Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings (79 page)

Xuefeng said, “When I first went to Yanguan’s place, I heard him expound on emptiness and form. At that time I found an entrance.”

Yantou said, “For the next thirty years, don’t speak of this matter again.”

Xuefeng said, “And then I saw Dongshan’s poem that said, ‘Avoid seeking elsewhere, for that’s far from the Self, now I travel alone, everywhere I meet it, now it’s exactly me, now I’m not it.’”

Yantou said, “If that’s so, you’ll never save yourself.”

Xuefeng then said, “Later I asked Deshan, ‘Can a student understand the essence of the ancient teachings?’ He struck me and said, ‘What did you say?’ At that moment it was like the bottom falling out of a bucket of water.”

Yantou said, “Haven’t you heard it said that ‘what comes in through the front gate isn’t the family jewels’?”

Xuefeng said, “Then, in the future, what should I do?”

Yantou said, “In the future, if you want to expound a great teaching, then it must flow forth from your own breast. In the future your teaching and mine will cover heaven and earth.”

When Xuefeng heard this he experienced unsurpassed enlightenment. He then bowed and said, “Elder Brother, at last today on Tortoise Mountain I’ve attained the Way!”

After Xuefeng assumed the abbacy at Snow Peak, a monk asked him, “When the master was at Deshan’s place, what was it you attained that allowed you to stop looking further?”

Xuefeng said, “I went with empty hands and returned with empty hands.”

A monk asked Xuefeng, “Is the teaching of the ancestors the same as the scriptural teaching or not?”

Xuefeng said, “The thunder sounds and the earth shakes. Inside the room nothing is heard.”

Xuefeng also said, “Why do you go on pilgrimage?”

One day, Xuefeng went into the monks’ hall and started a fire. Then he closed and locked the front and back doors and yelled “Fire! Fire!”

Xuansha took a piece of firewood and threw it in through the window. Xuefeng then opened the door.

Xuefeng asked a monk, “Where have you come from?”

The monk said, “From Zen master Fuchuan’s place.”
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Xuefeng said, “You haven’t crossed the sea of life and death yet. So why have you overturned the boat?”

The monk was speechless. He later returned and told Zen master Fuchuan about this.

Fuchuan said, “Why didn’t you say, ‘It is not subject to life and death’?”

The monk returned to Xuefeng and repeated this phrase.

Xuefeng said, “This isn’t something you said yourself.”

The monk said, “Zen master Fuchuan said this.”

Xuefeng said, “I send twenty blows to Fuchuan and give twenty blows to myself as well for interfering in your own affairs.”

A monk asked, “What is it if my fundamentally correct eye sometimes goes astray because of my teacher?”

Xuefeng said, “You haven’t really met Bodhidharma.”

The monk said, “Where is my eye?”

Xuefeng said, “You won’t get it from your teacher.”

A monk asked Xuefeng, “All the ancient masters each said they all penetrated the meaning of the phrase, ‘In the threefold body of Buddha there is one which does not falter.’ What is the meaning of this?”

Xuefeng said, “This fellow has climbed Mt. Dong nine times.”

When the monk started to ask another question Xuefeng said, “Drag this monk out of here!”

A monk asked, “What is it when one is solitary and independent?”

Xuefeng said, “Still sick.”

A monk asked, “When one pivots, then what?”

Xuefeng said, “The Boat Monk fell in the river.”

A monk asked, “What are the words passed down by the ancients?”

Xuefeng lay down.

After a long time he got up and said, “What was your question?”

The monk asked again.

Xuefeng said, “An empty birth, a fellow drowned in the waves.”

A monk asked, “The ancients said that if you meet Bodhidharma on the road, speak to him without words. I’d like to know how one speaks this way?”

Xuefeng said, “Drink some tea.”