Case 7 - Hui Ch'ao Asks about Buddha
A
monk (named Hui Ch'ao)
asked Fa Yen,
“Hui Ch'ao asks the teacher, What is Buddha?”
Fa
Yen said, “You are Hui
Ch'ao.”
Here
is another version of this koan.
Guizong
Cezhen was a
disciple of Fayan. His dharma name was Hui Ch'ao which means
“Surpassing
Wisdom.”
Guizong’s
first Dharma name
was “Hui Ch'ao.”
Upon
first meeting Fayan, he
asked, “Hui Ch'ao inquires of the master, What is
Buddha?”
Fayan
said, “You are
Surpassing Wisdom.”
At
these words Guizong
entered enlightenment.
Later,
Guizong Hui Ch'ao
became Fayan’s dharma heir and he was asked: A monk asked Zen
master Guizong,
“What
is Buddha?”
Guizong
said, “When I tell you it becomes something else.”
Reflections
You
all know that the words I just read are called in zen
practice a koan. However, the word koan used to describe the above
question and
answer does not really describe what the dialogue between student and
master is
all about.
Scholars
have been trying to find another key word or
phrase which better and more adequately describes the dialogue. And
what many
have settled on is the phrase “encounter
discourses.” This is close, and there
is an encounter and a discourse. However usually the discourse is a
micro-discourse. So maybe we now can call the question and answer
encounter an
“encounter micro-discourse.” What happens in these
discourses? Usually a
student and teacher are involved in a question and answer
micro-discourse about
a question about the dharma. Usually the teacher sees something off
base in the
student. The teacher sees this in the way or the words used by the
student. So
the teacher tries to put the student on the right track with a
teaching. Now we
can perhaps call these encounters “dharmic
micro-discourses,” or DMD. But
somehow the word koan still sticks, so, alas I’ll continue to
use it, as long
as you know that what I really mean is such a dharmic micro-discourse.
DMD just
doesn’t work.
So
when working with such koans we would do well to
consider, first, what is the intention of the question posed by the
student?
Second, what problem does the teacher see in the student’s
question or
understanding of the dharma? And Third, how is the problem solved with
the
answer given? Finally, what is the specific teaching of the koan? And
we know
when the problem is solved by the almost ubiquitous coda ending the
koan with
such words as “the monk was enlightened.”
Now
some of you know that over the teaching years of my
zen practice I have been creating a koan data base. I presently have 1,
640
koan entries. And since it is a data base I am able to make a search
and come
us with koans which match the search. In this case I made a search
using the
match “What is the Buddha?” And now I will regale
you with the results of that
search.
As
I read these koans think in terms of the questions I
suggest you consider when working koans.
1.
intention of the question
2.
problem seen by the teacher
3.
resolution of the problem
4. the
teaching of the koan
First
of all, koans involving Chao-chou given in
no particular order
A
monk asked, “What is the Buddha?”
Chao-chou
replied, “The one in the shrine.”
The
monk protested, “But isn’t the one in the shrine a
clay figure made from mud?”
“Yes,
that’s right,” said Chao-chou.
“Then
what is the Buddha?” asked the monk.
Chao-chou
said, “The one in the shrine.”
The
monk asked, “What is my self-being?”
Chao-chou
said, “Have you had your breakfast?”
The
monk replied, “Yes, I have.”
Chao-chou
said, “Then wash your bowl.”
All
of a sudden the monk was enlightened.
A
monk asked, “Who is the Buddha?”
Chao-chou
fired back, “Who are you?”
Someone
asked, “What is the real substance of Buddha?”
Chao-chou
said, “What else do you dislike?”
A
novice who met with Chao-chou praised him, saying, “You
are old Buddha.”
Chao-chou
said, “You are new Buddha.”
A
monk asked, “What is Buddha? What are sentient
beings?”
Chao-chou
said, “Sentient beings are Buddha; Buddha is
sentient beings.”
The
monk said, “What, on earth, are sentient beings?
Chao-chou
said, “Ask, ask.”
Someone
asked, “It has always been said, ‘The mind as it
is, is Buddha.’ But it is not the mind as it is, can it be
questioned?”
Chao-chou
said, “Forget this ‘mind as it is’ thing
for a
moment. What are you talking about?”
A
monk asked, “What is the real substance of Buddha?”
Chao-chou
said, “Buddha’s physical body.”
The
monk said, “I did not ask about Buddha’s physical
body.”
Chao-chou
said, “You just concern yourself with the
body.”
A
monk asked, “The right-in-front-of-the-eyes Buddha—what is it?”
Chao-chou
said, “The Buddha statue in the main hall.”
The
monk said, “That is a physical Buddha. What is
Buddha?”
Chao-chou
said, “It is mind.”
The
monk said, “If you define it as mind, you limit it.
What is Buddha.”
Chao-chou
said, “It is no-mind.”
The
monk said, “You say ‘mind;’ you say
‘no-mind.’ Am
I allowed to choose?”
Chao-chou
said, “ ‘Mind’ and
‘no-mind’—it
was all your choice. Is there
anything you want me to say that will satisfy you?”
A
monk asked, “Who is it that not even the Buddha can
approach?”
Chao-chou
said, “It is not the Buddha.”
The
monk said, “If one cannot approach him, he is of no
use, is he?”
Chao-chou
said, “If I say to you ‘It is not the Buddha,
it is not the living, it is not anything,’ will you be
satisfied then?”
The
monk said, “What is it then?”
Chao-chou
said, “If it had a name, it would be the
Buddha; it would be the living.”
The
monk said, “You cannot get away with that.”
Chao-chou
said, “We do not see eye to eye, after all.”
A
monk asked, “When I wish to become a Buddha—what
then?”
Chao-chou
said, “You have set yourself quite a task,
haven’t you?”
The
monk said, “Where there is no effort—what
then?”
Chao-chou
said, “Then you are a Buddha already.”
Someone
asked, “What is Buddha?”
Chao-chou
said, “Are you Buddha?”
Someone
asked, “What is Buddha?”
Chao-chou
said, “What are you.”
A
monk asked, “What is the true Dharmakaya of the
Buddha?”
Chao-chou
said, “Is there anything else you don’t
like?”
The
monk asked, “What is Buddha, and what is all living
things?”
Chao-chou
said, “All living things are Buddha, Buddha is
all living things.”
The
monk asked, “Is it not yet clear to me, of those two
which is ‘all living things?’”
Chao-chou
said, “Ask me.”
Chao-chou
said, “At times I take a blade of grass and use
it as the sixteen-foot body of buddha; at times I take the sixteen-foot
body of
buddha and use it as a blade of grass.”
After
the Master had poured the influence of his Tao over
the northern land, he was invited to live in Kuan Yin Temple of Chao
Chou.
Mounting
the dais in the dharma hall, the Master
delivered this sermon to the congregation: “I feel as though
a clear crystal is
held in my hand. When a Mongolian comes before me, a Mongolian appears;
when a
Chinese man comes before me, a Chinese appears. I hold up a blade of
grass to
make use of the golden-bodied Buddha, sixteen feet high, and I hold up
a
golden-bodied Buddha, sixteen feet high, to make use of the blade of
grass. The
Buddha is distress and distress is the Buddha.
There
was a monk present who said, “I wonder whose
distress is the Buddha.”
The
Master replied, “The Buddha distresses himself for
the sake of all other people.”
The
monk asked, “How can he get rid of it?”
The
Master said, “Why should he get rid of it?”
Now,
some koans involving other Zen masters.
A
monk asked Shoushan, “What is buddha?”
Shoushan
said, “A new bride rides a donkey,
the
mother-in-law leads it.”
Q:
What is the Buddha?
A:
Mind is the Buddha, while the cessation of conceptual
thought is the Way.
Yu-ti,
the Premier, asked Master Tao-t’ung, “What is
Buddha?”
The master called abruptly, “Your Excellency!”
“Yes,”
answered the Premier innocently.
Then
the master said, “What else do you search for?”
Here’s
Dogen’s take on the Fayan koan.
[Guizong]
Huichao asked Fayan [Wenyi], “What is
Buddha?’
Fayan
said, “You are Huichao.”
And
Dogen adds the following poem:
Calling
on Huichao, Spring
on new Year’s Eve,
Huichao
turned his head,
no dust on the mirror.
How
splendid, Fayan held the
function.
Before
a word was over,
Buddha changed to a spirit.
Master
Echiyo asked Master Hogen Bun-eki:
“What
exactly is a buddha?”
Master
Hogen said, “Exactly you, Echiyo.”
And
now, here are two of my favorite of all Chao-chou
koans
Chao-chou
preached to the people. He said: “I do not like
to hear the word Buddha.”
And
then, the great disclaimer:
Chao-chou
said, “The one word I hate to hear is,
“Buddha!”
A
monk (named Hui Ch'ao)
asked Fa Yen,
Hui
Ch'ao asks the teacher, “What
is Buddha?”
Fa
Yen said, “You are Hui
Ch'ao.”