The Chan Whip Anthology: A Companion to Zen Practice

206 Pages·2014·0.84 MB·English

by  Elise Yoko Watanabe

ging the summer there, advancing today and retrogressing tomorrow, for
a long time you grope about without success, and then you say, “Prajñā
doesn’t work!” So instead [of doing what you should be doing] you face the
external, stuff your belly full, jot down a volume of notes [i.e., in great big
books jot down the sayings of some old dead geezer and guard it as a secret
treasure]294—[this sort of thing] is like the putrid dregs in a bottle. Anybody
who smells it will be nauseated and retch. [Being this sort of Han295]—
even if you practice until [the future buddha] Maitreya comes down to be
reborn—what will that have to do with anything? Painful!

32 Chan Master Taixu Instructs the Sangha
If you haven’t yet awakened, you must get up on the sitting cushion and do
“cool”296 sitting.297 For ten years, twenty years, thirty years keep your eye on
[the cue]: your original face before your father and mother conceived you.
rear of the sitting platform to the front is six feet. When you add the extra foot of
the plank
[running along the front] of the tan, the total is seven feet” [七尺單前者. . . 謂自
床後至
前六尺更加單板一尺合成七尺也] (Yanagida, Zenrin shōki sen, 2.103). The
dan (“single”) is one sitter’s individual portion of the long sitting platform in the
Sangha Hall. One chi尺 is one-third meter.
292. K, 144, glosses zuo jiao 做教 as “make a hands-on investigation of Chan
and the Way”
[做して(とは參禪辨道を作してとなり)].
293. S, II.23b inserts “if you do your utmost” [若辨(T = 辦)致力也].
294. S, II.23b cites Zhenzhou Linji Huizhao chanshi yulu 鎮州臨濟慧照禪師語
錄: “Students today fall short [in their understanding] because they consider
names to be understanding.
In great big books they jot down the sayings of some old dead geezer, [stacking
them] three layers deep, five layers deep, into their [monk’s traveling] bags and
not letting anyone else see them. They say, ‘This is the mysterious principle,’
and guard it as a [secret] treasure. Big mistake! Blind idiots!” [今時學人不得。
蓋爲認名字爲解。大策子上抄死老漢語。三重五
重複子裹。不教人見。道是玄旨。以爲保重。大錯。瞎屢生。]
(T1985.47.501c14-16).
295. S, II.23b inserts: “Being this sort of Han—even if you practice until
Maitreya comes down to be reborn” [如此漢直做到彌勒下生者].
296. S, II.24a inserts: “cool still, the opposite of noisy and hot sitting” [冷靜反
閙熱坐]. The excerpt in this section remains untraced.
297. According to S, II.24a, the lineage of Taixu Yuan 太虛圓 runs: Guzhuo
Changjun 古拙
昌俊 (section 31) → Wuji Mingwu 無際明悟 → Jiekong Tong 絜空通 →
Motang Zhao 默堂
照 → Taixu Yuan 太虛圓.

Front Collection: The First Gate
121

33 Chan Master Chushi Qi Instructs the Sangha
Brothers!298 [Some,] when they open their mouth, say: “I am a Chan monk!”
Brothers!298 [Some,] when they open their mouth, say: “I am a Chan monk!”
When someone asks him [i.e., this Chan monk299], “What is Chan?,” he
immediately peers to the east and peers to the west, his [silent] mouth
like a shoulder pole [sagging under a heavy load300]. Painful! Humiliating!
Having eaten the food of the buddhas and patriarchs, they are unable to
pay attention to the matter of the original portion—in a booming voice they
spout phrases from texts and worldly sayings, all without the least hesita-tion,
knowing no shame. And there is a type who, unable to get up on the sitting
cushion and investigate [the cue] your original face before your father
and mother conceived you, mimics a hireling out in the shade doing the
piecework of rice polishing, hoping to seek out merit and confessing [to bad
actions in the past] to eliminate karmic obstacles. This is very far off
from the Way!

*
“Coalescing mind and collecting thoughts,” “gathering up the [ten thou-

sand] things and making them return to voidness,” “as soon as [a single]
thought arises, immediately suppress it”—such a level of understanding
is that of a nihilistic non-Buddhist, a dead person whose spirit has failed to
return [i.e., whose body has returned to this world but without his spirit].
Also, there are those who recklessly—having recognized the potential for
anger, joy,301 seeing, and hearing, and, having clearly perceived them—
immediately [consider themselves] people who have completed a lifetime’s
hands-on investigation [of Chan]. So I’d like to hear from you: “When
298. Chushi F
anqi 楚石梵琦 (1296–1370) was in the Dahui wing (大慧派) of the Linji
lineage. He succeeded to the dharma of Yuansou Xingduan 元叟行端. For a
short biographical entry and a list of sources, see Zengaku, 2.1160d–1161a.
Fanqi appears in Ming Masters. The first of the two excerpts in this section is
found in Chushi Fanqi chanshi yulu 楚石梵琦禪師
語錄 (CBETA, X71, no. 1420, p. 578, a2-8 // Z 2:29, p. 65, c9-15 // R124, p.
130, a9-15). The second excerpt is found in the same sayings record (CBETA,
X71, no. 1420, p. 580, a12-b6 //
Z 2:29, p. 67, d1-p. 68, a1 // R124, p. 134, b1-p. 135, a1).
299. K, 147: “ta 他means this Chan monk” [他にとは其の禪僧にと云ふこと
ぢや。].
300. S, II.24b cites Zhenzhou Linji Huizhao chanshi yulu 鎮州臨濟慧照禪師語
錄: “Their eyes are like the blackened vent [of a kamado stove], and their [silent]
mouths are like a shoulder pole [sagging under a heavy load]” [眼似漆突。口如
楄
檐。] (T1985.47.501c21).
301. S, II.25a inserts: “the potentiality for anger and joy the dream companion,
the mano-vijñāna” [能瞋能喜夢幻伴子意識].
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Chan Whip AnThology
impermanence arrives and they cremate [your body] so it becomes a pile of
ashes, [do you know302] to what place this potential for anger, joy, seeing, and
hearing goes? ” Probing in that way is quicksilver Chan.303 This “silver” is not
real [silver]—once in the furnace, it evaporates. And so, when I ask you, “What
have you normally been probing?,” you answer, “A certain [teacher]
had me probe the ten thousand dharmas return to the one—to where does the
one return? And he had me [work at] understanding [the meaning of cases]
like this one!304 Today, for the first time, I’ve come to realize that [this, i.e.,
understanding the meaning of the case] was an incorrect [approach]. Please, if
you would, Preceptor, give me a cue [to raise to full awareness, i.e., guide me
with the correct approach].” I say, “Nothing is wrong with any of the
cases of the ancients. Your eye has always been true—the falseness lies with
[the approach of] the teacher.” [The student then] peppers me with endless
entreaties. So I say to him,305 “When you probe the cue of the dog has no
buddha nature [i.e., when you keep your eye on the wu 無cue] and you suddenly
smash the pail of black lacquer [i.e., ignorance306], put yourself into my hands
[once more307], and then you’ll eat the stick!”
Comment: From [Chan Master] Tianru on down they are all honored
monks of the end of the Yuan dynasty and beginning of the Ming.
Those like Jiefeng [in section 28], Guzhuo [in section 31], and Chushi
[in section 33] are people who themselves went through the two periods
[of Yuan and Ming]. Chushi is a fifth-generation descendant of Miaoxi
[Dahui], and his level of understanding was like the brightness of the
sun and moon; his mental disposition and [eloquence in] debate were
like the violence of thunder and the quickness of the wind. He directly
302. S, II.25a inserts:
“cremate this body so it becomes a pile of ashes, do you know” [燒此
身作一堆灰伱認得].
303. S, II.25b cites Wu deng hui yuan 五燈會元: “Yunmen is like nine-times
refined cin-nabar—it turns iron into gold. Chenggong is quicksilver—one toys
with it to no avail.
Put in the furnace, it evaporates” [雲門如九轉丹砂。點鐵成金。澄公藥汞
銀。徒可翫。
入煅則流去。] (CBETA, X80, no. 1565, p. 351, c12-13 // Z 2B:11, p. 325, c8-9
// R138, p. 650, a8-9).
304. Understanding ( hui 會) of the case is bad; one is simply to keep one’s eye
on the cue.
305. ZGK, 26.111, glosses xiang dao 向道 as “an abbreviation for say to him”
[向他道(他に向か
って道う)を略したるなり。]. S, II.26a makes the same insertion.
306. ZGK, 26.112, glosses qitong 漆桶 as “comparison to avidyā” [無明にたと
えたるなり。].
307. S, II.26a inserts: “put yourself into my hands once more” [卻再來山僧手
裡].

Front Collection: The First Gate
123
severed the root source [of samsara308] and shed the branches and leaves
[of thought of the unreal309]. Truly there is nothing in him that would
make the old man Miaoxi ashamed. From Tianru down to today there
is no one who compares favorably [with Chushi]. However, his [dharma]
words only present matters of ultimate [theoretical] principle. So there
are exceedingly few instances [documented] in which he had beginning
trainees do gongfu [i.e., we have few Chushi sayings focused on practice rather
than theory]. I have obtained just one or two [of his sayings on
concrete practice] and recorded them here.

34 Sŏn Master Poje of the Koryŏ Dynasty Answers
the Letter of Minister of State Yi
Since [up until now] you have been [engaged in the practice of] pulling the wu
無 cue into full awareness,310 there is no need to change [the object of your]
probing.311 Needless to say, were you to lift a different cue to full awareness,
having done some probing of the wu 無 character, you would necessarily already
possess a slightly mature stage of practice312 derived from [the probing of] the
wu 無 character. Definitely do not shift [to another cue]! Definitely do not
change to probe [a new cue]! Merely twenty-four hours a day, in all four
postures, lift the [ wu 無] cue to full awareness. Don’t expect some stretch of
awakening and [some stretch of] non-awakening. And don’t get involved in
whether [the cue] has tastiness or no tastiness at all. And don’t get involved in
whether you are gaining energy or not gaining energy. Put on the pressure to get
to [the place 313] where thought does not reach and reflection does not 308. S,
II.26b inserts: “source headwaters, lifeblood of samsara
” [原水源生死命根].
309. K, 152: “shed the branches and leaves of thought of the unreal” [妄想の技
(=枝)葉を脫
落す。]. S, II.26b–27a, cites Yongjia Zhengdaoge 永嘉證道歌
(T2014.48.395c21-22).
310. K, 153: “Since up until now you have been [engaged in the practice of]
pulling the wu 無
cue into full awareness” [既にこれまで曾て無字の話頭に於て提撕せば].
The excerpt in
this section remains untraced.
311. The Koreans Sŏn Master Poje 普濟禪師 and Minister of State Yi 李相國
are both otherwise unknown. Poje appears as an appended master in Ming
Masters.
312. Yindi 因地 = hetv-avasthā (state or condition of causes). Refers to the
stages from the practice of causes to the fruit of realization.
313. S, II.27b inserts: “the place where thought does not reach and reflection
does not function” [心思不及意慮不行之處].
124 The
Chan Whip AnThology
function. That is precisely the place where the buddhas and patriarchs have
jettisoned their very lives.314
Comment: As for this sayings record, in Wanli 25/1597 Xu Yuanzhen
of Fujian was part of an expeditionary force [to repel the second
Japanese invasion of] Korea [Chosŏn] and obtained it there. It had
never been [seen] in China. Therefore, I have recorded the gist to
make it known.

35 Chan Master Chushan Qi [Instructs the Sangha]
at the Time of Relaxing the Rules
[at the End of the Winter Retreat]
Great Worthies!315 During the ninety days [of this winter’s binding rule, i.e.,
this winter retreat] did you attain awakening? If you haven’t yet attained
awakening, this whole winter’s [binding rule/retreat] has been in vain and
is long gone. If you are a stream-enterer who is the real thing, you will take the
dharmadhātu of the ten directions itself for your perfect-awakening [retreat]
period.316 Don’t discuss whether it’s a long [retreat] period or a
short [retreat] period,317 a hundred days long or a thousand days long,
binding rule or relaxed rule [i.e., in retreat session or not]: just start with
lifting the cue to full awareness. If you don’t awaken in one year, probe
[the cue] for a further year. If you don’t awaken in ten years, probe [the
314. S, II.27b inserts:

“place where the buddhas and patriarchs have jettisoned their very
lives the one-time great death” [諸佛諸祖放身命處大死一回之時] and cites
Xinfuzhu 心賦
注 (CBETA, X63, no. 1231, p. 150, a23 // Z 2:16, p. 69, a11 // R111, p. 137,
a11).
315. S, II.27b inserts: “Relaxing the winter rules Instructs the Sangha” [解冬制
示衆].
Chushan Shaoqi 楚山紹琦 (1403–73) succeeded to the dharma of Wuji Mingwu
無際明
悟, a successor of Guzhuo Changjun 古拙昌俊 (section 31). For a short
biographical entry for Shaoqi and a list of sources, see Zengaku, 1.534c-d. The
first of the two excerpts in this section is found in Wu deng quanshu 五燈全書