T2003 The Blue Cliff Record

84. Vimalakirti’s Door of Nonduality

The Blue Cliff Record

(Surging up in the east, sinking down in the west. The east guild doesn't see the profits of the west guild. Where does he get this news?)

In China they haven't yet beaten the drum. (Fifteen minutes late. Give me back the story. At first he doesn't get there; afterwards he goes too far.) In suffering, happiness—

(Who would you have know this?)

In happiness, suffering—

(A double case. Who would you have bring this up? Suffering is suffering, happiness is happiness. Why two heads, three faces?)

Who says gold is like ordure?

(Those with eyes will discern. Try to brush it off and look. Uh-oh! Too bad! Tell me, is it the ancient Buddhas or the pillars?)

Commentary

"South mountain clouds, / North mountain rain." Xuedou buys the hat to fit the head, watches the wind to set the sail. On the edge of a sword he puts down footnotes for you. As for "The twenty-eight (Indian patriarchs) and the six (Chinese patriarchs) see it before them," don't misunderstand. This simply versifies "The ancient Buddhas and the pillars merge—what level of mental activity is this?" Afterwards Xuedou opens up a road and creates complications to let you see Yunmen's meaning. "In Korea they've gone up into the hall; / In China they haven't yet beaten the drum." Xuedou goes where thunder peals and comets fly and says, "In suffering, happiness— / In happiness suffering." He seems to have piled up jewels and put them here.

Finally there's this little line—"Who says gold is like ordure?" This is from Chanyue's poem "Travel is Hard": People cannot fathom the ocean's depth or mountains' height—

Past and present, more and more green and blue. 368

84. Vimalakirti's Door of Nonduality

Don't associate with the shallow and superficial— The low ground can only produce brambles.

Who says gold is like ordure?

No more news of friends who fell out.

Traveling the road is hard;

The hardships of travel, see for yourself.

And isn't the territory broad and the people few? Cloud dwelling saints!

84. Vimalakirti's Door of Nonduality

Introduction

Though you say "it is," there is nothing "is" can affirm. Though you say "it is not," there is nothing "is not" can negate. When is and is not are left behind, and gain and loss are forgotten, then you are clean and free. But tell me, what is it in front of you and in back of you? If there is a Chan practitioner who comes forward and says, "In front is the Buddha shrine and the main gate; behind is the abbot's room and private quarters," tell me, does this person have eyes or not? If you can judge, I'll allow that you have personally seen the ancients.

Story

Vimalakirti asked Manjusri, (This fellow is making quite a fuss. He should shut up.) "What is a bodhisattva's entry into the Dharma Door of Non uality?" (He knows yet deliberately transgresses.) Manjusri said, "According to what I think," (What is he saying? It simply can't be explained. He's wearing fetters, carrying evidence of his crime, hauling himself into the magistrate's office.) "in all things," (What's he calling 'all things'?) "no words, no speech," (What's he saying?) "no demonstration, and no recognition,' (He might fool others...) "leaving behind all questions and answers;" (What is he saying?) "this is entering the Dharma Door of Nonduality." (Why enter? What's the use of so many complications?) 369

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Then Manjusri asked Vimalakirti, "We have already spoken. Now you tell us, what is a bodhisattva's entry into the Dharma Door of Nonduality?" (Not even the Buddhas of all times, let alone Vimalakirti, can speak about this one support. Manjusri has turned the spear around and stabbed one man to death. The arrow hits Vimalakirti just as he was shooting at others.) Xuedou said, "What did Vimalakirti say?" (Tsk! Xuedou, drawing ten thousand arrows to his heart, speaks the truth in Vimalaklrti's place.) He also said, "Completely exposed." (Not only then, but now too, it is so. Xuedou is drawing his bow after the bandit has gone. Though he uses all his strength to help people, nevertheless calamity comes from his own door. But tell me, can Xuedou see the ultimate point? Since he hasn't even dreamed of it, how can he say "Completely exposed"? Danger! Even the golden lion cannot search it out.) Commentary

Vimalakirti had various bodhisattvas speak on the Dharma Door of Nonduality. At the time, thirty-two bodhisattvas all took dualistic views of creation and noncreation, of the two truths, absolute and conventional, and merged them into a monistic view that they considered to be the Dharma Door of Nonduality. Finally he asked Manjusri, who said, "According to what I think, in all things, no words and no speech, no demonstration and no recognition, leaving behind all questions and answers; this is entering the Dharma Door of Nonduality." Since the other thirty-two had used words to dispense with words, Manjusri used no-words to dispense with words. At once he swept everything away, not wanting anything, and considered this to be the Dharma Door of Nonduality. He still didn't realize that this was the sacred tortoise dragging its tail, that in wiping away the tracks he was making traces. It's just like a broom sweeping away dust; though the dust is removed, the tracks of the broom remain.

Since in the end, as before, some traces were left, Manjusri then asked Vimalakirti, "We have already spoken. Now you tell us, what is a bodhisattva's entry into the Dharma Door of onduality?" 370

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Vimalakirti was silent. If you're alive, you'll never sink into stagnant water. If you make up such views, you're like a mad dog chasing a clod of earth.

Xuedou didn't say Vimalakirti kept silent, nor did he say he sat there silently. Xuedou just went to the critical point and said, "What did Vimalakirti say?" But when Xuedou spoke thus, did he see Vimalakirti? He hadn't seen him even in a dream. Vimalakirti was an ancient Buddha who had a family and household. He helped Sakyamuni Buddha teach. He had inconceivable intelligence, inconceivable perspective, inconceivable psychic powers, and miraculous abilities. Inside one room he accommodated thirty-two thousand jewel lion thrones and a multitude of eighty thousand, without it being crowded. But tell me, what principle is this? Can it be called supernatural power? Don't misunderstand; if it is the Dharma Door of Nonduality, only by the same attainment and the same experience can there be common mutual witness and knowledge.

Only Manjusri was able to give a reply. Even so, was he able to avoid Xuedou's critical examination? Xuedou, talking as he did, also had to meet with these two. Xuedou said, "What did Vimalakirti say?" and "Completely exposed." You tell me, where is the exposure? This little bit has nothing to do with gain or loss, nor does it fall into right and wrong. It's like being on a ten-mile-high cliff; if you can give up your life and leap off, you may see Vimalakirti in person. If you cannot give up, you're like a ram caught in a fence. Xuedou had abandoned his life, so he produced it in verse: Verse

Tsk! This is old Vimalakirti!

(Why snap at him? In the morning three thousand blows, in the evening eight hundred blows. Snapping at him doesn't accomplish anything. He deserves a thrashing.)

He suffers an empty affliction out of compassion for living beings,

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(Why have compassion for them? They themselves have the diamond sword. For this idle affair Vimalakirti increased their ignorance. He took the trouble but accomplished nothing.)

Lying ill in Vaisall,

(On whose account does he do this? It involves everyone.) His whole body withered and emaciated. (Leaving aside his illness for a moment, why did he frown? He can't eat or breathe.)

ManjusrI, teacher of the seven Buddhas, comes (When a guest comes one must attend to him. When a thief comes one must beat him. ManjusrI brings along a crowd. It takes an adept for this.) To the single room that's been swept repeatedly; (There is still this. After all Vimalakirti is living in a ghost cave.)

He asks about the Door of Nonduality. (Were there anything that could be said, it would have been said by him. I hit, saying, "You too have searched without finding. ")

Then Vimalakirti leans and falls.

(Heavens! What are you saying?)

He doesn't lean and fall—

(He finds life in the midst of death; there's still some breath in him.)

The golden lion has no place to look. (Tsk! Do you see? Heavens!)

Commentary

Xuedou says, "Tsk! This old Vimalakirti!" Why does he start off snapping at him? Right off Xuedou cuts right through with the diamond sword. Vimalakirti should be given three thousand blows in the morning and eight hundred blows in the evening. Vimalakirti means Pure Name in Sanskrit. He was also known as the Golden Grain Buddha. A monk asked Yunju, "If he was the 372

84. Vimalakirti's Door of Nonduality

Golden Grain Buddha, why did he listen to the Dharma in the congregation of Sakyamuni Buddha?" Yunju said, "He didn't pit himself against others." Someone who is greatly liberated has nothing to do with becoming a Buddha or not becoming a Buddha. If you say such a one practices to attain Buddhahood, this has even less to do with it. As the Complete Enlightenment Sutra says, "If you use your routine mind to produce routine views, you will never be able to enter the Buddha's ocean of peaceful quiescence." Yongjia said, "Whether he's right or wrong, people cannot know. Whether he goes against or goes along, the gods cannot fathom. If he goes along, he turns toward the stage of Buddhahood; if he goes against, he enters the realms of sentient beings." Chan Master Shou said, "Even if you can perfect yourself and get to this realm, you still can't follow your inclinations. Only when you have experienced uncontaminated sainthood can you go along or go against." Thus Xuedou said, "He suffers an empty affliction out of compassion for living beings." In the scripture Vimalakirti says, "Since sentient beings have illnesses, I also have an illness. " Xuedou says, "Lying ill in Vaisali, " because Vimalakirti manifested his illness in the city of Vaisall, "His whole body withered and emaciated." Vimalakirti used his physical illness to expound the Dharma. He said, "This body has no permanence, no strength, no power, no stability; it's a thing that quickly decays; it can't be relied on. It produces suffering and trouble, a mass of diseases. It is a compound of mental and physical elements. " "Manjusri, teacher of the seven Buddhas, comes"—Manjusri was the teacher of the seven Buddhas of antiquity, but he obeyed Sakyamuni Buddha's instructions to go ask Vimalakirti about his illness. "To the single room that's been swept repeatedly." Vimalakirti had cleared everything out of his room, just leaving a bench. When Manjusri arrived, he asked about the Dharma Door of Nonduality, so Xuedou says "He asks about the Door of Nonduality." "Then Vimalakirti leans and falls"—Vimalakirti frowned. Chan followers these days say his speechlessness was the leaning and falling. But don't mistakenly go by the zero point of the scale. 373

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85. A Tiger’s Roar

The Blue Cliff Record

Pushing you up onto a ten-mile cliff, Xuedou then says, "He doesn't lean and fall." With one hand he lifts up; with one hand he pushes down. Xuedou has this kind of skill, and the way he uses it is sharp and clear. This line versifies his own comment, "What did Vimalakirti say?"

"The golden lion has no place to look. " It was not only this way at that time, but it's this way right now. Do you see old Vimalakirti? Even if the whole world, the mountains, rivers, grasses, trees, and forests all turned into a golden lion, you still would no be able to find him 85. A Tiger's Roar

Introduction

To hold the world fast without the slightest leak, so that all the people in the world lose their points and become tongue-tied— this is the true imperative for Chanists. To radiate light from the forehead that shines through the four quarters—this is the adamantine eye of Chanists. To turn iron into gold and gold into iron, to capture suddenly and release suddenly—this is the staff of Chanists. To silence everyone in the world so that there's no way for them to expostulate and they fall back three thousand miles— this is the mettle of Chanists. But tell me, when one is not this way at all, who is this?

Story

A monk came to the place of the hermit of Tongfeng and asked, "What if you suddenly encountered a tiger here?" (An expert at playing with shadows. There's one or a half in the nest of weeds.) The hermit roared like a tiger. (He adds error to error. Nonetheless he does have fangs and claws. They are born alike and die alike. "Hearing words, understand the source.") The monk made a gesture of fright. (Two men playing with mud. The monk saw the opportunity and acted. He seems to be right but really isn't.) The hermit laughed. (This amounts to something. There's a sword in 374

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his laugh. He can let go and can also gather in.) The monk said, "You old bandit!" (One must see through this. Defeat. Both let go.) The hermit said, "What can you do to me?" (I would slap him across the ear. What a pity to let him go. He adds frost to snow.) The monk gave up. (Thus he was stopped. Neither of them were done. Heavens!) Xuedou said, "This is all right, but these two wicked bandits could only cover their ears to steal a bell." (The words are still in our ears. They have been examined by Xuedou. But how should they have acted to avoid Xuedou's criticism? No Chanist in the world reaches that.)

Commentary

Observe how those two had such knowing eyes and capable hands. Where is the riddle? Though produced to meet the situation, each device, object, word, or statement of the ancients is naturally alive, if you see them thoroughly and correctly. Xuedou picked this story to make people know wrong from right and discern gain and loss. Nevertheless, from the standpoint of adepts, though it's handled in terms of gain and loss, after all there is no gain or loss. If you view those ancients in terms of gain and loss, you miss the point entirely. People today should each find the place where there's no gain or loss; after that you can discern people in terms of gain and loss. If you only apply your mind to choosing among words and phrases, when will you ever be done?

Yunmen said, "Pilgrims, don't just wander over the country idly, just wanting to pick up and hold onto useless words. As soon as some teacher speaks, you immediately ask about Chan and the Way, about transcendence and accommodation, about how and what. You make great volumes of commentaries, which you stuff into your bellies to figure out. Wherever you go you put your heads together by the stove in groups, babbling on and on. These, you say, are words of eloquence; these, words referring to self; these, words referring to things; these words from within the essence. You try to comprehend the old fathers and mothers of your house. Once you have gobbled down your meal, you only speak of dreams 375

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2iia and say you have understood Buddhism. You should know that if you go on this way you will never be done."

In the temporary exercises of the ancients, there were no such views as victory and defeat, gain and loss, right and wrong. Tongfeng had seen Linji. At the time of the story he lived in a hut deep in the mountains. This monk came there and asked, "What if you suddenly encountered a tiger here?" Tongfeng then roared like a tiger; he rightly went to the thing to act. The monk too knew how to meet error with error, so he made a gesture of fright. When the hermit laughed, the monk said, "You old bandit!" Tongfeng said, "What can you do to me?" This is all right, but neither of them finished. Ever since then they've been criticized. Thus Xuedou said, "This is all right, but these two wicked bandits could only cover their ears to steal a bell." Though both were bandits, still they didn't take the opportunity to use it; hence they were covering their own ears to steal a bell. With these two elders, it s as though they set up battle lines of a million troops but only struggled over a broom.

To discuss this matter it is necessary to have the ability to kill people without blinking an eye. If you always let go and never capture, or always kill and never bring to life, you will not avoid the scornful laughter of others. Though this is so, these ancients still didn't have so many concerns. Observe how they both saw their opportunity and acted. Wuzu spoke of the concentration of spiritual powers at play, the concentration of the torch of wisdom, and the concentration of the supreme adornment. It's just that people of later times don't have their feet on the ground; they just go criticize the ancients and say there is gain and loss. Some say the hermit clearly lost the advantage, but this misses the mark. Xuedou said, "When these two met, it was all letting go." When the monk said, "What if you suddenly encountered a tiger here?" and Tongfeng roared, this was letting go. And when he said, "What can you do to me?" this too was letting go. In every instance they fell into the secondary level of activity. Xuedou said, "If you want to act, then act." People today hear such talk and say that the 376

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hermit should have carried out the imperative for the monk. But you shouldn't blindly punish and beat the hermit. As for Deshan hitting people the minute they came in the door, and Linji shouting at people the minute they came in the door, what was their intent? In the end Xuedou makes this verse just like this. But in the end, how will you avoid covering your ears to steal a bell?

Verse

If you don't grab it when you see it,

(You've stumbled by. It's already a myriad miles away.) You'll think about it a thousand miles away. (Regretting you weren't careful from the first. Heavens!) Fine stripes—

(Take what's due you and get out. What could he do— he didn't know to function.)

But he hasn't got claws and fangs.

(I only fear the use of them will be unclear. I'll talk to you when your claws and fangs are ready.) Haven't you seen the sudden encounter on Mt. Daxiong? (If there's a rule, go by the rule; if there's no rule, go by the example.)

The vast sound and light shake the earth— (This tiger after all goes on this way. Still he amounts to something. How many heirs are powerful people?) Do great people of power see or not?

(Xuedou is so kind. If you can open your eyes, you can be born alike and die alike. Xuedou is creating complications.)

They take the tiger's tail and grab the tiger's whiskers. (How will you take it when it suddenly appears? All the Chanists in the world are taken in here. If someone comes forth, I'll present a challenge. If none can take it in, I'll let you have a beating, to make you turn 377

86. The Kitchen Pantry and the Main Gate

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around and produce some energy. Shouting and

striking, I say, why not say, "You thief?")

Commentary

"If you don't grab it when you see it, / You'll think about it a thousand miles away." Just at the point of danger, the monk couldn't function at all; when the hermit said, "What can you do to me?" the monk should have given him some of his own provisions. Had he been able to show his skill, the hermit would have had to have a last word. Both only knew how to let go; they couldn't gather in. "If you don't grab it when you see it" is already white clouds for ten thousand miles; why did he go on to say "You'll think about it a thousand miles away"?

"Fine stripes— / But he hasn't got claws and fangs." This may be so, but this tiger also knows how to conceal his fangs and hide his claws. Nevertheless, he didn't know how to bite people. "Haven't you seen the sudden encounter on Mt. Daxiong? / The vast sound and light shake the earth." One day Baizhang asked Huangbo, "Where are you coming from?" Huangbo said, "From picking mushrooms on the mountain." Baizhang said, "See any tigers?" Huangbo made a tiger's roar. Baizhang took the axe at his side and made a gesture of chopping. Huangbo held it fast and slapped him. That evening Baizhang said to the group, "There's a tiger on Mt. Daxiong; all of you must watch out when you're coming and going. Today I myself got bitten." Later Guishan asked Yangshan about Huangbo's tiger story. Yangshan said, "What is your opinion?" Guishan said, "Baizhang should have chopped him to death with one blow then; how did it come to this?" Yangshan said, "Not so." Guishan said, "What about it then?" Yangshan said, "Not only did he ride the tiger's head, but he also knew how to take the tiger's tail." Guishan said, "You do indeed have a dangerous statement there." Xuedou draws on this to illumine the story.

"The vast sound and light shake the earth." This bit transforms freely. Xuedou wants a road to express himself in the words. 378

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"Do great people of power see or not?" Do you see? "They take the tiger's tail and grab the tiger's whiskers." Here again this must be one's own. Even if you take the tiger's tail and grab the tiger's whiskers, you won't avoid being taken in tow at once. 86. The Kitchen

Pantry and the Main Gate

Introduction

One holds the world fast without the slightest leak; one cuts off all flows without keeping a drop. Try to speak and you're wrong; try to discuss it and you miss. Tell me, what is the eye that penetrates barriers?

Story

Yunmen said, "Everyone has a light;" (But they are ignorant of it.) "when you look at it, you don't see it and it's dark and dim." (When you look you're blinded.) "What is everyone's light?" (Mountains are mountains, rivers are rivers. Washing ink in a bucket of black lacquer.) He answered himself, "The kitchen pantry and the main gate." (He is very kind, but why is he creating complications?) He also said, "A good thing isn't as good as nothing." (He himself knew that he had only gotten halfway there; still, this amounts to something.)

Commentary

Yunmen said, "All of you, right where you are, each and every one of you has a beam of light perpetually shining, far removed from seeing or knowing. Though it's a light, when you're asked about it you don't understand—isn't it dark and dim?" For twenty years he handed down this lesson, but no one understood his meaning. Late Xianglin asked Yunmen to answer himself; he said, "The kitchen pantry and the main gate." He also said, "A good thing 379

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isn't as good as nothing. " Usually what he said on behalf of others was just a single sentence; why are there two here? The first sentence briefly opens a road for you to let you see. If you're real, as soon as you hear it you get right up and go. Yunmen feared people would get stuck here, so he also said, "A good thing isn't as good as nothing. As before he's swept it away for you.

As soon as they hear you mention "light," people today put a glare in their eyes and say, "There is the pantry; there is the main gate. But this has nothing to do with it. This is why it is said, Perceive the meaning on the hook; don't stick to the zero point of the scale." This matter is not in the eye or in objects. To begin to understand you must cut off views, forget gain and loss, and become purified, naked, and free; one must investigate on one's own. Yunmen said, "You come and go by daylight; you distinguish people by daylight. Suddenly it's midnight, and there's no sun, moon, or lamplight. If it's a place you've been to, then of course it's possible, but in a place you've never been, can you even manage to get hold of something?"

The Merging of Difference and Sameness says,

Right within light there's darkness,

But don't see it as darkness:

Right within darkness there's light,

But don't meet it as light.

If you cut off light and darkness, tell me, what is it? Thus it is said, The mind flower emits light, shining on all the lands in ten directions." Panshan said, "Light isn't shining on objects, nor do the objects exist. Light and objects both forgotten, then what is this?" Also it is said, "This very seeing and hearing is not seeing and hearing, but there s no other sound and form to be offered to you. Here if you can understand there's nothing at all, substance and function may be separated or not. "

Just understand Yunmen's final statement thoroughly, then you can go back to the previous one to roam at play. But ultimately, you do not make a living there. Vimalaklrti said, "All things are established on a nonabiding basis." You mustn't go here to 380

86. The Kitchen Pantry and the Main Gate play with lights and shadows and do mental gymnastics. Nor will it do to make up an understanding in terms of nothingness. An ancient said, "Better you should give rise to a view of existence as big as a mountain than that you should produce a view of nothingness as small as a mustard seed. People of the lesser vehicles often fall one-sidedly into this view. Verse

Spontaneously shining, ranged in the solitary light. (The myriad forms. Guest and host intermingle. He snaps your nose around. What are you doing, blind ones?) He opens a route for you.

(Why only one route? Ten suns are shining in concert. He has managed to set down one route.) Flowers fall, the tree has no shadow— (What end is there to creating complications? Where will you seek it? He fills a black lacquer bucket with black ink.)

When looking, who doesn't see?

(Blind! You shouldn't always hold onto fences and grope along walls. Two blind ones, three blind ones ... )

Seeing or not seeing—

(Both ends are cut off. Blind!)

Riding backwards on an ox into the Buddha shrine. (He salutes inside the main gate. Give me back the story. I hit, saying, "Where has he gone?" Xuedou too is just making his living inside a ghost cave. Do you understand? At midnight the sun comes out, at noonday the midnight watch is sounded.)

Commentary

"Spontaneously shining, ranged in the solitary light. Originally, right where you are, there's this beam of light; it s just that your usual use of it is dark. That's why Yunmen set out this light for 381

87. Medicine and Disease Subdue Each Other

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you right in front of your faces. But what is your light? "The kitchen pantry and the main gate." This is where Yunmen arrays the solitary light. Panshan said, "The mind-moon is solitary and full; its light engulfs myriad forms. " This is the true, eternal, unique revelation.

Afterwards "He opens a route for you." Yunmen still feared people would become attached to "the kitchen pantry and the main gate. " Conceding for the moment the kitchen pantry and the main gate, when the morning flowers fall and the tree has no shadow, when the sun has gone down and the moon goes dark and all the world is vast blackness—do you still see? "When looking, who doesn't see?" Tell me, who is it that doesn't see? Here, where "right within light there's darkness" and "right within darkness there's light," both are "like a step forward and a step backward." You must see for yourself.

Xuedou says, "Seeing or not seeing," in reference to "A good thing isn't as good as nothing." Merged with seeing, you don't see anymore; merged with understanding, you don't understand any more. "Riding backwards on an ox into the Buddha shrine." He's gone into the black lacquer bucket. You must personally ride the ox into the Buddha shrine to see what it is that he's saying. 87. Medicine and

Disease Subdue Each Other

Introduction

Clear-eyed people have no nest: sometimes on the summit of a solitary peak weeds grow profusely; sometimes they're naked and free in the bustling marketplace. Suddenly they appear as angry titans with three heads and six arms; suddenly as Sun Face or Moon Face Buddha they emanate the light of all-embracing mercy. In a single atom they manifest all physical forms; to save people according to type they mix with the ordinary world. If suddenly they release the opening upward, not even the Buddha's eye could 382

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see them; even if a thousand sages appeared, they too would have to fall back three thousand miles. Is there anyone with the same attainment and same realization?

Story

Yunmen said, "Medicine and disease subdue each other." (A compounded form cannot be grasped.) "The whole earth is medicine;" (Bitter gourd is bitter to the root. He's put it over to one side.) "what is your self?" (Sweet melon is sweet to the stem. Where did he get this news?)

Commentary

Yunmen said, "Medicine and disease subdue each other. The whole earth is medicine; what is your self?" Do you have a way out? Concentrate constantly on "towering like a mile-high wall." Deshan's blows fall like rain; Linji's shouts peal like thunderputting this aside for the moment, Sakyamuni is Sakyamuni and Maitreya is Maitreya. Those who don't know what it comes down to frequently understand by calling it "medicine and disease merging with each other. " For forty-nine years, in over three hundred assemblies, the Buddha set up teachings in accord with potentials; all this was giving medicine according to the disease, like exchanging sweet fruit for bitter gourds. Having purified your active faculties, he made you clean and free.

"The whole earth is medicine." Where will you sink your teeth into this? If you can sink your teeth in, I'll grant that you have a place to turn around and show some life; then you see Yunmen in person. If you look around and hesitate, you won't be able to get your teeth into it; Yunmen is under your feet. "Medicine and disease subdue each other." This is just an ordinary proposition. If you cling to being, he speaks of nonbeing for you; if you are attached to nonbeing, he speaks of being for you. If you are attached to the idea of neither being or nonbeing, he manifests the golden body of the Buddha for you in a pile of rubbish, appearing and disappearing.

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212b Right now this whole earth is a profuse array of myriad forms, up to and including one's own self. At once it's medicine—at such a time, what will you call your self? If you only call it medicine, you'll never see Yunmen even in a dream. Ultimately how is it? See the meaning on the hook; don't stick by the zero point of the scale. One day Manjusri had Sudhana pick medicinal herbs. He said, "If there is something that is not medicine, bring it to me. " Sudhana searched all over, but there was nothing that was not medicine. So he went back and told Manjusri, "There is nothing that is not medicine." Manjusri said, "Gather something that is medicine." Sudhana picked up a blade of grass and handed it to Manjusri. Manjusri held it up and showed it to the assembly, saying, "This medicine can kill and can also bring life."

This talk of medicine and disease subduing each other is extremely difficult to see. Yunmen often used it in private guidance. One day elder Jin E called on Xuedou; both were adepts in the Yunmen line. They discussed this statement "medicine and disease subdue each other" all night until dawn before they were finally able to exhaust its excellence. At this point no learned interpretations, thought, or judgment can be applied. Afterwards, Xuedou made a verse to see him off:

Medicine and disease subdue each other—most difficult to see;

The myriad locked gates indeed have no starting point. Wayfarer Jin E came calling;

In one night we exhausted the waves of the ocean of learning.

Xuedou's subsequent verse is most effective. His meaning is in the host and in the guest. You can see for yourself. Verse

The whole earth is medicine:

(Who would you have discern the point? This is scattering sand and dirt. Put it on a high shelf.)

Why have people of all times been so mistaken? 384

87. Medicine and Disease Subdue Each Other (There's an echo in the words. With one brush stroke all are blotted out. Tsk!)

I don't make the carriage behind closed doors— (Great Xuedou uses all his strength to help the assembly. Misfortune comes forth from one's own door. Calm and clear, totally untrammeled. Who has any spare time? He is making a living in a ghost cave.)

The road through is naturally quiet and empty. (Wherever you step you enter the weeds. When you get on a horse, you'll see the road. He picks it up freely, outstanding indeed.)

Wrong, wrong!

(Twin swords fly through space. A single arrow fells two eagles.)

Though your nose be high as the sky, you're still taken in tow.

(Your head has fallen. I hit, saying, "Taken in tow!") Commentary

"The whole earth is medicine: / Why have people of all times been so mistaken?" For all time those who have understood by calling it medicine have instantly gone wrong. Xuedou said, "Some don't know how to cut off Damei's footsteps but merely say he was in too much of a hurry to go." Xuedou knew how to cut off Yunmen's footsteps. Since this one line of his had thrown everyone in the world into confusion, Yunmen said, "When my staff is waves, you may go freely in all directions; when the whole earth is waves, I'll watch to see if you float or sink. "

"I don't make the carriage behind closed doors— / The road through is naturally quiet and empty." Xuedou speaks to open up a road for you: "If you build your carriage behind closed doors, and it fits the ruts in the road when you bring it out, what has this accomplished? I am not building a carriage behind closed doors here. When I go out the door, naturally it's quiet and empty." Here Xuedou reveals a slight crack to let people see. 212c

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But then Xuedou hastens to say, "Wrong, wrong!" Both the former statement and the latter statement are wrong. Who would have known that Xuedou's opening up a road is also wrong? Since your nose is as high as the sky, why do you get taken in tow anyway? Do you want to understand? Then immerse yourself in this for thirty years. If you have a staff, I give you a staff; if you have no staff, you won't avoid being taken in tow.

88. Three Invalids

Introduction

To facilitate learning, we may temporarily break two into three; but for profound talking entering into noumenon, it is necessary to penetrate everything. Taking charge of the situation, one hits home and smashes apart the occult barrier of the golden chains. Acting according to the imperative, one obliterates all tracks and traces. Tell me, where is there confusion? For those who have the eye on the forehead, I bring this up to see.

Story

Xuansha said, "The adepts everywhere all speak of guiding and aiding people." (They set up their shops according to their capacities, according to whether their houses are rich or poor.) "Suppose they met three kinds of invalids—how would they guide them?" (He's beating the weeds just to frighten the snakes. My mouth is agape, my eyes open wide. You must fall back three thousand miles.) "With blind people, they could pick up the gavel or raise the whisk, but they wouldn't see." (Truly blind! This is guiding and aiding people. One doesn't have to be blind.) "Deaf people wouldn't hear what they said." (Truly deaf! This is guiding and aiding people. One doesn't have to be deaf. Who hasn't heard?) "Mute people could not be made to speak." (Truly mute! This is guiding and aiding people. One doesn't have to be mute. Who hasn't spoken?) "How would they guide such people? If they couldn't guide 386

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these people, then Buddhism has no effect." (How true these words are. I submit. They've already been guided. I'll strike!) A monk asked Yunmen for instruction on this. (He wants everyone to know too. This is pertinent.) Yunmen said, "Bow." (When the wind blows the grasses bend. Tsk!) The monk bowed and rose. (This monk has broken the staff.) Yunmen poked at him with his staff; the monk drew back. Yunmen said, "You're not blind." (Truly blind! Better not say this monk is blind.) Then Yunmen called him closer; when the monk approached, (The second ladleful of foul water douses the monk. Avalokitesvara has come. At that time the monk should have shouted.) Yunmen said, "You're not deaf." (Truly deaf. Better not say the monk is deaf.) Next Yunmen said, "Understand?" (Why doesn't he offer his own provisions? At that time the monk shouldn't have made a sound.) The monk said, "No." (A doubled case. Heavens!) Yunmen said, "You're not mute." (Truly mute. He's babbling. Better not say this monk is mute.) At this the monk had an insight. (He draws his bow after the bandit is gone. What vessel is he looking for?)

Commentary

Xuansha had reached the point of eliminating emotional defilement and conceptual thought, where he became purified, naked, free; only thus could he speak this way. At this time, when Chan flourished all over China, Xuansha would often say to his group, "The adepts all over speak of guiding and aiding people, but if they met three kinds of invalids, how would they guide them? Blind people wouldn't see them raise the gavel or whisk; deaf people wouldn't hear what they said; mute people couldn't be made to speak. So how would they teach such people? If they couldn't guide these people, then Buddhism has no effect." If you now understand this as being blind, deaf, and mute, you'll never be able to find it. Thus it is said, "Don't die in the words." To attain, you must understand Xuansha's intent.

Xuansha often used this statement to guide people. One of his longtime disciples once said, "Will you permit me to present a 387

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theory of the story of the three invalids?" Xuansha said, "Go ahead. " The monk then bade them farewell and left. Xuansha said, "Wrong—that's not it." Did the monk understand Xuansha's meaning? Fayan later said, "When I heard Master Dizang tell about this monk I finally understood the story of the three kinds of invalids." If you say the monk didn't understand, then why would Fayan say this? If ou say he did understand, why did Xuansha say "wrong"? One day Dizang said to Xuansha, "I hear you have a saying about three kinds of invalids—is that so?" Xuansha said, "Yes." Dizang said, "I have eyes, ears, nose, and tongue—how will you guide me?" Xuansha immediately stopped. If you can understand Xuansha's meaning, how could it be in the words? Dizang's understanding was naturally outstanding.

Later a monk took this up with Yunmen. Yunmen immediately understood his intentions and said, "Bow." The monk bowed. Yunmen poked at him with his staff, and the monk drew back. Yunmen said, "You're not blind." Then Yunmen called him closer. When the monk approached, Yunmen said, "You're not deaf." Next he said, "Understand?" When the monk said, "No," Yunmen said, "You're not mute." At this the monk attained insight. Had the monk been real, he would have turned over the Chan seat as soon as Yunmen told him to bow; then how could so many complications have appeared? But tell me, are Yunmen's understanding and Xuansha's understanding the same or different? The understanding of those two was the same.

See how the ancients appeared and created millions of kinds of expedient methods. "The meaning is on the hook." How much exertion just to make each individual understand this one matter? Wuzu said, "One person can speak but doesn't understand; one understands but cannot speak. If these two came calling, how would you be able to distinguish between them? If you can't distinguish between these two, in fact you will be unable to free people from fixations and bonds. If you can distinguish them, then as soon as you see them come through the gate, you have put on your shoes and walked around several times inside their bellies. If you haven't awakened on your own, what vessel are you looking for? Go away! " 388

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Now you better not make your understanding in terms of blind, deaf, and mute. Thus it is said, "One sees forms as though blind, and hears sounds as though deaf. " It is also said, "Though it fills the eyes, one doesn't see form; though it fills the ears, one doesn't hear sound—Manjusri is always covering the eyes, Avalokitesvara blocks the ears."

At this point, only if you see as though blind and hear as though deaf will you be able to be close to Xuansha's meaning. Do you know where the blind, deaf, and mute are? Look closely at Xuedou's verse:

Verse

Blind, deaf, mute —

(Already there before anything is said. Eye, ear, and mouth are all illumined. Already made into one piece.) Dark, without any adjustments to potentialities. (Where will you search? Can you make any judgments? What have they got to do with it?)

In the heavens, on earth—

(Truth is independent. I am also thus.) Laughable, lamentable.

(Laugh at what? Lament over what? Half light, half dark.) Li Lu can't discern the true form;

(Blind! A skilled craftsman leaves no traces. Truly blind.) How can Shi Kuang recognize the mystic tune? (Deaf! No reward has been established for the great achievement. Truly deaf.)

How can this compare to sitting alone under an empty window?

(You must be thus to attain. Don't live in a ghost cave. This breaks through obscurity all at once.) The leaves fall, the flowers bloom—each in its own time. (What time is it right now? You mustn't understand it as nothing. Today goes from morning to evening and tomorrow too goes from morning to evening.) 213b

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2i3c Again Xuedou says, "Do you understand or not?" (Again he speaks the words of the verse.)

An iron hammerhead with no hole.

(Take what's due you and get out. Too bad—Xuedou let go, so I hit.)

Commentary

"Blind, deaf, mute— / Dark, without any adjustments to potentialities." All your seeing and not seeing, hearing and not hearing, speaking and not speaking—Xuedou has swept it all away at once for you. In fact, views in terms of blindness, deafness, and muteness, and calculations and judgment of what's right to suit potentials, are at once obliterated; none of them can be applied. This transcendental matter can be called real blindness, real deafness, real muteness, without potentials or adjustments. "In the heavens, on earth— / Laughable, lamentable." Xuedou lifts up with one hand and pushes down with one hand. But tell me, laugh at what? Lament over what? It's worth laughing joyously that this blindness is not really blind, this deafness is not really deaf, this muteness is not really mute. It's worth lamenting being clearly not blind, yet still being blind, being clearly not deaf, yet still being deaf, being clearly not mute, yet still being mute. "Li Lu can't discern the true form. " If you can't tell green from yellow or red from white, then you're really blind. Li Lu was a man of ancient times known for his sharp eyes. Even Li Lu's eye can't discern the true form of this lofty realm. "How can Shi Kuang recognize the mystic tune?" Shi Kuang was a man of ancient times noted for his keen hearing. Though he could hear ants fighting on the other side of a mountain, Xuedou says that even he would be unable to recognize the mystic tune. People who, even though they are not deaf, are nonetheless still deaf, still could not recognize the mystic tune of this lofty realm even if they were Shi Kuang. Xuedou says, "I am not Li Lu, nor am I Shi Kuang—it is better so sit alone under an empty window. / The leaves fall, the flowers bloom, each in its own time." If you get to this realm, though you 390

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see, it's like not seeing; though you hear, it's like not hearing; though you speak, it's like not speaking. When hungry you eat and when tired you sleep. You let the leaves fall and the flowers bloom. When the leaves fall it's autumn; when the flowers bloom it's spring—each has its own season.

Having swept it clean for you, Xuedou again puts down a path and says, "Do you understand or not?" Xuedou's strength is exhausted and his spirit wearied; he can just manage to say, "An iron hammerhead with no hole. " Set your eyes on this line quickly; only then will you see. If you hesitate, you've missed it. (Holding up a whisk) Do you see? (Rapping the Chan seat) Do you hear? (Coming down from the seat) Can you speak? 89. The Hands and

Eyes of Great Compassion

Introduction

Even if your whole body were an eye, you still wouldn't be able to see it. Even if your whole body were an ear, you still wouldn't be able to hear it. Even if your whole body were a mouth, you still wouldn't be able to speak of it. Even if your whole body were mind, you still wouldn't be able to perceive it. Now leaving aside the "whole body" for the moment, if suddenly you had no eyes, how would you see? Without ears, how would you hear? Without a mouth, how would you speak? Without a mind, how would you perceive? Here, if you can unfurl a pathway, you'll be a fellow seeker with the ancient Buddhas. But leaving seeking aside for the moment, from whom would you seek?

Story

Yunyan asked Daowu, "What does the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion use so many hands and eyes for?" (Daowu should have given him some of his own provisions then. Why are you constantly 391

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running around? Why do you ask?) Daowu said, "It's like someone reaching back for the pillow in the middle of the night." (Why didn't he use his own provisions? One blind person leads a crowd of blind people.) Yunyan said, "I understand." (He adds error to error. He's cheating everyone. There's no different dirt in the same hole. He hasn't avoided damaging the point and cutting his hand.) Daowu said, "How do you understand it?" (Why bother to inquire further? He still had to ask; Yunyan should be challenged.) Yunyan said, "All over the body are hands and eyes." (What does this have to do with it? He's living in a ghost cave, washing dirt in mud.) Daowu said, "You've said quite a bit, but you've only said eighty percent." (There's no different dirt in the same hole. When the manservant sees the maid, he takes care. A leper drags a companion along.) Yunyan said, "What do you say?" (How can one get it by accepting another's judgment? Daowu too should be challenged.) Daowu said, "Throughout the body are hands and eyes." (The frog cannot leap out of the basket. He's snatched your eyes and made off with your tongue. Has he gotten a hundred percent or not? He's calling daddy poppa.)

Commentary

Yunyan and Daowu were fellow students under Yaoshan. Yunyan never lay down to sleep for forty years. Yaoshan produced the whole Cao-Dong school. There were three people whose teaching flourished: descended from Yunyan was Dongshan; descended from Daowu was Shishuang; and descended from Chuanzi was Jiashan. The Bodhisattva of Great Compassion has eighty-four thousand symbolic arms. Great Compassion has this many hands and eyes—do you? Baizhang said, "All sayings refer to oneself." Yunyan used to follow Daowu, seeking certainty. One day he asked him, "What does the bodhisattva of Great Compassion use so many hands and eyes for?" Right at the start Daowu should have given him a blow of the staff across his back, to avoid so many complications appearing later. But Daowu was compassionate—he 392

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couldn't act like this. Instead he gave Yunyan an explanation of principle, to let him understand easily. Daowu said, "It's like someone reaching back for the pillow in the middle of the night." Reaching for the pillow at night, with no light—where are the eyes? Yunyan immediately said, "I understand." Daowu said, "How do you understand it?" Yunyan said, "All over the body are hands and eyes." Daowu said, "You've said quite a bit, but that's only eighty percent." Yunyan said, "What do you say?" Daowu said, "Throughout the body are hands and eyes. "

Tell me, is "all over the body" right, or is "throughout the body" right? Though they seem covered with mud, nevertheless they are clean. People today often make up emotional interpretations and say "all over the body" is wrong, while "throughout the body" is right—they're merely chewing over the ancients' words. They have died in the words, not knowing that the ancients' meaning isn't in the words, and that all talk is used provisionally. People today add footnotes and set up patterns, saying that if one can penetrate this story it can be considered understanding enough to end study. Groping over their bodies, the lamps and pillars, they all make a literal understanding of "throughout the body." If you understand this way you degrade those ancients quite a bit. So it is said, "Study the living word, not the dead word." You must cut off emotional defilements and conceptual thinking, become clean and naked, free and unbound—only then will you be able to see this saying about Great Compassion. Caoshan asked a monk, "How is it when manifesting form in accordance with beings, like the moon in water? " The monk said, "Like an ass looking in a well." Caoshan said, "You have said quite a bit, but that's only eighty percent." The monk said, "What do you say?" Caoshan said, "Like the well looking at the ass." This is the same meaning as the present story.

If you go to the words to see, you'll never be able to get out of Daowu's and Yunyan's trap. Xuedou, an adept, no longer dies in words; he walks right on Daowu's and Yunyan's heads to versify: 393

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Verse

214b

Is "all over the body" right? (Four limbs, eight joints. This isn't yet the ultimate point.) Is "throughout the body" right? (There's half on the forehead. You're still in the nest. Blind!)

Bringing it up is still a hundred thousand miles away. (It won't do to let go. Why only a hundred thousand miles?)

Spreading its wings, the roc soars over the clouds of the six compounds—

(A tiny realm—I'd thought it'd be extraordinary. Check!) It propels the wind against the waters of the four oceans. (A bit of dust—I'd thought no one could cope with you. Wrong!)

What speck of dust suddenly arises? (Again he adds footnotes for Chanists. Cut! Where to put it?)

What wisp hasn't stopped?

(Exceptional! Special! Blown away. Cut!) You don't see?

(Again this way.)

The net of jewels hanging down in patterns: reflections upon reflections.

(Even the great Xuedou acts this way. Too bad—as before he's creating complications.) Where do the hands and eyes on the staff come from? (Tsk! He draws his bow after the bandit's gone. Can't let you go. No one has any way to show some life. Even having let go, one still must take a beating. I strike and say, "Tell me, is mine right or is Xuedou's right? ")

Bah!

(After three or four shouts, then what?) 394

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Commentary

"Is 'all over the body' right? / Is 'throughout the body' right?" Whether you say reaching back for the pillow is it, or running the hand over the body is it, if you make up such interpretations, you're doing nothing but making a living in a ghost cave. In the end neither "all over the body" nor "throughout the body" is right. If you want to see this story of Great Compassion by means of emotional consciousness, in fact you're still a hundred thousand miles away. Xuedou can manipulate a phrase, bringing it to life: he says, "Bringing it up is still a hundred thousand miles away." In the following lines Xuedou versifies what was extraordinary about Daowu and Yunyan, saying, "Spreading its wings, the roc soars over the clouds of the six compounds— / It propels the wind against the waters of the four oceans." The great roc swallows dragons: with its wings it propels the wind against the waters; the waters part, and the roc captures a dragon and swallows it. Xuedou is saying that if you can propel the wind against the waves like the roc, you are very strong indeed, yet if such actions are viewed with the thousand hands and eyes of the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion, it's just a little bit of dust suddenly arising, or a wisp of hair ceaselessly blown by the wind. Xuedou says that if you take running the hands over the body as the hands and eyes of Great Compassion, what is this good for? In fact this is just not enough for this story of the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion. Thus Xuedou says, "What speck of dust suddenly arises? / What wisp hasn't stopped?" Xuedou said of himself that an adept at once wipes away his tracks. Nonetheless, at the end of the verse as usual he breaks down and gives a comparison—as before, he's yet in the cage. "You don't see? / The net of jewels hanging down in patterns: reflections upon reflections." Xuedou brings out the clear jewels of Indra's net to use as a pattern. But tell me, where are the hands and eyes after all? In the Flower Ornament School they designate four reality realms: first, the reality realm of noumenon, to explain uniform equality; second, the reality realm of phenomena, to explain that 395

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noumenon in its entirety constitutes phenomena; third, the reality realm of noumenon and phenomena in harmony, to explain how noumenon and phenomena merge unhindered; fourth, the reality realm of harmony among phenomena, to explain how every phenomenon everywhere enters all phenomena, that all things everywhere embrace all things, all intermingling simultaneously without obstruction. So it is said, "As soon as a speck of dust arises, the whole earth is contained therein; each atom contains the boundless cosmos. As of each atom so of all atoms. "

As for the net of jewels, there's a net of jewels in the Hall of Goodness of the god Indra. Myriads of jewels are reflected in each jewel, and each jewel is reflected in myriads of ewels. Center jewel and surrounding jewels reflect back and forth, multiplying and remultiplying the images endlessly. This is used to illustrate the reality realm of harmony among phenomena.

Once National Teacher Xianshou set up a demonstration using mirrors and a lamp. He arrayed ten mirrors in a circle and put a lamp in the center. If you looked in any one mirror, you saw nine mirrors mirroring the lamp, mirrors and lamp all appearing equally. Thus when the Buddha first achieved true enlightenment, without leaving the site of enlightenment he ascended into all the heavens of the thirty-three celestial kingdoms, and at nine gatherings in seven places he expounded the Flower Ornament scripture. Xuedou uses Indra's jewel net to impart the teaching of the reality realm of harmony among phenomena. The six aspects are very clear; that is, the totality, the separation, the sameness, the difference, the formation, and the disintegration. Raise one aspect and all six are included. Because people are unaware of it in their daily activities, Xuedou raises the jewels of Indra's net hanging down in patterns to describe this saying about the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion. It's just like this: if you are able, amidst the jewel net, to understand the staff and the marvelous functioning of spiritual powers going out and coming in unobstructed, then you can see the hands and eyes of the Bodhisattva. That's why Xuedou says, "Where do the hands and eyes on the staff come 396

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from?" This is to make you attain realization at the staff and obtain fulfillment at a shout.

When Deshan hit people as soon as they came through the door, and when Linji shouted at people as soon as they came through the door, where were the hands and eyes? And why did Xuedou go on at the end to say, "Bah!"? Investigate. 90. The Body of Wisdom

Introduction

Even the sages have not transmitted the one phrase before sound. The single thread right before us is perpetually unbroken. Purified and naked, free and unbound, hair disheveled and ears alert—tell me, what about it?

Story

A monk asked Zhimen, "What is the body of wisdom?" (Throughout the body there are no reflected images. Everyone in the world is silenced. Why use "body"?) Zhimen said, "An oyster swallows the bright moon." (Leaving aside for the moment "the light engulfs myriad forms," what about the business of the true eye on the staff? The crooked does not hide the straight. This is adding frost to snow.) The monk asked, "What is the functioning of wisdom?" (Fall back three thousand miles. What does he want "function" for?) Zhimen said, "A rabbit gets pregnant." (Danger! Bitter gourd is bitter to the root, sweet melon is sweet to the stem. If you make your living in the reflections of a light, you won't get out of Zhimen's nest. If someone can come out, is this the body of wisdom or the function of wisdom? In essence this is adding mud to dirt.) Commentary

When Zhimen said, "An oyster swallows the bright moon," and "A rabbit gets pregnant," in both he used the sense of mid-autumn; 397

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2i5a even so, the ancient's meaning was not in the oyster or the rabbit. As Zhimen was an adept in the line of Yunmen, each of his sayings had to contain three statements: the statement containing the universe, the statement cutting off all streams, and the statement following the waves. Moreover, without arrangement, there is a spontaneous fitness. Thus he went to the danger point to answer this monk's questions, showing a bit of his sharp point, undeniably extraordinary. Nevertheless, this ancient never played with reflections of a light; he just pointed out a bit of a road for you to let you see.

The monk asked, "What is the body of wisdom?" Zhimen said, "An oyster swallows the bright moon." Oysters contain bright pearls: when the mid-autumn moon comes out, the oysters float to the surface, open up, and swallow the moonlight; from this pearls are produced. If there is moonlight in mid-autumn, the pearls are many; without a moon, the pearls are few.

The monk also asked, "What is the function of wisdom?" Zhimen said, "A rabbit gets pregnant. " The meaning of this is no different. The rabbit is associated with yin: in mid-autumn when the moon comes out, the rabbits swallow its light and become pregnant. Here too, if there's moonlight the offspring are many; without a moon they are few.

There's nothing much to Zhimen's answers; he just made temporary use of these ideas to answer about the light of wisdom. But even so, his meaning wasn't in the words. However, people later made a living on the words. Panshan said, "The mind-moon is solitary and full; its light engulfs myriad forms. The light is not shining on objects, nor do the objects exist—light and objects both forgotten, then what is this?" People today just stare and call this the light: they produce interpretations from their feelings, driving spikes into empty space.

An ancient said, "Day and night all of you radiate great light from your senses; it shines through mountains, rivers, and earth. It s not only your eyes that radiate light—nose, tongue, body, and mind also radiate light." To get here you simply must clean up 398

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your sense faculties so that there's no reification, and you are purified and free. Only then will you see the point of this story. Xuedou does his verse just this way.

Verse

One piece of empty solidity, beyond saying and feeling; (Try to set your mind on it and you err; stir your thoughts and you're obstructed. Not even the Buddhas' eyes can catch sight of it.)

From this humans and gods see Subhuti.

(Subhuti should be given a thrashing. What do you want with this old fellow? Even Subhuti has to fall back three thousand miles.)

The oyster swallows the moon—deep deep meaning: (You'd have to be the one involved to understand. What meaning is there? What further need for "deep deep meaning"?)

Given to Chan people, it makes them fight and struggle. (When shields and spears are already at rest, there's great peace in the world. Understand? I hit, saying, "How many blows have you taken?")

Commentary

"One piece of empty solidity, beyond saying and feeling." With a single line Xuedou has versified it well: naturally we can see the ancient's meaning. When the six senses are still, what is this? It's just this one mass, empty and bright, solid and quiescent. You needn't go to heaven to look for it. You needn't seek it from someone else. The perpetual light spontaneously appears before us: right here in this very place it towers like a gigantic wall, beyond verbalization and ideation. Fayan's verse on perfect reality says: When reasoning's exhausted, saying and feeling are forgotten;

How could this be properly described?

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