Two Zen Classics (eBook)

From Mumonkan

Case 5: Kyogen's 'Man up in a Tree'
Kyogen Osho said, 'It is like a man up in a tree hanging from a branch with his mouth, his hands grasp no bough, his feet rest on no limb. Someone appears under the tree and asks him, 'What is the meaning of Bodhidharma's coming from the West?' If he does not answer, he fails to respond to the question. If he does answer, he will lose his life. What would you do in such a situation?'

Mumon's comment
Even if your eloquence flows like a river, it is of no avail. Though you can expound the whole of Buddhist literature, it is of no use. If you solve this problem, you will give life to the way that has been dead until this moment and destroy the way that has been alive up to now. Otherwise you must wait for Maitreya Buddha and ask him.

Mumon's verse
Kyogen is truly thoughtless,
His vice and poison are endless.
He stops up the mouths of the monks,
And devil's eyes sprout from their bodies.

Notes
Kyogen Osho was a disciple of Isan (771–,853). The dates of his birth and death are not recorded, but since he studied earlier under Hyakujo, who was also Isan's teacher, he may not have been much younger than Isan himself.

Kyogen stood seven feet tall and was a scholar of great erudition. His learning for a long time stood in the way of his enlightenment, but Isan recognized his innate ability. One day Isan asked Kyogen, 'When you were with our teacher Hyakujo, you were clever enough to give ten answers to a single question and hundreds of answers to ten questions. However, sagacity does not help you in studying Zen, in fact it stands in the way of your enlightenment. Now, I am not going to ask you about what you have learned from your reading or from your study of the sutras. Instead, tell me this: What is your real self—,the self that existed before you came out of your mother's womb, before you knew east from west?'

At this question Kyogen was stupefied and did not know what to say. He racked his brains and offered all sorts of answers, but Isan brushed them aside. At last Kyogen said, 'I beg you, please explain it to me.' Isan replied, 'What I say belongs to my own understanding. How can that benefit your mind's eye?'

Kyogen went through all his books and the notes he had made on authorities of every school but could find no words to use as an answer to Isan's question. Sighing to himself, he said, 'You cannot fill an empty stomach with paintings of rice cakes.' He then burned all his books and papers, saying, 'I will give up the study of Buddhism in this life. I will remain a rice-gruel monk for the rest of my life and avoid torturing my mind.' Sadly he left Isan, and coming to Nanyang, where the remains of the National Teacher Chu (see Case 17) were buried, he took on the self-appointed job of grave-keeper. In his spirit of dejection he found this humble task best suited to him. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they are freed from their own deluded egos.

One day, when he was sweeping the ground, a stone struck a bamboo.

The sound echoed through his mind as the sound of a falling nut rings through the empty valleys and hills at midnight. This was the intuitive first nen ringing through his cleared mind and making a direct, pure cognition of the object. Kyogen stood speechless, forgetting himself for a while. Then, suddenly bursting into loud laughter, he became enlightened. Enlightenment is consummated when pure cognition is reflected upon by the purified action of the third nen, which is henceforth the master of the mind.

Returning to his...