Hogen of Seiryo monastery was about to lecture before dinner when he noticed that the bamboo screen lowered for meditation had not been rolled up. He pointed to it. Two monks arose from the audience and rolled it up.
Hogen, observing the physical moment, said: “The state of the first monk is good, not that of the other.”
Mumon’s comment: I want to ask you: Which of those two monks gained and which lost? If any of you has one eye, he will see the failure on the teacher’s part. However, I am not discussing gain and loss.
When the screen is rolled up the great sky opens,
Yet the sky is not attuned to Zen.
It is best to forget the great sky
And to retire from every wind.
A monk asked Nansen: “Is there a teaching no master ever preached before?”
Nansen said: “Yes, there is.”
“What is it?” asked the monk.
Nansen replied: “It is not mind, it is not Buddha, it is not things.”
Mumon’s comment: Old Nansen gave away his treasure-words. He must have been greatly upset.
Nansen was too kind and lost his treasure.
Truly, words have no power.
Even though the mountain becomes the sea,
Words cannot open another’s mind.
Tokusan was studying Zen under Ryutan. One night he came to Ryutan and asked many questions. The teacher said: “The night is getting old. Why don’t you retire?”
So Tokusan bowed and opened the screen to go out, observing: “It is very dark outside.”
Ryutan offered Tokusan a lighted candle to find his way. Just as Tokusan received it, Ryutan blew it out. At that moment the mind of Tokusan was opened.
“What have you attained?” asked Ryutan. “From now on,” said Tokusan, “I will not doubt the teacher’s words.”
The next day Ryutan told the monks at his lecture: “I see one monk among you. His teeth are like the sword tree, his mouth is like the blood bowl. If you hit him hard with a big stick, he will not even so much as look back at you. Someday he will mount the highest peak and carry my teaching there.”
On that day, in front of the lecture hall, Tokusan burned to ashes his commentaries on the sutras. He said: “However abstruse the teachings are, in comparison with this enlightenment they are like a single hair to the great sky. However profound the complicated knowledge of the world, compared to this enlightenment it is like one drop of water to the great ocean.” Then he left that monastery.
Mumon’s comment: When Tokusan was in his own country he was not satisfied with Zen although he had heard about it. He thought: “Those Southern monks say they can teach Dharma outside of the sutras. They are all wrong. I must teach them.” So he traveled south. He happened to stop near Ryutan’s monastery for refreshments. An old woman who was there asked him: “What are you carrying so heavily?”
Tokusan replied: “This is a commentary I have made on the Diamond Sutra after many years of work.”
The old woman said: “I read that sutra which says: ‘The past mind cannot be held, the present mind cannot be held, the future mind cannot be held.’ You wish some tea and refreshments. Which mind do you propose to use for them?”
Tokusan was as though dumb. Finally he asked the woman: “Do you know of any good teacher around here?”
The old woman referred him to Ryutan, not more than five miles away. So he went to Ryutan in all humility, quite different from when he had started his journey. Ryutan in turn was so kind he forgot his own dignity. It was like pouring muddy water over a drunken man to sober him. After all, it was an unnecessary comedy.
A hundred hearings cannot surpass one seeing,
But after you see the teacher, that one glance cannot surpass a hundred hearings.
His nose was very high
But he was blind after all.
Two monks were arguing about a flag. One said: “The flag is moving.”
The other said: “The wind is moving.”
The sixth patriarch happened to be passing by. He told them: “Not the wind, not the flag; mind is moving.”
Mumon’s comment: The sixth patriarch said: “The wind is not moving, the flag is not moving. Mind is moving.” What did he mean? If you understand this intimately, you will see the two monks there trying to buy iron and gaining gold. The sixth patriarch could not bear to see those two dull heads, so he made such a bargain.
Wind, flag, mind moves,
The same understanding.
When the mouth opens
All are wrong.
Daibai asked Baso: “What is Buddha?”
Baso said: “This mind is Buddha.”
Mumon’s comment: If anyone wholly understands this, he is wearing Buddha’s clothing, he is eating Buddha’s food, he is speaking Buddha’s words, he is behaving as Buddha, he is Buddha. This anecdote, however, has given many a pupil the sickness of formality. If one truly understands, he will wash out his mouth for three days after saying the word Buddha, and he will close his ears and flee after hearing “This mind is Buddha.”
Under blue sky, in bright sunlight,
One need not search around.
Asking what Buddha is
Is like hiding loot in one’s pocket and declaring oneself innocent.