DIALOGUES WITH SHIH-T’OU (SEKITO)
1. Suddenly Stopping the World
The Layman named P’ang-yun (Ho-un) lived in the city of Heng-yang but was born in the province of Hsiang. He was known as Tao-hsuan (Dogen). In his youth, he was a Confucian scholar who became concerned about the nature of the human condition and sought to understand the reality of it.
In the first year of the Chen-yuan period,1 the Layman went to see Zen Master Shih-t’ou2 and asked him, “What about someone who has no connection with the ten thousand dharmas?”3
Shih-t’ou put his hand over the Layman’s mouth, and the Layman had a sudden realization.
1. The year 785.
2. Shih-t’ou Hsi-ch’ien (Sekito Kisen, 700–790) was a dharma heir of Ch’ing-yuan Hsing-szu (Seigen Gyoshi, 660–740), who was one of the three main disciples of the Sixth Patriarch. Shih-t’ou was one of the most renowned Zen masters of the T’ang dynasty. The Soto lineage of Zen practiced in Japan is ultimately traceable to him. He lived on Mount Nam-yueh (also called Heng-shan or Mount Heng), to the north of the Layman’s hometown of Heng-yang.
3. Whereas “The Dharma” is the Truth, or Buddha’s teaching, the “ten thousand dharmas” are “all worldly phenomena.”