Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings (127 page)

Tianyi said, “The master shouldn’t deceive people!”

Chongxian said, “I haven’t said anything improper. What do you mean?”

Tianyi remained silent.

Chongxian then hit him and said, “Strip off the silence and there’s a fraud! Get out!”

Later, when Tianyi was in Chongxian’s room for an interview, Chongxian said, “Practicing like this you won’t attain it. Not practicing like this you won’t attain it. This way or not this way, neither way will attain it.”

Tianyi began to speak but Chongxian drove him out of the room with blows. This unpleasant scene repeated itself four times. Some time later, while Tianyi fetched water from the well and carried it with a shoulder pole back to the temple, the pole suddenly broke. As the bucket crashed to the ground Tianyi was suddenly enlightened. He then composed the following verse that Xuedou greatly praised:

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
Alone atop the eighty-thousand-foot peak,
Snatching the pearl from the jaws of the black dragon,
A single word exposes Vimalakirti.

Zen master Tianyi Yihuai entered the hall to address the monks. When everyone was settled he said, “If I just get up here and say, ‘Hello everyone,’ it’s like spending a thousand taels of gold. If I just get down from here and say, ‘Take care,’ it’s like enjoying the support of all the world. But if I talk about the Buddhadharma, then even a single drop of water can’t be consumed. And if I have some idle, pointless discussion, then it’s like putting cinders in your eyes. So what shall I do?”

After a long pause he said, “Do you understand? Take care!”

Tianyi addressed the monks, saying, “A distinguished teacher of our sect said, ‘You must drive away the ox from the plowman, grab away the starving man’s food, regard the mean as noble, and regard the noble as mean. If you drive the ox away, then the plowman’s crop will be abundant. If you snatch away the food, then you will forever end the starving man’s hunger and thirst. Taking the mean as noble, a handful of dirt becomes gold. Taking the noble as mean, you change gold into dirt.’

“But as for me, I don’t drive away the plowman’s ox. Nor do I steal the starving man’s food. Why is that? Because what use do I have for the plowman’s ox? How could I eat that food? Moreover, I don’t turn a handful of dirt into gold, or gold into dirt. And why is this? Because gold is gold; dirt is dirt; jade is jade; stone is stone; a monk is a monk; and a layperson is a layperson.

“Since antiquity there have existed heaven and earth, sun and moon, mountains and rivers, people and their relationships. This being so, how many of the deluded can break through the San Mountain Pass and meet Bodhidharma?”
¹⁸¹

A monk said, “I have just arrived here. I ask the master to expound the Dharma.”

Tianyi said, “The birds call in the forest. The fish swim in the deep water.”

Tianyi addressed the monks, saying, “Patch-robed monks who prattle on about this don’t realize the highest wisdom-eye Dharma gate.”

A monk once asked, “What is the highest wisdom-eye Dharma gate?”

Tianyi said, “When the clothes are tattered, skin and bones show through. When the house collapses, then sleep looking at the stars.”

Tianyi addressed the monks. “‘The green creeper spreads and reaches up to the top of the pine tree. The white clouds appear in the midst of empty space.’ How does speaking in this manner compare to saying, ‘The clouds rise up at South Mountain; the rain falls on North Mountain’? If you understand this, it’s a sweet melon that is sweet to the bottom. If you don’t understand, it’s a bitter gourd that is bitter to the root.”

Once, Zen master Tianyi said to a monk, “A handless man can use his fist. A tongueless man can speak. If suddenly a handless man strikes a tongueless man, what does the tongueless man say?”

CHENGTIAN CHUANZONG

CHENGTIAN CHUANZONG was a disciple of Xuedou Chongxian. Little is known of his life or teaching. He taught at Chengtian Temple in Quanzhou. The temple was regarded as one of the three great temples of ancient Fuzhou.

A monk asked Zen master Chengtian Quanzong, “When the great function is manifested without hindrance or restriction, what then?”

Chengtian said, “Today at Chengtian the flag was raised and lowered.”

The monk then shouted.

Chengtian said, “A descendant of Linji.”

The monk shouted again.

Chengtian hit him.

A monk asked Chengtian Chuanzong, “What is the essence of prajna?”

Chengtian said, “Clouds basket the blue peaks.”

The monk said, “What is the function of prajna?”

Chengtian said, “The moon in a clear pool.”