touzi’s eminence as a Zen adept could not be concealed, and the great Zhaozhou came looking for him.

One day Zhaozhou came to Dongcheng County [near Mt. Touzi]. Touzi left the mountain. They met each other on the road.

Zhaozhou asked him, “Aren’t you the host of Mt. Touzi?”

Touzi said [like a beggar], “Tea, salt, a coin, please help me!”

Zhaozhou then proceeded to Touzi’s hut on the mountain and sat down inside. Later Touzi returned to the hut carrying a jug of oil.

Zhaozhou said, “Long have I heard of Touzi, but since coming here all I’ve seen is an old-timer selling oil.”

Touzi said, “You’ve only seen an old-timer selling oil. But you haven’t recognized Touzi.”

Zhaozhou said, “What is Touzi?”

Touzi lifted up the jug of oil and yelled, “Oil! Oil!”

Zhaozhou asked, “What do you say about the one who undergoes the great death, and thus attains life?”

Touzi said, “He can’t make the journey at night. He must arrive in the daylight.”

Zhaozhou said, “I’ve long committed thievery, but you’re worse than me.”

Zen master Touzi Datong entered the hall and addressed the monks, saying, “All of you come here searching for some new words and phrases, collecting brilliant things that you intend to stick in your own mouth and repeat. But this old monk’s energy is failing and my lips and tongue are blundering. I don’t have any idle talk to give you.

“If you ask me then I will answer you directly. But there is no mystery that can be compared to you, yourself. I won’t teach you some method to collect wisdom. I will never say that above or below there’s a Buddha, a Dharma, something ordinary or something sacred, or that you will find it by sitting with your legs crossed. You all manifest a thousand things. It is the understandings that arise from your own life that you must carry into the future, reaping what you sow. I have nothing to give you here, neither overtly nor by inference. I can only speak to all of you in this manner. If you have doubts then question me.”

A monk asked, “When it is not received overtly or by inference, then what?”

Touzi said, “Are you trying to collect wisdom?”

Touzi then left the hall.

A monk asked, “In the entire store of scriptural teachings, is there any one particularly important matter or not?”

Touzi said, “Demonstrate the teaching of all the scriptures!”