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THE MEANING OF BODHIDHARMA’S COMING FROM INDIA

XIANGYAN, GREAT MASTER Xideng of the Xiangyan Monastery, whose priest name was Zhixian, was a dharma heir of Guishan.

He once said to the assembly, “What if you are hanging by your teeth from a tree branch on a one-thousand-foot cliff, with no place for your hands or feet to reach. All of a sudden someone under the tree asks you, ‘What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India?’ If you open your mouth to respond, you will lose your life. If you don’t respond, you don’t attend to the question. Tell me, what would you do?”

Then, senior monk Zhao from Hutou came out and said, “Master, I will not ask you about being in a tree. But tell me, what happens before climbing the tree?”

Xiangyan burst into laughter.

Many people have investigated and discussed this case, but few have spoken penetrating words about it. Most have been dumbfounded.

However, if we think about this case by taking up not-thinking and beyond thinking, we can have the experience of sharing a cushion with Old Man Xiangyan. If you sit steadfastly together with Xiangyan on the same cushion, you must understand this case thoroughly before he opens his mouth. Seeing it thoroughly, you will not only steal Xiang-yan’s eyeball, but also take up Shakyamuni Buddha’s treasury of the true dharma eye.

Now, quietly examine the words What if you are hanging by your teeth from a tree branch on a one-thousand-foot cliff? What is you?

Do not see a pillar as separate from a stake. Do not miss encountering self and other in the smile of a buddha face, an ancestor face. The tree from which you are hanging is neither the entire great earth nor the top of a one-hundred-foot pole. It is a one-thousand-foot cliff. You drop away within the one-thousand-foot cliff.

There is time to fall from the tree as well as to climb it. What if you are hanging by your teeth from a tree branch on a one-thousand-foot cliff? Know that there was the time you climbed it.

Thus, going up is one thousand feet, going down is one thousand feet. Going toward the left is one thousand feet, going toward the right is one thousand feet. Here is one thousand feet, there is one thousand feet. You are one thousand feet, climbing is one thousand feet. The one thousand feet spoken of is just like this.

Let me ask you: what is the size of one thousand feet? Let me say it is just like the size of an old mirror, a furnace, or a seamless tower.

By your teeth from a tree branch. What are the teeth? Even if you don’t know the entire mouth opening, you should first look for the branch, check its leaves, and know where your mouth is. What grasps the branch are the teeth. Thus, the entire teeth are the branch, the entire branch is the teeth. The whole body is the mouth. The whole mouth is the whole body.

The tree steps on the tree. Thus, it is said that the feet don’t step on the tree; the feet step on themselves. The branch climbs on itself. Thus, it is said that the hands do not climb on the branch; the hands climb on themselves. This being so, the heels step forward and backward; the hand makes a fist and opens.

People here and there think that this case is about hanging in emptiness. But is hanging in emptiness the same as hanging from a tree by your teeth?

All of a sudden someone under the tree asks you, “What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India?” This line may suggest that there is someone under the tree. It may be a person tree. There is a person under a person. Thus, the tree questions the tree. The person questions the person. The entire tree is the entire question. This is taking up the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India by inquiring, What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India?

The one who is inquiring also hangs from the tree by the teeth and questions. Without hanging from the tree by the teeth, the questioning is not possible, the voice does not fill the mouth, and the mouth is not filled with words. When you ask the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India, you ask, while hanging by your teeth, the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India.

If you open your mouth to respond, you will lose your life. Now, examine intimately the words if you open your mouth to respond. It is said that there is a way to respond by not opening your mouth. Then you will not lose your life.

Opening or not opening your mouth does not hinder hanging by your teeth from a tree branch. Opening and closing are not necessarily the activity of the entire mouth. But the entire mouth opens or closes. Thus, hanging by your teeth is the entire mouth’s everyday activity. Opening or closing does not hinder the entire mouth.

Does open your mouth to respond mean to respond by opening the branch or by opening the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India? If the response does not open the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India, it does not respond to the question. The entire body maintains life, and we cannot say you will lose your life. If you have already lost your life, you cannot respond.

However, what Xiangyan meant was that you should dare to respond and just lose your life.

Know that when you don’t respond, you maintain life; when you respond, you twirl your body and vitalize life. From this we see that each person filling the mouth is expression. Respond to another, respond to yourself. Ask another, ask yourself. This is hanging on expression by the teeth. Hanging on expression by your teeth is hanging by your teeth from a tree branch. Responding to another is opening the mouth in the mouth. Not responding to another does not attend to the other’s question, but it does attend to your own question.

Thus, know that buddhas and ancestors who respond to the question, What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India? all respond at the very moment of hanging by their teeth from a tree branch. Buddhas and ancestors who ask, What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India? all ask the question at the very moment of hanging by their teeth from a tree branch.

Xuedou, Priest Zhongxian, also called Zen Master Mingjiao, said, “Speaking in a tree is easy, but speaking under the tree is difficult. I am already in a tree. Bring me your question.”

Regarding bring me your question, however hard one tries, it is regrettable that the question comes slowly and that it comes after the answer.

Let me ask the old gimlets throughout past and present: Xiangyan’s bursting into laughter—is it speaking in the tree or speaking under the tree? Is it or is it not responding to the question, What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India? Tell me, how do you see it?

Presented to the assembly in a deep mountain of Echizen Province on the fourth day, the second month, the second year of the Kangen Era [1244].