Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings (20 page)

The scholar monk said, “I can’t so presume.”

Master Ma made a roaring noise.

The scholar monk said, “This is a teaching.”

Master Ma said, “What teaching is it?”

The scholar monk said, “The teaching of the lion leaving its den.”

Master Ma remained silent.

The scholar monk said, “This also is a teaching.”

Master Ma said, “What teaching is it?”

The scholar monk said, “The teaching of the lion in its den.”

Master Ma said, “Neither going nor coming, what teaching is it?”

The scholar monk didn’t answer.

Baizhang said in his behalf, ”Do you see?”

The scholar monk then said goodbye and started to leave.

Master Ma called to him, “Professor!”

The scholar turned his head.

Master Ma said, “What is
it
?”

The scholar again didn’t answer.

Master Ma said, “This dull-witted professor!”

Magistrate Lian of Hongzhou asked, “Should one drink wine and eat meat or not?”

Master Ma said, “If you consume wine and meat, it is your prosperity. If you don’t consume wine and meat, it is your good fortune.”

The master had one hundred thirty-nine disciples, each becoming a spiritual master in a different place, where each of them ceaselessly conveyed the teaching. In the first month [of the year 788], the master climbed Shimen Mountain in Jianchang. There, as he was walking in the woods, he saw a flat spot in a cave and said to his attendant, “This ruined old body of mine will return to the ground next month.”

These words came to pass. He subsequently became ill.

The temple director asked him, “How has the master’s honored condition been lately?”

Master Ma said, “Sun-faced buddha. Moon-faced buddha.”

On the first day of the second lunar month, the master bathed, sat in a cross-legged position, and passed away. During the Yuan He era [806–20] he received the posthumous name Daji [“Great Stillness”]. His stupa is named “Majestic and Imposing.”

SHITOU XIQIAN

SHITOU XIQIAN (700–90) was a disciple of Qingyuan Xingsi. He is a key figure of early Zen development. Three of the five traditional schools of Chinese Zen traced their origins through Shitou and his heirs.

Shitou’s Zen lineage is sometimes remembered as the “Hunan school.” Along with Mazu’s Hongzhou school (in an area corresponding to modern Jiangxi Province), these two comprise the root of all subsequent Zen schools and lineages down to the present day.

Many facets of Shitou’s life are obscure or lost. Historical records made little or no mention of a formal “Hunan school” during the years following Shitou’s death. He is connected to other great masters of the era mainly through believable anecdotes and claimed succession.

Shitou taught that “what meets the eye is the Way.”

Great teacher Shitou Xiqian was from Gaoyao in Duanzhou [west of present-day Guangzhou]. His family name was Chen. When Shitou’s mother became pregnant she avoided eating meat, and when he was a small child he was untroublesome. As a young man he was magnanimous. The people where he grew up feared demons and performed debased sacrifices of oxen and wine. This practice was long established. The master would go into the woods and destroy the ceremonial altars, seize the oxen, and drive them away. This went on for one year and the village elders were never able to stop him.

Later, Xiqian went to Cao Xi. He received tonsure but did not undergo full ordination as a monk. When the Sixth Ancestor died, Xiqian obeyed his request that he go to study under Qingyuan Xingsi. Xiqian then took Zen master Xingsi as his teacher.

One day, Qingyuan said to Shitou, “Someone says there’s news from Lingnan.”
⁵²

Shitou said, “Someone doesn’t say there’s news from Lingnan.”

Qingyuan then said, “If that’s so, then from where did the sutras and shastras come forth?”

The master said, “They all came from this.”

Qingyuan approved this answer.

In the first year of the Tian Bao era [742–55] of the Tang dynasty, the master took up residence at South Temple on Heng Mountain. East of the temple there was a stone outcropping. The master built a thatched hut on top of this spot and was thereafter referred to as “Monk Shitou.”
⁵³

Shitou is recorded to have had a great revelation while reading the
Zhao Lun.
⁵⁴
In that text he came upon a passage that said, “The one who realizes that the myriad things are one’s own self is no different from the sages.” Shitou thereafter dreamed that he, along with the Sixth Ancestor, was riding on the back of a great tortoise that was swimming in the sea. Waking up, he surmised that the tortoise symbolized wisdom and that the sea was the sea of existence. Shitou took the dream to mean that he, together with the Sixth Ancestor, sat upon wisdom’s back, swimming in the sea of existence. This realization inspired Shitou to write a verse entitled
Realizing Unity
(in Chinese,
Cantongqi
), an ode that is widely known and chanted in Zen temples down to the present day.
⁵⁵

The
Wudeng Huiyuan
offers examples of Shitou’s teachings.

Zen master Xiqian entered the hall and addressed the monks, saying, “My Dharma gate was first taught by former buddhas. I don’t say you need to practice some advanced form of meditation. Just see what the Buddha saw. This mind is buddha mind.

“‘Buddha mind,’ ‘all beings,’ ‘wisdom,’ and ‘defilement,’ the names of these things are different, but actually they are one body. You should each recognize your miraculous mind. Its essence is apart from temporary or everlasting. Its nature is without pollution or purity. It is clear and perfect. Common people and sages are the same. [This mind] reaches everywhere without limit. It is not constrained by the limits of consciousness. The three realms and six realms manifest from this mind.
⁵⁶
If [this mind] is like the moon reflected on water, where can there be creation and destruction? If you can comprehend this, then there is nothing that you lack.”