Tag: Koan and Other Commentary

Koan Commentaries

Master Shakkyo Ezo asked Master Seido Chizo: Do you know how to grasp space or not?

Master Seido said: I know how to grasp space.

Master Shakkyo said: How do you grasp it?

Master Seido made a gesture of grasping the air with his hand.

Master Shakkyo said: You don’t know how to grasp space!

Master Seido said: Elder brother monk. How do you do it?

Master Shakkyo grasped Master Seido’s nose and pulled it.

Master Seido was hurt and cried out in a loud voice: It is very rude to pull someone else’s nose. However I have become free of all things and matter at once.

Master Shakkyo said: You should grasp space directly like this.

Commentary by Nishijima

Buddhism has a clear philosophy, and Buddhists often discuss philosophical matters. In this story the two masters discussed space. To grasp space, Master Seido grasped the air with this hand.

This behavior suggests that space is not only a concept, but real. To grasp space, our action should also be real. Master Shakkyo’s method was even more direct; he pulled Master Seido’s nose. And on becoming the object of this violent act, Master Seido realized what space is.

This story also teaches that Buddhist theory is not just concept; it points to reality here and now.

Commentary by John Fraser

The immediate meaning of the story appears to be that Seido has an intellectual understanding of space, unrelated to his actual experience. Shakkyo’s vigorous action brings him back.

We can also see this as being about emptiness. The ‘ku’ in ‘koku’ [space] is the same ‘ku’ [emptiness] as we encounter in the heart Sutra. A point is being made about space and emptiness; their relationship, and a world re-envisioned by that relationship.

We carelessly imagine the space between us as dead space; the permanently dead space between the precariously alive things. But if both ‘space’ and ‘things’ are empty, then the distinction disappears, and the whole fabric of the world becomes dynamically alive. And so, there is no ‘space’. We can call this Indra’s Net, or Interdependence, or the body of the Buddha. But if we do, we should expect to get our nose pulled.

Koan Commentaries

One day a monk asked Master Sozan Honjaku: I heard that you said in your teachings that the Great Sea has no place for lifeless bodies. What is this sea?

The Master said: It is something that includes the whole of existence.

The monk said: Then why does is have no place for lifeless bodies?

The Master said: Because things that are lifeless do not belong there.

The monk said: But if it includes the whole of existence, why don’t lifeless things belong there?

The Master said: The whole of existence is beyond that sort of function; it is beyond [the concept] “life.”

Commentary by Nishijima

The Great Sea is a metaphor for reality, the whole of existence. In Master Sozan’s teaching, he said that just as the sea does not accept dead bodies (they are usually washed up on the shore), so reality does not accept anything without value or significance. In other words, there is nothing in the Universe that is without value.

However, the monk was caught by the Master’s metaphor and wanted to know why reality as the sea doesn’t accept dead bodies. The Master told him that it is because dead bodies do not belong in the sea; things without value do not belong in reality. However, the monk was still caught by the words of the master’s metaphorical teaching. He wanted to know why reality doesn’t contain everything including dead bodies. The Master replied that reality does not function like the monk’s image of the sea; it is beyond that sort of categorization. It is beyond concepts like “dead” or “alive.” It is something inclusive and ineffable that exists here and now.

Commentary by John Fraser

In this story, Master Sozan uses the metaphor of the ocean for the whole of existence. The monk asking the question takes the metaphor slightly too concretely. Just as the real ocean yields up lifeless bodies, yields up debris, he imagines that Sozan’s statement that “the Great Sea has no place for lifeless bodies” means that there are ‘lifeless bodies’ and that somehow they are excluded. But Sozan’s meaning was that in the whole of existence there are no lifeless bodies. In other words, everything has absolute value, but also, if we perceive’ lifeless bodies’ then we can’t see ‘the Great Sea’. That is, the total dynamic functioning of the whole universe. We are perceiving instead the world of samsara, where isolated things continue provisionally for a while in empty space, falling toward the ground of death.

Koan Commentaries

One day Master Hyakujo went with Master Baso Do-itsu for a walk. As they walked along they saw a group of wild ducks flying in the sky.

Master Baso said: What are they?

Master Hyakujo said: Wild ducks.

Master Baso said: Where are they going?

Master Hyakujo said: They have flown away.

Master Baso grasped Mater Hyakujo’s nose and twisted it. Master Hyakujo could not tolerate the pain and cried out: Aagh! Aagh!

Master Baso said: Although you said they have flown away, you are always at this place.

Master Hyakujo immediately broke out in a sweat, and just then he experienced a reflection of the truth.

The next day Master Hyakujo attended an informal teaching given by Master Baso, where a few monks had gathered. Master Hyakujo stepped forward, rolled up Master Baso’s prostration mat and put it away.

Master Baso got down from the lecture seat and went back to his personal room, followed by Master Hyakujo. He then asked Master Hyakujo: I went to the Lecture Hall, but why did you put away the prostration mat before I had preached anything?

Master Hyakujo said: Yesterday I was caught by the tip of my nose by the Master and it was very painful.

Master Baso said: Yesterday, where did you concentrate your mind?

Master Hyakujo said: Today the tip of my nose is not painful any more.

Master Baso said: Now you know the profound matter of this very moment.

Then Master Hyakujo prostrated himself and went out.

Commentary by Nishijima

Master Hyakujo Ekai was walking out with his Master, Baso Do-itsu, when a flock of wild ducks flew overhead. Master Baso asked what they were, and Master Hyakujo answered that they were wild ducks. Master Baso asked where they were going, and Master Hyakujo replied that they had already flown away. Although this was the fact, his answer sounded somewhat arrogant, so Master Baso twisted the tip of his student’s nose, causing him to cry out in pain. Master Baso pointed out that although the ducks had flown away, Master Hyakujo was just at this place. Hearing those words, Master Hyakujo realized the true situation.

Next day, Master Hyakujo went to Master Baso’s informal preaching but before the lecture began, he put away the Master’s prostration mat so that Master Baso couldn’t prostrate himself in front of the Buddha image – the usual custom before a lecture. Master Baso returned to his private room where he asked Master Hyakujo why he had behaved like that. Master Hyakujo did not answer his Master’s question, because his mind was still focused upon the previous day, when his nose had been tweaked. Remembering the event, he said that it had been very painful. Master Baso wanted to point out that Master Hyakujo’s mind was concentrated on a past event today, just as it had been yesterday.

Master Hyakujo noticed the meaning in his Master’s words, and replied rom his present state, that the tip of his nose no longer hurt. Hearing these words, Master Baso recognized that Master Hyakujo had grasped the truth, that his consciousness was always in the present, and he affirmed this to Master Hyakujo.

The story shows how these two masters studied the concrete situation here and now. And this attitude – to focus on the concrete reality in front of us – is the Buddhist attitude.

Commentary by John Fraser

Where have the birds flown? Where has your life flown?

The ‘you’ in Baso’s answer is not Hyakujo’s ego consciousness alone. ‘This place’ is not just the part of the great earth on which they were standing at that moment.

Jiko [Self] is both the small self and the self that is connected to all things. That is, dependent origination. Every place is this place.

Koan Commentaries

Master Unmon said to the assembly; Say a true word based on the hundreds of miscellaneous things in the world.

No-one in the assembly had an answer.

Then Master Unmon himelf spoke up for the assembly: Both!

Commentary by Nishijima

Mater Unmon’s question can be divided into two parts: one is to demonstrate a word that represents the truth. The other is the matter of things and phenomena – literally, “hundreds of grasses on the head.” However, the monks he was preaching to could not answer. Master Unmon answered for the assembly.

“Both” here suggests a word that represents the truth and the multitudinous phenomena often mentioned in Buddhism. The word and miscellaneous things are combined into one reality. Master Unmon simply said, “Both” to demonstrate this understanding.

Commentary by John Fraser

Some people say that everything is one, but if that is so, how do we explain the obvious differentiation that we see? If we say that everything is one, the temptation is to think that there is a true world standing behind this world, which we need to get to. And so we recreate the Ego, this time as a battering ram. Or, we take the familiar metaphor of clouds and sky, and imagine that the sky is somehow behind the clouds, that the clouds are an obstruction. But where does the sky begin, or end?

Our practice is not the eradication of anything. It is not breaking down the door of an empty house. It is the actualisation of space.

In vast space, each thing can have its own place.

Koan Commentaries

Master Keisho of Mount Sekiso preached to Master So-ho Ko: So-ho Ko, when we doubt, there is something different. When we affirm, there is a gap. Also our understanding should not be based on non-doubt or non-affirmation. There is no way to know reality except by throwing away our knowledge of existence.

Commentary by Nishijima

Master Sekiso Keisho explained to Master So-ho Ko about doubt and affirmation. Master Keisho stated that neither doubting nor affirming are perfect. Then he insisted that our understanding cannot be relied upon even when we feel we have no doubts or no confidence.

Master Keisho denied the ultimate value of intellectual thinking. Of course, intellectual thought and scientific knowledge have their value and place, but they are only part of our picture of the world. Only by throwing away our attachment to thoughts and ideas can we really ‘know’ reality. In one sense, the most important function of the brain is to help us recognize the existence of reality.

Commentary by John Fraser

What does it mean to throw away, to cast off the self? It doesn’t mean to make it disappear, but rather, to decentre it, to no longer see the great matter through the prism of the self, but rather to see ‘self’ and ‘prism’ as part of the great matter, the full dynamic functioning, only one aspect of which is the universe.

Koan Commentaries

Master Baso Do-itsu of the Kosei district preached to Master Yakusan Igen saying: Sometimes I make him move his eyebrows and wink his eyes. Sometimes I do not make him move his eyebrows and wink his eyes. Sometimes it is good for me to make him move his eyebrows and wink his eyes. Sometimes it is not good for me to make him move his eyebrows and wink his eyes.

Suddenly Master Yakusan attained the great truth.

Commentary by Nishijima

Master Baso Do-itsu described real situations in his Buddhist life, referring to his physical self in the third person. Sometimes he behaved actively. Sometimes he behaved himself passively. Sometimes it was good for him to behave actively. Sometimes it was bad for him to behave actively. Buddhist life is like this. Buddhist life is always at the moment of the present.

Sometimes Buddhist behavior is active, sometimes Buddhist behavior is passive. Sometimes active behavior is good. Sometimes active behavior is not good. Master Baso’s teachings were very concrete. Hearing those teachings Master Yakusan saw clearly what reality is.

Commentary by John Fraser

Master Baso was one of the greatest Masters, and in this story he gives a very realistic description of himself. The story occurs in Uji [BeingTime] where Dogen tells us that each moment is all moments, each thing is all things. And this being so, there is room for our stupidity as well as our brilliance, our falsenesses as well as our truth. We don’t need to sever everything, to watch it drop down to the depths, so we can rise upwards.

We don’t need to remain in light, because everything is illuminated

Koan Commentaries

Master Tozan Ryokai became a disciple of Master Ungan Donjo, and asked; Who can hear the non-emotional preaching the Dharma?

Master Ungan said: The non-emotional can hear the non-emotional preaching the Dharma.

Master Tozan said: Do you hear this preaching?

Master Ungan said: If I listened to it, you could not hear my preaching of the Dharma.

Master Tozan said: If that is true, then I will not listen to the Master’s preaching.

Master Ungan said: You do not listen to even my preaching of the Dharma; how can you listen to the preaching by the non-emotional?

Then Master Tozan made a poem and presented it to Master Ungan.

The poem said:

How great and wonderful it is. How great and wonderful!

The Dharma preaching of the non-emotional is a mystery

If we listen to it with ears, we cannot hear it.

If we listen to it through the eyes, then we can understand.

Commentary by Nishijima

Master Tozan Ryokai asked about the preaching of the Dharma by non-emotional beings. Non-emotional is originally “mujo,” which means inanimate or insentient, and often refers to nature. So the preaching by non-emotional beings means the preaching of nature, which was discussed by many Buddhist monks.

However, in Shobogenzo Mujo-seppo (The Non-Emotional Preaches the Dharma). Master Dogen’s understanding of this phrase was wider and included the whole of nature – human beings as well as mountains and rivers and so on. His view was that inanimate things could preach the Dharma, and so could human beings, when they are not emotional.

Commentary by John Fraser

A marked feature of Chinese Buddhism is a positive view of the environment, of this world. Grasses, trees, snow falling; all are said to preach the dharma. The eruption of the suchness of things, their vivid being/doing interrupts our delusive patterns of thinking. You could say that the world in its feeling suchness is a miracle.

In the story, Tozan falsely imagines that there is a difference between – say – the cedar trees, just as they are, and Ungan, just as he is; in his preaching, in his silence, in his doing, in his being.

But at the same time, Ungan’s preaching is different from the preaching of the cedar trees. But if we chanced upon Ungan in zazen, among the cedar trees, his preaching and that of the cedar trees would be from the same voice

Koan Commentaries

Master Rinzai Gigen preached to an assembly; There is a true person who has no rank. He is always going in and out through your face. A beginner who has not experienced this should look carefully. Look!

Commentary by Nishijima

Master Rinzai’s expression, “There is a true person who has no rank,” is widely known in Buddhism. It points in the same direction as the concept of sunyata or emptiness. Reality exists, empty of, or beyond, the various concepts and discriminations which we impose on it. So this expression represents a person without any social attributes, and it also suggests a person who has grasped the truth. How can we see this true person? In Buddhism we are training ourselves to be true persons, to recognise “the true person,” and we should not confuse the person with their social attributes.

Master Dogen accepted the expression “true person who has no rank” as an expression of reality, but he said there is also the “true person with rank.” This means that discrimination and concepts are also an aspect of reality. They have a place in the Universe as well. Difficulties arise if we become confused about their real nature.

Commentary by John Fraser

Master Rinzai said that there was a true human being without rank who went in and out through our face.

When we hear ‘face’, we may think of Original Face, the face you had before your parents were born.

If we pay attention, we can be aware of the musculature of the face; the fixed patterns we hold, the tensions, the habitual moving contours. And if we have this awareness, we can experience our face as a kind of mask. Indeed, we might identify our sense of self with this social face. If we didn’t have a face to present to the world, could we have a self to present to ourself?

Rinzai’s person without rank is something in us which is true and alive, and which can never be entirely suppressed by our social face. And so, he emerges. And sometimes, we suppress him. And so, he goes back in. This person without rank is our original face. There is not a true face behind our social face. There is not another self behind the self. There is just life channelled by us, like light falling through windows.

Koan Commentaries

Master Joshu asked Master Tosu Daido: What is the situation of a man who has experienced the great death and lives again?

Master Tosu said: I will not allow such a person to walk around at night. When it has become light in the morning, he can come here.

Commentary by Nishijima

The words “to experience the great death and live again,” which can be found certain Buddhist literature, sound very dramatic. Master Tosu said that the situation of a person who has had such an experience is just a common everyday fact. It is as common and natural as the fact that the monks don’t wander around at night and when it becomes light they visit the master in his room.

To experience the great death means to enter reality. What is it that dies at such a time? We can say that our attachment to, or identification with, the intellect and the emotions dies during such an experience. After the great death we live in reality – not in the world of thinking or the world of emotions. However, it is also true that we are living in reality all the time, so to die the great death does not mean that we enter some extra-ordinary state, but just that we experience and fully participate in the reality that is always present in ordinary life.

Commentary by John Fraser

Our task as practitioners is to see the emptiness of all things. But in itself, that isn’t sufficient. It is a kind of sickness, because it has no heart.

If we look at the world with our mind, we only see shadows of the self. But the world is always there, concealed in your heart. When the heart opens, the world appears.

Koan Commentaries

One day Master Hogen was clearing the ground around a spring that had become filled with sand. He said to a monk who was with him: The eye of the spring was closed because it was blocked up. When eyes for seeing the truth are closed, what blocks them?

The monk had no answer.

Master Hogen answered for the student: They are blocked by eyes.

Commentary by Nishijima

The eyes that look for the truth cannot see it because of those eyes. The mind that searches for the truth cannot find it because of that mind.

The eyes that search for the truth are themselves the truth. They have their truth as eyes. The mind that searches for reality is living in reality at every moment of its search.

Commentary by John Fraser

We make a mistake when we think the spiritual life is about getting something and then seeing what we get, rather than action itself, seeing itself.

It repeats a familiar error. We can see it in contemporary discussions about consciousness, trying to find neural correlates. But consciousness isn’t something the brain has, it’s something it does.

If we are looking for something, we will see only blackness. And thus the eye will block itself.