A Pointer: In general, to uphold and establish a religious tradition requires a person of heroic spiritual capacity. Only one with hands and feet that can kill without blinking an eye can become a Buddha on the spot. Therefore illumination and function operate simultaneously; opening and closing are voiced together; principle and phenomena are nondual; provisional and ultimate teachings proceed side by side. To let go of one move is to establish a secondary meaning. To cut off entanglements directly is difficult for later students and beginners to approach. To have acted thus yesterday was unavoidable; to act thus again today would be a sin towering to heaven. A clear-eyed person cannot be deceived in the slightest. But if this is not so, to throw oneself across a tiger’s mouth is inevitably to lose one’s life. Let us cite the case and see.

[5] The Case:

Xuefeng addressed the assembly: “One blind person leading a host of blind people—this is not beyond the ordinary.”

“Gather up the whole great earth and make it as large as a grain of millet—what kind of means is this? This mountain monk has never played tricks with ghostly eyes.

Throw it down before you—yet I fear you cannot throw it down! What skill is there in that?

The lacquer bucket does not understand. Relying on his authority to bully people—take him away yourself. Do not try to deceive the assembly.

Beat the drum and invite everyone to come see.” Blind! Drums are beaten for the three armies.

Changqing asked Yunmen, “When Xuefeng spoke in this way, was there still a point from which he could not emerge?”

Yunmen said, “There was.”

Changqing said, “How so?”

Yunmen said, “You must not take it all as the understanding of a wild fox spirit.”

Xuefeng said, “Not enough to match those above; more than enough to match those below. Let me entangle you further.” Raising his staff, he said, “Do you see Xuefeng? Bah! The king’s decree is somewhat strict: no one is permitted to interfere with the marketplace.”

Dahui Zhe said, “Let me add mud upon dirt for you all.” Raising his staff, he said, “Look, look! Xuefeng is defecating before you all. Bah! Why do you not even know that excrement stinks?”

Xuefeng addressed the assembly: “Gather up the whole great earth and make it as large as a grain of millet.” The ancients had extraordinary ways of receiving beings and benefiting life. Yet they did not shrink from hard work: three times they went up to Touzi and nine times to Dongshan. Carrying a lacquer bucket and a wooden ladle, serving as cook wherever they went, all for the sake of breaking through this matter.

When he was serving as cook under Dongshan, Dongshan asked Xuefeng one day, “What are you doing?”

Xuefeng said, “Washing rice.”

Dongshan said, “Are you washing away the sand and keeping the rice, or washing away the rice and keeping the sand?”

Xuefeng said, “Sand and rice both go away together.”

Dongshan said, “Then what will the assembly eat?”

Xuefeng thereupon overturned the basin.

Dongshan said, “Your affinity lies with Deshan,” and directed him to go see him.

As soon as he arrived, he asked, “In the matter of the supreme teaching transmitted from above, does this student have any share?”

Deshan struck him with his staff and said, “What are you saying?” Thereupon he had an awakening.

Later, when snow detained him at Aoshan, he said to Yantou, “When I was under Deshan’s staff, it was as though the bottom had fallen out of a bucket.”

Yantou shouted, “Have you not heard it said: ‘What enters through the gate is not a family treasure’? It must flow out from your own breast, covering heaven and earth, before there is even a small measure of correspondence.”

Xuefeng suddenly had a great awakening. Bowing in homage, he said, “Elder brother, today at last I have realized the Way at Aoshan.”

People nowadays keep saying that the ancients deliberately contrived these things in order to make later people follow rules. If so, they are slandering the ancients; this is called drawing the Buddha’s blood.

The ancients were not as careless and makeshift as people today. How could they have taken one phrase or half a phrase as sufficient for an entire lifetime? Because they upheld and established the tradition and continued the Buddha’s life, whenever they uttered one phrase or half a phrase, it naturally silenced everyone under heaven. There was no path for your deliberate intentions, emotional interpretations, or conceptual reasoning. See how this instruction to the assembly was possible because he had encountered accomplished masters; thus he possessed the tongs and hammers of an accomplished master. Whenever he spoke one phrase or half a phrase, it was not the calculating activity of mind, consciousness, and thought, not work conducted in a ghost cave. It was utterly outstanding, cutting off both past and present and allowing no conjecture or deliberation. This is entirely how such a master functions.

One day he addressed the assembly: “On South Mountain there is a turtle-nosed snake. All of you must look after yourselves carefully.” At that time the practitioner Leng stepped forward and said, “If so, many people in this hall today will lose their lives.”

He also said, “The whole great earth is one eye of a śramaṇa. Where will all of you defecate?”

He also said, “I have already met you at Wangzhou Pavilion; I have already met you at Wushi Ridge; I have already met you before the monks’ hall.” At that time Baofu asked Ehu, “Set aside meeting before the monks’ hall for now. What is the place where one meets at Wangzhou Pavilion and Wushi Ridge?” Ehu strode quickly back to the abbot’s quarters.

He often cited sayings such as these to instruct the assembly. When he said, “Gather up the whole great earth and make it as large as a grain of millet,” tell me: can this be measured by discriminating consciousness? One must break open the cage, set gain and loss, right and wrong aside all at once, and become utterly free and open. Then one naturally penetrates his painted enclosure and sees how he functions.

Tell me, where was Xuefeng’s intent? Many people give an emotional interpretation, saying, “Mind is the master of all phenomena; the whole great earth is at once in my hand.” Fortunately, this has nothing to do with it. Here one must be a genuine person: upon merely hearing it raised, one sees through it to the marrow of one’s bones, without falling into emotional thought or conceptual imagination. If one is an authentic traveling monastic, then upon seeing him speak in this way, he has already gone to great lengths for others.

Look at Xuedou’s verse:

The ox’s head vanishes—like lightning; it has already slipped past.

The horse’s head turns—as swift as a spark struck from stone.

In Caoxi’s mirror, all dust is cut off—break the mirror and meet me; it must be broken.

Beat the drum and come see—do you not see? Pierce your eyes! Do not take it lightly. What is so difficult to see about a lacquer bucket?

For whom do the hundred flowers bloom when spring arrives? The Dharma yields to no one. What a mess! Emerging from a cave of entanglements.

Xuedou truly saw the ancient master. He merely needed to thrust a needle into his vital point and compose the verse: “The ox’s head vanishes; the horse’s head turns.” Tell me, what does this say? For one who sees through it, it is as ordinary as eating porridge at morning assembly and rice at the midday meal. Yet Xuedou, in his compassion, smashed it with a hammer blow right before us and cut it off in a single phrase; still, it is solitary and steep.

Like a spark struck from stone, like a flash of lightning, it reveals no point or edge, leaving nowhere for you to approach. Tell me, can you grope for it beneath the mind faculty? These two lines say everything at once. In his third line, Xuedou opens a narrow passage and slightly reveals the manner of the teaching; already this is descending into the weeds. The fourth line is even more directly descending into the weeds. If you generate words upon words, sentences upon sentences, thoughts upon thoughts, and make interpretations and understandings, you not only burden this old monk but also betray Xuedou.

Although the ancients’ words are like this, their intent is not like this; ultimately they do not bind people with conceptual reasoning. “In Caoxi’s mirror, all dust is cut off”—how many people say, “A quiet mind is the mirror.” Fortunately, this has nothing to do with it. They go on calculating and reasoning; when will there ever be an end? This is talk proper to one’s fundamental position, and this mountain monk dares not depart from that position.

“The ox’s head vanishes; the horse’s head turns”—Xuedou has stated it clearly; it is simply that people do not see. Therefore Xuedou went to such lengths, composing: “Beat the drum and come see—do you not see?” Do foolish people see it? He further tells you, “For whom do the hundred flowers bloom when spring arrives?” It may be said that he has flung open the doors and windows, opening all eight sides for you at once. When spring comes, in secluded valleys and wild streams, even in places where no one is present, the hundred flowers compete in bloom. Tell me, for whom do they bloom? u A babel of voices

[Shancai]: Xuefeng is abominable!

He forcibly drags in a whole crowd, puts hats on the wrong heads, paints them red and green, and has them accompany his performance.

Even so, no one should merely go through the motions!

[Dingling]: Sitting amid the grass atop a solitary peak—his grandmotherly concern is urgent.

Ha ha! Who has ever seen him putting on a performance?

[Shancai]: That too is merely going through the motions.

[Visitor]: “Gather up the whole great earth and make it as large as a grain of millet?”

Why speak of large or small?

[Shancai]: What is large is this large; what is small is this small. ^_^

[xinming]: Even a lacquer bucket can “gather up the whole great earth and make it as large as a grain of millet.”

[lvm]: Anyone can “gather up the whole great earth and make it as large as a grain of millet.”

It is not that the lacquer bucket cannot gather it up; it is that it cannot comprehend—“the lacquer bucket does not understand.”

[xinming]: Then what if the lacquer bucket comprehends?

[lvm]: Once it comprehends, it is no longer a lacquer bucket.

[xinming]: Then what is it?

[Flowers in Bloom, Full Moon]: A lacquer bucket!

[xinming]: How about changing the name—for example, to a “glass bucket”?

[lvm]: Let me rush in with an answer too: it is still a lacquer bucket!

[Li Wuyou]: May I ask Teacher LVM: what places do Wangzhou Pavilion and Wushi Ridge refer to?

[lvm]: They were probably place names known to everyone attending the gathering at that time.

[Li Wuyou]: Then what is meant by the “turtle-nosed snake of South Mountain”?

[lvm]: A turtle-nosed snake is an extremely venomous kind of snake. Here it is a metaphor.

Touch it, and you lose your life!

[Li Wuyou]: Excellent, this snake! Nor can ordinary people see it.

[Li Wuyou]: Teacher LVM, could you explain these few lines?

To have acted thus yesterday was unavoidable; to act thus again today would be a sin towering to heaven.

What is meant by “a point from which he could not emerge”?

The king’s decree is somewhat strict: no one is permitted to interfere with the marketplace.

The ox’s head vanishes; the horse’s head turns.

[lvm]:

To have acted thus yesterday was unavoidable; to act thus again today would be a sin towering to heaven.

* Yesterday, when you asked in that way, I had no choice but to answer accordingly; hence it is called “an unavoidable necessity.” I could only answer your question, like an empty bell that sounds when struck: once the sound has passed, it leaves no trace.

* But today it is again like this. Today you did not ask in that way, yet if I were still to speak in that way, I would be meddling—impure and not cutting things off completely, merely disturbing your mind. Hence it is called “a transgression reaching the heavens.”

What is meant by “a point at which one cannot get free”?

* Is this the passage? Changqing asked Yunmen, “Xuefeng spoke thus. Is there still any point at which he cannot get free?” Yunmen said, “There is.” Changqing said, “How so?” Yunmen said, “You must not take it altogether as the understanding of a wild fox spirit.”

* Changqing and Yunmen were both eminent disciples of Xuefeng. Xuefeng is a place name. The ancients did not address him directly by name, but called him by his place name as a sign of respect. “Xuefeng spoke thus. Is there any point at which he cannot stand?”—“You must not take it altogether as the understanding of a wild fox spirit” is certainly not a rebuke of Xuefeng.

This is Yunmen’s Chan style. Just as “beat him to death and feed him to the dogs” is certainly not an insult to the World-Honored One, but lays bare “I alone am honored in all heaven and earth,” so here too it lays bare Xuefeng’s meaning completely. He gathers up the whole earth into something as small as a grain of millet and tosses it before Changqing’s face.

The king’s decree is somewhat strict: no competing for business in the marketplace is allowed.

* It has the same meaning as “the official tolerates not even a needle.” (Ha ha! What I have already done is “privately letting carriages and horses pass.”)

The ox’s head disappears; the horse’s head returns.

* It means: Zhang San of a former life dies, and Li Si of a later life is born; heads emerge and disappear.

[Li Wuyou]: Thank you for your compassionate, timely instruction. May I further ask you to explain to everyone: How can one avoid seeking Young Master Zhang on the paper?

[Taozi]: Not seeking means simply not seeking. Why ask such crap? So long-winded.

[lvm]: Do not ask “how.” First, stop seeking on this forum.

[Li Wuyou]: And then? One cannot seek anywhere at all!

[lvm]: Young Master Zhang is plainly on the paper; call out with all your strength, and he will not answer.

[hs]: How should these following sentences be explained in modern Chinese?

An unavoidable necessity

The king’s decree is somewhat strict: no competing for business in the marketplace is allowed

There is no place for you to attach yourself

Fortunately, there is no involvement

[Shancai]: These expressions are all more or less ancient colloquialisms, so their meanings can be richly varied according to their context and tone. Even if one reluctantly explains them, the explanations are still not as lively and vivid as the original sentences:

How should these following sentences be explained in modern Chinese?

◎ They must still be understood comprehensively in light of the context of the original text.

An unavoidable necessity

◎ Circumstances leave one with no alternative; one does it out of necessity.

“…Yesterday it was thus—an unavoidable necessity. Today it is again thus—a transgression reaching the heavens.…”

The various earlier expedient teachings were truly given in response to beginners and out of necessity. But if, because of this, one now clings stubbornly to fixed views and takes expedient means for the ultimate, how is that different from taking a thief for one’s father? …

The king’s decree is somewhat strict: no competing for business in the marketplace is allowed

◎ The king’s decree is prajñā’s right view, which admits of no speculation; hence it is somewhat strict. If people still contend over who is right or wrong in matters of views, it is like petty vendors noisily arguing without end in a marketplace. This should all the more be stopped.

There is no place for you to attach yourself

◎ There is nowhere for you to gain a foothold.

Fortunately, there is no involvement

◎ This expression occurs rather frequently in koans.

One meaning is, “Fortunately, it is far removed from the author’s original intent.”

Another meaning is: “Excellent, excellent! Forms do not interfere with one another; guest returns to the guest’s place, host returns to the host’s place, and each is at peace in its own sphere!”

Everyone, in this text, which is the guest and which is the host? And what is the difference between them?

◎ Heh heh, if my explanation is mistaken, I ask my Dharma brothers to correct it.

[Cypress Tree]: Hanyu Da Cidian explains: [Coucou]: 1. Also written as “凑泊” or “凑拍.” 2. To coalesce; to gather together. 3. To make do; to piece together. 4. To bring about; to form. 5. To adhere to. 6. By coincidence.

[Elder Dashou]: Shancai and Cypress Tree, both your principles are correct. But you should know that even true suchness, when burdened with principle, is delusion. The mind itself is formless—how could its wondrous functioning become attachment?

[Shancai]: That is why I say everyone is talking at once and making all kinds of comments.

—Fortunately, there is no involvement.

[Xinming]: Dongshan said, “What will the assembly eat?” Everyone, how would you continue the exchange?

Original text: One day Dongshan asked Xuefeng, “What are you doing?” Xuefeng said, “Winnowing rice.” Dongshan said, “Are you winnowing out the sand and keeping the rice, or winnowing out the rice and keeping the sand?” Xuefeng said, “Sand and rice both go.” Dongshan said, “What will the assembly eat?”

[lvm]: “Three cups of Qingyuan White Family Wine—after drinking them, he still says his lips have not been moistened.”

[Shancai]: Hee hee—jump once, and it is a toad; jump twice, and it is still a toad.

Xuefeng’s single sentence, “Sand and rice both go,” is enough to show that his feet do not touch the ground. Even if one were to explain it in four or five sentences, it would still be futile!

Having no choice, I shall adapt it a little. Everyone, have a look:

One day Dongshan asked Xuefeng, “What are you doing?”

Xuefeng said, “Winnowing rice.”

Dongshan said, “Are you winnowing out the sand and keeping the rice, or winnowing out the rice and keeping the sand?”

Xuefeng picked up a grain of sand and showed it to Dongshan, saying, “An offering for Śārī.”

Dongshan said, “What will the assembly eat?”

Xuefeng said, “Three cups of Qingyuan White Family Wine—after drinking them, he still says his lips have not been moistened.”

Heh heh—the two venerable elders, please do not blame me. ^0^

[lvm]: Overturning the bowl and striking with a staff was Deshan’s way of acting; turning elegant phrases into verses was the style of the Caodong school.

[Shancai]: Heh heh—could this drinking song also be the work of a Caodong master?

It truly is excellent: the meaning of the lines is profound, and their flavor lingers.

[lvm]: Case Ten of The Gateless Barrier:

Because a monk asked Caoshan, “Qing Shui is utterly poor. I beg the master for relief.”

Caoshan said, “Reverend Shui!”

Shui answered, “Yes!”

Caoshan said, “Three cups of Qingyuan White Family Wine—after drinking them, he still says his lips have not been moistened.”

Wumen said: Qing Shui’s loss of the opportunity—what state of mind was that? Caoshan possessed the eye and deeply discerned the capacity of the one who came. Yet, even so, tell me: where was the place at which Reverend Shui drank the wine?

The verse says: Poor as Fan Dan, with the spirit of Xiang Yu. Though he has no livelihood, he dares to contend in wealth.

[Shancai]: Ha ha~

[Yongshou Tongzi]: That destitute fellow who asked for relief drank himself tipsy.

[Xinming]: “Tell me: where was the place at which Reverend Shui drank the wine?”

[Ermao]: Bring the wine! ~

[Yongshou Tongzi]: Here comes the wine. Xinming drinks, and Ermao gets drunk.

[Ermao]: A toast to the young lad!

[Layman Zhaoguang] (responding to [Shancai]: “Xuefeng picked up a grain of sand and showed it to Dongshan, saying, ‘An offering for Śārī.’”): Why did he pick up and show a grain of sand? Would a grain of rice not do? Please instruct me, Dharma brother.

[Shancai]: According to the development of the plot, if he picked up a grain of rice, Dongshan would not ask, “What will the assembly eat?” Heh heh~

Actually, even if he picked up a grain of sand, Dongshan, given his manner, would not go on to ask:

“What will the assembly eat?”

Too weak.

So I said beforehand that it was only a mock exercise. Please indulge me, venerable elders.

[Layman Zhaoguang]: If he took up rice, there would be no need to ask further.

[Shancai]: Since the entangling vines have already been drawn out, I might as well add another section.

A little more complete—how about this?

[Scene One]

One day Dongshan asked Xuefeng, “What are you doing?”

Xuefeng said, “Winnowing rice.”

Dongshan said, “Are you winnowing out the sand and keeping the rice, or winnowing out the rice and keeping the sand?”

Xuefeng picked up a grain of sand and showed it to Dongshan.

Dongshan gave a hearty laugh and left.

[Scene Two]

One day Dongshan asked Xuefeng, “What are you doing?”

Xuefeng said, “Winnowing rice.”

Dongshan said, “Are you winnowing out the sand and keeping the rice, or winnowing out the rice and keeping the sand?”

Xuefeng picked up a grain of sand and showed it to Dongshan, saying, “An offering for Śārī.”

Dongshan said, “You, too, must not be left without a share!”

Feng flicked his sleeve and left at once.

Hehe—please make a guest appearance, you two elders! ^0^