Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings (42 page)

A student asked, “What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from the west?”

Daochang held up his staff and said, “Do you understand?”

The monk said, “I don’t understand.”

Guannan hit him.

A monk asked, “What is the source of the great way?”

Guannan struck him.

Whenever the master would see a monk coming to pay respects, he would often take up his staff to strike him and chase him off. Sometimes he’d say, “You’re late,” or, “Beat Guannan’s drum.” During his time only Beixian was in harmony with him.

HANGZHOU TIANLONG

HANGZHOU TIANLONG (n.d.) was a disciple of Damei Fachang and the teacher of Juzhi (one-fingered Zen). The lamp records provide little information about Hangzhou Tianlong’s life.

Hangzhou Tianlong entered the hall and addressed the monks, saying, “All of you! Don’t be waiting for me to come here so that you can come here, or for me to go back so that you can go back. Each of you already possesses the ocean of glorious treasure-nature and is fully endowed with virtuous merit and the pervasive illumination. Each of you partakes of it! Take care!”

A monk asked, “How can one escape the three realms?” Tianlong said, “Where are you right this moment?”

CHANGSHA JINGCEN, “TIGER CEN”

CHANGSHA JINGCEN (d. 868) was a disciple of Nanquan Puyuan. He had the nickname “Tiger Cen.” Although he is known to have lived in the city of Changsha at Lushan Temple, Jingcen roamed China expounding the Dharma according to the situations he encountered. He possessed an extremely pointed and aggressive style of instruction. Thus, after Jingcen literally climbed on top of Yangshan, he was widely likened to a tiger. The lamp records offer evidence of Jingcen’s incisive lectures.

Zen master Changsha Jingcen entered the hall and addressed the monks, saying, “If I give you some religious teaching, then there will be grass growing in the hall ten feet deep! But this is something that can’t be stopped. So I say to you that all worlds pervading the ten directions are the true monk’s eye. All worlds pervading the ten directions are the true monk’s complete body. Pervading all worlds in the ten directions is your own brilliant light. All worlds in the ten directions are within your own light. And throughout all worlds in the ten directions there is not a being that is not you. This is what I’ve taught you when I’ve said that all the buddhas, dharmas, and sentient beings of the three worlds are the great light of wisdom. But even before this light was propagated, what is the place where you existed? Before this light was propagated, before buddhas and before sentient beings, from where did the mountains, rivers, and the great earth come forth?”

A monk asked, “What is the true monk’s eye?”

Changsha said, “So vast and wide that you can’t leave it.”

Changsha also said, “Those who become buddhas or ancestors can’t leave it. The six realms of transmigration can’t leave it.”

The monk said, “I don’t undertand what it is that they can’t leave.”

Changsha said, “In the day, see the sun. In the night, see the stars.”

The monk said, “I don’t understand.”

Changsha said, “The lofty mountains are colored green upon green.”

A monk asked, “Teachers of our order say to ‘abide’ by sitting in the
bodhi
seat. What is the seat?”

Changsha said, “Just now I’m sitting. Just now you’re standing.”

A monk asked, “What is the great way?”

Changsha said, “It doesn’t exclude you.”

The monk asked, “Who is the teacher of all buddhas?”

Changsha said, “For the incalculable eon, who has ever concealed this?”

A monk asked, “What was there before the buddhas?”

Changsha said, “Luzu entered the hall and spoke incoherently to the masters and disciples.”