Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings (86 page)

A monk asked, “Can inanimate things expound Dharma?”

Daopi said, “The jade dog roams at night, never knowing the daylight.”

A monk asked, “If on the road one meets a person of the Way, how could one respond to that person with neither words nor silence?”

Daopi said, “With kicks and punches.”

A monk asked, “‘Explaining by using scripture is a sin against the buddhas of the three realms. Deviating a single word from scripture is devils’ talk.’ What does this mean?”

Tongan recited a verse that said:

The solitary peak is high and grand,
Not a single layer of mist.
The crescent moon crosses the void,
The white clouds come forth.

A monk asked, “What is Tongan’s arrow?”

Daopi said, “Look behind you.”

The monk asked, “What’s back there?”

Daopi said, “It’s gone past already.”

A monk asked, “How can one avoid harming the imperial way?”

Daopi said, “Eat gruel. Eat rice.”

The monk said, “If one doesn’t do so, is the imperial way not harmed?”

Daopi said, “You’ve slid off to the left!”

Once, when Daopi was reading a sutra he saw a monk coming for instruction. Daopi lifted his arm and covered his head with his sleeve. The monk came up to him and affected a sympathetic demeanor.

Daopi pulled his sleeve from his head, picked up the sutra, and said, “Do you understand?”

The monk then covered his own head with his sleeve.

Daopi said, “Blue heavens! Blue heavens!”

HUGUO SHOUCHENG, “JINGGUO”

HUGUO SHOUCHENG (n.d.) was a disciple of Shushan Kuangren. Little is recorded about Huguo’s life. He is known mainly by his appearance in case twenty-eight of the
Book of Serenity
. He taught at Huguo Monastery on Mt. Suicheng in ancient Suizhou (north of modern Wuhan City). The
Wudeng Huiyuan
provides a glimpse of this teacher’s style.

Huguo entered the hall and addressed the monks, saying, “All the great masters in every quarter, in all circumstances, have ascended the lecture platform for the sake of people. And whenever anyone has asked them the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from the west, not one of them has directly spoken the answer.”

A monk then said, “I ask the master to answer this question.”

Huguo said, “A Hebei ass brays. A Henan dog barks.”

The monk asked, “What is Buddha?”

Huguo uttered in disgust, “You ass!”

A monk asked, “If someone for whom the great vast earth is but one eye comes forth, then what?”

Huguo said, “A low-class fellow.”

A monk asked, “Who is it that walks in the place where all the buddhas can’t go?”

Huguo said, “Blockhead!”

A monk asked, “Why did Bodhidharma come from the west?”

Huguo said, “When one person says it, it’s a rumor. When a thousand say it, it’s a fact.”

A monk asked, “When a white crane sits in the pine tree, what is it?”

Huguo said, “An embarrassment on the ground.”