The national teacher called his attendant three times, and three times his attendant responded. The national teacher said, “I thought I was standing alone with my back to you, but now I find that you are standing alone with your back to me.”
The national teacher called three times and his tongue dropped to the ground. The attendant responded three times, emitting the answer with light. The national teacher was old and lonely. He held the cow’s head and forced it to eat grass. The attendant would have none of it; delicious food has little attraction for a man who has had enough to eat. Just tell me, where are they standing alone with their backs to each other? When the country is prosperous, persons of talent are esteemed; children of rich families are too proud to eat plain food.
We must carry an iron yoke with no hole,
It is not a slight matter, the curse is passed on to our descendants;
If you want to support the gate and sustain the house,
You must climb a mountain of swords with bare feet.
“National teacher” (kokushi in Japanese) refers to a teacher of the emperor. The national teacher in this case is Nan’yō Echū (or Chū), a Dharma successor of the sixth patriarch, Enō. The attendant is thought to be Tangen Ōshin, Echū’s sole Dharma successor. He also appears in Case 18 of the Blue Cliff Record.
Echū, after he had attained great enlightenment, succeeded to the sixth patriarch’s Dharma. He then retreated to a small temple called Kōkanji, which was located in the Tōsu Valley of Mt. Byakugai. Here he continued to practice zazen single-mindedly for forty years with a Zen priest friend named Seizazan.
Emperor Shukusō, hearing what a great Zen master Echū was, sent messengers several times to invite him to the palace to be the national teacher. After refusing innumerable times, Echū finally decided to accept the invitation. His friend, Seizazan, opposed the decision, feeling it was too early to leave the mountain. “I am finished with you from now on,” he told Echū and remained alone, practicing zazen. History tells us nothing about him after that.
In this connection, I would like to say something about practicing zazen alone. I strongly discourage it in all cases, particularly for students who have not completed what we call in Japanese shitsunai no shirabe. Literally this means “the investigation in the room,” which is carrying on koan study under your master. To practice zazen alone is so difficult that it is almost impossible. Most students who do so go wrong. For effective zazen, it is very important to practice sitting with a group, at least occasionally, if you want to get results.
The true practice of zazen is very severe. The present koan is a good example of this. To attain kensho (self-realization) is not so difficult; for some people only one sesshin (Zen retreat) is sufficient. But kensho is only the entrance to our final goal in doing zazen, namely the accomplishment of our character. This involves a purification which is most difficult and requires a great deal of time. There is really no end to the practice of Zen. You cannot accomplish a perfect character in forty years. Practicing a million years is still insufficient.
The sutras are very clear in saying that it took Amida and Shakyamuni thousands of millions of kalpas to become Buddhas. As I told you before, a kalpa is an almost immeasurably long period of time. What does this inconceivably long period of time tell us? It says that from one point of view, our essential nature can be polished endlessly, and from another point of view, the stains and layers of dirt which have accumulated on our essential nature are immeasurably thick.
In the Sange-mon, the purification verse recited every morning in Zen practice, it is said: “From time immemorial, I have created all evil karma; this is on account of my beginningless greed, anger, and folly, which are born of my body, mouth, and thought.” As I have so often told you, our dualistic ego is to blame for this. The origin of evil karma is fundamentally the discriminating consciousness of subject and object, you and me, which is no other than the dualistic ego.
Returning to the koan, it is said that the emperor not only greeted and said good-bye to Echū personally but such was his esteem for Echū that he always pushed his teacher’s cart. The T’ang dynasty was an era of eminent Zen masters, and among them, national teacher Echū was conspicuously great. Everyone studying Zen at that time made great efforts to go to him for instruction at least once in their lives. The number of his disciples must have been staggering, but he is said to have left only one Dharma successor, Tangen, who is thought to be the attendant in this koan. Echū must have been a severe teacher indeed!
The national teacher called, “Attendant!”
The attendant answered, “Yes!”
“Attendant!” “Yes!” “Attendant!” “Yes!”
After the third time, the national teacher said, “I thought I was standing alone with my back to you, but now I find that you are standing alone with your back to me!” The national teacher is showing that everything is independent and alone, in and with the whole universe. He means, “I thought I was standing alone in the whole universe with you lost behind me, but now I find that you are standing alone in the whole universe and that I am lost behind you.” With this the national teacher is recognizing the attendant’s realization of the essential world.
When the national teacher calls, “Attendant!” his calling is the essential nature itself appearing in full view on the surface; there is nothing in the whole universe but the calling. The attendant cannot appear on the surface. He is concealing himself behind the national teacher’s shadow. Therefore, the national teacher says, “I am standing alone in the whole universe with you lost behind me.”
In the same way, when the attendant responds, “Yes!” it is his essential nature itself appearing on the surface; there is nothing but “Yes!” in the whole universe. The national teacher is concealing himself behind the back of the attendant. So the national teacher says, “I find that you are standing alone in the whole universe and that I am lost behind you.”
The national teacher recognized that the attendant had realized the world of the essential nature, so what he was really saying was, “1 recognize that you have realized you are standing alone in the whole universe, just as I am.” This is Echū’s confirmation of the attendant’s enlightenment. When one thing or person manifests itself on the stage, there can be nothing else. Everything and every person is completely solitary.
’The national teacher called three times and his tongue dropped to the ground. The attendant responded three times, emitting the answer with light. The national teacher was old and lonely. He held the cow’s head and forced it to eat grass. The attendant would have none of it; delicious food has little attraction for a man who has had enough to eat. Just tell me, where are they standing alone with their backs to each other? When the country is prosperous, persons of talent are esteemed; children of rich families are too proud to eat plain food.”
“The national teacher called three times and his tongue dropped to the ground. The attendant responded three times, emitting the answer with light.” “His tongue dropped to the ground” means he spoke too much. The national teacher called the attendant three times, but one time would have been enough. Why was it necessary to call three times? He moved his tongue superfluously. The national teacher was far too solicitous. By answering “Yes,” the attendant allowed the light of his essential nature to shine forth.
“The national teacher was old and lonely. He held the cow’s head and forced it to eat grass.” The national teacher is old and feeling alone and wants to make the attendant realize his essential nature more clearly, so he calls him three times. It is just like a herdsman forcing grass down a cow’s throat.
“The attendant would have none of it; delicious food has little attraction for a man who has had enough to eat.” The attendant has attained the deepest enlightenment and does not want anything else, so he simply responds, “Yes!” It is like a person who has eaten his fill and has no appetite for dessert.
“When the country is prosperous, persons of talent are esteemed.” When a country is in the midst of peril, a brave hero is longed for, but when peace prevails, it is the intellectually gifted who are highly esteemed, and such people have no interest in doing trifling work.
“Children of rich families are too proud” means that children of rich families are too used to luxuries to take pleasure in common things such as plain food or cheap toys. Both this passage and the previous one refer to the attendant, who is wholly satisfied with his own being.
We must carry an iron yoke with no hole,
It is not a slight matter, the curse is passed on to our descendants;
If you want to support the gate and sustain the house,
You must climb a mountain of swords with bare feet.
This verse is telling us that it is a tremendous task to support true Buddhism. The iron yoke with no hole means an unbearable burden. The gate is the gate of Buddhism, the true way of Buddha, and the house is, of course, the house of Buddhism. Mumon is telling us that supporting this decaying house is just like carrying an iron yoke without a hole, or climbing barefoot a mountain covered with protruding blades. Our descendants will never have peace or rest, bearing forever the heavy burden they inherit.