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ZHAOZHOU, WHO WOULD later become Great Master Zhenji, the thirty-seventh ancestor from Shakyamuni Tathagata, first aroused the aspiration for enlightenment at age sixty-one, and left home to study the way.
At this time he vowed, “I will teach even a hundred-year-old person who has less understanding than I. I will inquire about the way even from a seven-year-old child who surpasses my understanding.”
Having made this vow, he journeyed south. While asking about the way, he got to Mount Nanquan and bowed to Nanquan, Priest Puyuan.
Nanquan was lying down in the abbot’s room. When he saw Zhaozhou, he asked, “Where are you from?”
Zhaozhou said, “The Ruixiang [Auspicious Image] Monastery.”
Nanquan asked, “Is there an auspicious image over there?”
Zhaozhou replied, “There is no auspicious image, but there is a re clining Tathagata.”
Hearing this, Nanquan sat up and said, “Are you a novice with a teacher?”
Zhaozhou said, “Yes, I am a novice with a teacher.”
Nanquan asked, “Who is your teacher?”
Zhaozhou said, “It is still cold in early spring. I respectfully bow to you and wish you an auspicious life.”
Nanquan called the practice coordinator and said, “Take care of this novice.”
From that time, Zhaozhou stayed at Nanquan’s monastery without ever leaving. He endeavored in the way for thirty years, avoiding inessential activities, not wasting time.
After receiving transmission of the way, he resided as abbot at the Guanyin Monastery in Zhao Region for thirty years. His abbacy was unique. One day he said:
With an empty stomach I look at smoke rising from nearby kitchens.
Having bidden farewell to dumplings and steamed bread last year,
my mouth still waters thinking of them.
There is little room for mindfulness but much for despair.
From a hundred neighboring houses, no one gives to the monastery.
Visitors come for tea,
but not finding a treat, they leave unhappy.
How pathetic! Zhaozhou’s monastery rarely even fired up its stove to boil plain rice. They hadn’t tasted various flavors for more than a year. One hundred neighbors came for tea; those who didn’t want tea stayed away. Visitors bringing gifts of tea come from outside the village. Even though monks were searching for a master, they might not be dragons and elephants remembering to bring food offerings.
At another time Zhaozhou said:
Reflecting on home leavers in the world,
I wonder how many abbots like myself
have only broken bamboo strips on a dirt bed.
My pillow of woven willow twigs lacks a cover.
There is no incense to offer to the sacred image.
Only the smell of cow dung rises from the incense bowl.
From these words you can feel the purity of Zhaozhou’s monastery. Learn from this excellent example. However, he did not have many monks, fewer than twenty, because it was difficult to follow such a practice. The monks’ hall was small, without front and back sitting platforms. No lanterns were lit at night and no charcoal burned in winter. You could call it a pitiable life for his old age. The pure practice of the old buddha was like this.
Once, a leg of one of the sitting platforms broke. Zhaozhou replaced it with a burned stick that had rope tied around it. It was like that for some years. When a monastery officer wanted to repair it, Zhaozhou would not allow it. This is an unparalleled example throughout time.
Usually there was no grain visible in the gruel, and hungry monks sat next to drafty windows. He and the assembly often picked nuts for their meals.
Nowadays, we who follow his teaching admire his pure practice. Although we cannot come up to Zhaozhou’s standard, we keep it in mind, longing for the ancient way.
Once, he said to the assembly, “I was in the south for thirty years engaged wholeheartedly in zazen. Students, if you want to realize the single great matter, clarify what is essential through zazen. If you practice three years, five years, twenty or thirty years, and still have not attained the way, you can cut off this old monk’s head and make a urine dipper from it.”
This was his commitment. Indeed, endeavor in zazen is the straight path of the buddha way. Clarify the principle through sitting and seeing.
Later someone commented: “Zhaozhou is an ancient buddha.”
Zhaozhou was asked by a monk, “What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India?”
Zhaozhou said, “The cypress tree in the garden.”
The monk said, “Reverend, please do not use an object to guide me.”
Zhaozhou said, “I am not using an object.”
The monk said, “What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India?”
Zhaozhou said, “The cypress tree in the garden.”
Although this koan originated with Zhaozhou, all buddhas have in fact created it with their whole bodies. Who could own it?
What we should learn from this is that the cypress tree in the garden is not an object, Bodhidharma’s coming from India is not an object, and the cypress tree is not the self.
Thus, there is just Reverend, please do not use an object to guide me, and just I am not using an object.
Which reverend is hindered by reverend? If not hindered, the reverend is I. Which I is hindered by I? Even if the I is hindered, it is a true person. What object is hindered by Bodhidharma’s coming from India? An object is always Bodhidharma’s coming from India. However, Bodhidharma’s coming from India and the object are not sequential.
Bodhidharma’s coming from India is not necessarily the treasury of the true dharma eye, the wondrous heart of nirvana. It is beyond this mind, beyond this buddha, beyond this object.
The question What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India? is not only a question, or the teacher and student sharing the same view. At the very moment of asking, has not one of them seen through? How much has the other attained? In further give and take, neither one is wrong.
Thus, there is missing the mark on top of missing the mark. Because it is missing on top of missing, it is continuous missing. Is it not receiving voidness and sending back an echo? Because vast spirit has no contradiction, The cypress tree in the garden.
Without being an object, it cannot be a cypress tree. Even if it is an object, I am not using an object, and Reverend, please do not use an object to guide me.
The cypress tree is not in an old shrine. As it is not in an old shrine, it is totally immersed. As it is totally immersed, “I have endeavored.” Because “I have endeavored,” I am not using an object. Then, with what does Zhaozhou teach? “I am like this.”
Zhaozhou was asked by a monk, “Does the cypress tree have buddha nature?”
Zhaozhou answered, “It does.”
The monk said, “When does it become buddha?”
Zhaozhou said, “When the sky falls to the ground.”
The monk said, “When does that happen?”
Zhaozhou said, “When the cypress tree becomes buddha.”
Now, listen to these words of Zhaozhou, while not abandoning the questions of the monk. The times of Zhaozhou’s words, When the sky falls to the ground and When the cypress tree becomes buddha, are not separate.
The monk questioned the cypress tree, buddha nature, becoming a buddha, and when. He also questioned the sky and falling.
In response to the monk’s question, Zhaozhou said, It does, meaning the cypress tree has buddha nature. Fully explore this statement and freely let flow the life stream of buddha ancestors.
That the cypress tree has buddha nature could not ordinarily be spoken of; it had not yet been spoken about. The cypress tree does have buddha nature. Clarify how: Is the status of the cypress tree that has buddha nature high or low? Inquire about its life span and physical dimensions. Ask about its social class and clan. Are hundreds and thousands of cypress trees in one class or in different families?
Does the cypress tree become buddha, practice, and arouse the aspiration for enlightenment? Or does it become buddha but does not practice or arouse the aspiration for enlightenment? What kind of relationship exists between the cypress tree and the sky? Does the cypress tree become buddha when the sky falls because the treeness of the cypress tree is always the sky? Is the status of the cypress tree in the sky its beginning or ultimate stage? Investigate this thoroughly in detail.
Let me ask Old Man Zhaozhou: “If you are one of the withered cypress trees sprouting from one root, what do you do?”
That the cypress tree has buddha nature is not the understanding of those outside the way or those in the Two Lesser Vehicles. Nor has it been seen or heard of by teachers of sutras or treatises. Even further, can it be expounded by the flowery words of withered trees and dead ash? The followers of Zhaozhou alone study and investigate this.
Zhaozhou’s indication “The cypress tree has buddha nature” raises such questions as: Is the cypress tree totally immersed in the cypress tree? Is buddha nature totally immersed in buddha nature? More than a few buddhas have explored these words, but not all those that have buddha faces investigate such words. Even among buddhas, there are some who can say them and some who cannot.
The words When the sky falls to the ground do not refer to something impossible. Every time the cypress tree becomes buddha, the sky falls. Sounds of falling are not hidden, but are louder than hundreds and thousands of thunder strikes. The time when the cypress tree becomes buddha is provisionally within the twelve hours and yet is beyond the twelve hours. The sky that falls is not the same sky seen by ordinary people and sages, but an entirety of sky beyond that. Others do not see it. Zhaozhou alone sees it.
The ground the sky falls to is not possessed by ordinary people or sages, but there is an entirety of ground beyond that. Light and shadow do not reach it. Zhaozhou alone reaches it. At the moment the sky falls, even the sun, moon, mountains, and rivers will face it.
Who says that buddha nature unfailingly becomes buddha? Buddha nature is magnificence actualized after becoming buddha. Further, there is buddha nature that is born together and practiced together upon becoming buddha.
Thus, the cypress tree and buddha nature are neither different sounds nor the same tune. That is to say, not necessarily either. What is this? Investigate thoroughly.
Presented to the assembly of Kannondori Monastery, Uji County, Yamashiro Province, on the twenty-first day, the season of Iris Festival, the fifth month, the third year of the Ninji Era [1242].