Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings (75 page)

A monk asked Qinglin, “What is the Way?”

Qinglin said, “Turn your head and look at that distant mountain ravine.”

The monk then asked, “What is a person who has realized the Way?”

Qinglin said, “Embracing the ice and snow, head and eyebrows held high.”

A monk asked, “The path diverges and twists. What about sudden enlightenment?”

Qinglin said, “You face away from the black jewel beneath your feet toward a sky filled to the moon with anxiety.”

A monk asked Zen master Qinglin Shiqian, “When a student tries to go there directly, what then?”

Qinglin said, “There is a deadly snake in the road. I urge you to not confront it.”

The monk said, “If the student confronts it, then what?”

Qinglin said, “He loses his innermost self.”

The monk said, “What if he doesn’t confront it?”

Qinglin said, “There’s no place to retreat.”

The monk said, “Just at such a time, what then?”

Qinglin said, “Gone!”

The monk said, “Gone where?”

Qinglin said, “Everyplace you look the grass is deep!”

The monk said, “You must also watch out, teacher!”

Qinglin clapped his hands and said, “Here’s another poisonous one!”

Qinglin entered the hall and said, “The essential teaching of the ancestors is proceeding right now. The Dharma is apparent. What other matter is there?”

A monk asked,
“The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye
has been passed down from ancestor to ancestor. Is there anyone to whom the master can pass it?”

Qinglin said, “There is ground where the numinous sprouts grow. Great awakening has no teacher.”

SHUSHAN KUANGREN

SHUSHAN KUANGREN (n.d.) is regarded as a disciple and Dharma heir of Dongshan Liangjie, but his search for enlightenment took him to many teachers. He came from ancient Jizhou (the site of the modern city of Ji’an in Jiangxi Province). Shushan eventually lived and taught at Mt. Shu. He was very short in physical stature, and thus earned the nickname “the dwarf teacher.”

Shushan first studied with a teacher named Yuanzheng in Jizhou.

One day he told his teacher, “I’m traveling east to the capital city of Luoyang.”

He studied in Luoyang for less than a year. Then one day he suddenly said, “Seeking brings only darkness and talking isn’t as good as silence. Forget oneself and help others. The false can’t compare to the true.”

He then went to study under Dongshan Liangjie.

He asked Dongshan, “In words not yet heard, please, Master, provide me instruction.”

Dongshan said, “I don’t say people can’t realize it.”

Shushan said, “Can it be obtained through practice or not?”

Dongshan said, “Are you realizing it now through practice?”

Shushan said, “Not realizing it through practice should not be avoided.”

On one occasion Dongshan entered the hall and said, “I want you to understand this matter. You must be like a dead tree that blossoms flowers. Then you will merge with it.”

Shushan asked, “What about when every place is corrupted?”

Dongshan said, “Your Reverence! You’re talking about practicing a practice. Fortunately there is a realm of nonpracticing practice. Why don’t you ask about that?”

Shushan said, “Practicing a nonpracticing practice? Can there be such a person?”

Dongshan said, “Many people will laugh at you for asking such a question.”

Shushan said, “In that case, my thinking has gone astray.”

Dongshan said, “Astray is not astray, nor not astray.”

Shushan said, “What is ‘astray’?”

Dongshan said, “If you say, ‘such a person,’ then you still don’t understand.”

Shushan said, “What is ‘not astray’?”

Dongshan said, “A place of no differentiation.”

Dongshan asked Shushan, “In the empty eon there is no person. Who is it who resides there?”

Shushan said, “I don’t know.”

Dongshan said, “Does that person have a thinking mind or not?”

Shushan said, “Why don’t you ask him?”

Dongshan said, “I’m asking him right now.”

Shushan said, “What is this mind?”

Dongshan didn’t answer.

Although Shushan Kuangren is credited as being a disciple of Dongshan Liangjie, he studied under a succession of teachers before realizing enlightenment. The following account, which appears in the
Wudeng Huiyuan
, relates that after Dongshan died, Shushan traveled to visit Guishan. Since Guishan Lingyou died prior to Dongshan, the text must here be referring to Guishan Da’an, the Dharma brother of Lingyou who assumed the abbacy at Mt. Gui after Lingyou’s death. The
Wudeng Huiyuan
goes on to say that Shushan later left Guishan and traveled to study with Dagui An of Fuzhou. The name “Dagui An” is another name for Guishan Da’an, from whom Shushan had just departed. No other reference to Dagui An of Fuzhou exists in the
Wudeng Huiyuan
or other major Zen texts, and thus some confusion exists about this account of Shushan’s life.