Case 3 - Master Ma is Unwell
Great
Master Ma was unwell.
The temple superintendent asked him, “Teacher, how has your
venerable health
been in recent days?”
The
Great Master said, “Sun
Face Buddha, Moon Face Buddha.”
Background
Master
Ma is the great seminal Zen Master Mazu. Here is
how he is introduced in the Dentoroku (186).
Master
Tao I (Ma Tsu) of the south of the River was a man
from Shih Fang Province of Han State. His surname was Ma, and his
appearance
was strange. When he spread out his tongue it covered his nose, and he
had two
wheel-shaped marks on his feet. He walked like and ox and looked at
things like
a tiger. When young, he had his head shaved by Venerable
T’ang Ho of Tzu State,
and he received the Complete Precepts from Vinaya Master Yuan. During
the era
of K’ai Yuan (713-741 A.D.) of the T’ang dynasty he
practiced Ch’an samadhi at
Ch’uan Fa Temple of Heng Mountain, where he met with master
Huai Jang. He
became one of the nine monks under this master, but was the only one of
them
who received the secret spiritual seal.
From
Buddha Trace Cliff at Chien Yang, the Master first
moved to Lin Ch’uan; then later he went to Kung Mountain in
Nan K’ang, and
during the Ta Li era (766-799 A.D.) he joined K’ai Yuan
Temple. On hearing of
his reputation, Lien Shuai and Lu Szu Kung came in person to accept the
religion, and because of this, students from the four directions
assembled like
clouds under his seat.
I
use the word “seminal” because Ma was the Father of
many of the great Tang Zen masters. He had 139 dharma heirs, among whom
were
Baizhang, Nanquan, and Layman Pang. He was also close to Shitou. Mazu
and
Shitou often sent students back and forth between them like ping-pong
balls.
Mazu’s heirs composed what was called the Hungchou School of
Ch’an. It was
Mazu’s lineage which produced the Linchi/Rinzai School of
Zen. Shitou’s lineage
produced the Soto School.
The
terms “Sun Faced Buddha” and “Moon Face
Buddha” and
this koan do not appear in the Dentoroku.
But the koan does appear in Cheng Chien Bhikshu’s
translation of the Mazuroku, or The Record of Mazu. (p.61).
The Master had one hundred and thirty-nine close disciples, all of whom became teachers in different areas, thus continuing his teaching.
During
the first month of the fourth year of the Chen-yuan
period (788), the Master climbed Shih-men Mountain in
Chien-ch’ang. As he was
walking through the forest, he saw a cave which was very flat. He told
his
attendant, “Next month my old and useless body should return
to this place.”
Having said that, they returned to the monastery.
Not
long afterwards the Master became ill. The head monk
asked him, “How is the Venerable feeling these
days?”
The
Master replied, “Sun-Face Buddha, Moon-Face
Buddha.”
On
the first day of the second month, after having taken
a bath, he sat cross-legged and passed away. During the Yuan-ho period
(806-820) he received the posthumous title Ch’an Master
Tai-chi (Great
Quiescence). The stupa built in his memory was called “Great
Adornment.”
A
similar account is found in Andy Ferguson’s Zen
Chinese Heritage (71).
Dogen
writes a poem in the Eihei Koroku
(9.80).
When
Mazu was not well, a monk asked,
“Teacher,
these days how is your venerable health?”
Mazu
said, “Sun-face Buddha; Moon Face Buddha.”
Dogen
then adds a poem.
There
used to be a buddha in
Kiangsi
Who
made the sun and moon
his face.
With
what was he not
endowed?
Surrounded
in Go, he met a
foe.
The
koan also appears as Case 36 in The Book of
Serenity (160-162). Tiantong, who contributed the
verses to the koans of the book has two startling lines.
Sun
Face Buddha, Moon Face
Buddha—
Stars
fall, thunder rolls,
And
Wansong, in his
commentary, says, “The left and right eyes are sun face
buddha, moon face
buddha!”
Finally,
there is a sutra, called the Butsumyokyo,
or Buddha Name Scripture which
lists 1, 193 names of Buddhas and
bodhisattvas. Among them are Sun-faced Buddha who is said to live for
1,800
years, and Moon-faced Buddha who lives for one day and one night.
Reflections
This
koan resonates within me. I have mentally chanted it
as a mantra during zazen. On the inbreath, sunfacebudda, on the
outbreath,
moonfacebuddha. Waiting for something. And when I open my eyes I see
Wansong’s
eyes. One eye the sunface the other eye the moonface. But which eye is
which? I
think my left eye is worse than my right eye. So can that be the
sunface? For
it seems as if vision works from left to right. Or is it right to left?
Now, as
I write these words and remove my glasses and place a hand over my left
eye and
look at the screen, then over my right eye and look at the screen I
can’t see
which eye is better or worse. Both eyes together at the same time are
sunfacemoonface.
There
is a short life of 1,800 years and a long life of a
day and a night together at the same time. I see that one day and a
night is
1,800 years long and that 1,800 years long is one day and one night.
That each
moment contains the most infinitesimal fraction of 1,800 years as well
as one
day and one night. Each sunfaceinbreath contains each of the 1,800
breaths. Each
moonfaceoutbreath contains one day and one night. And the pause between
the sun
and moon breaths is empty and is both the sun and the moon and the
universe and
the stars and the planets and the grasses and the trees and the
mountains and
the oceans and all of humanity and the sorrows and pains and outbreaks
of war
and starvation and tsunamis and floods and hurricanes and violence and
presidential elections and everything. And it also is my sometimes
spasmodic
breathing. My sunbreath and moonbreath. It is the intruding staples in
my lungs
and the movement of sputtering oxygen into my lungs.
How
are you?
Sunface.
Moonface.
Another,
way to put it could be,
Hey!
How are you?
Enh!
Sometimes up, sometimes down.
Or,
Hey!
How are you?
Enh!
OK, now let’s do something else.
And
Mazu entered the zendo, sat crosslegged and died.
And
that’s what happens. Even to giants like Mazu whose
tongue covered his nose, who had wheel-shaped marks on his feet, who
walked
like an ox and had the deep eyes of a tiger. It happens even to kings
and
emperors and elephants and dinosaurs and mountains and the grasses. Up
and
down. It happens to you and it happens to me.
Sunfacemoonface.
Great
Master Ma was unwell.
The temple superintendent asked him, “Teacher, how has your
venerable health
been in recent days?”
The
Great Master said, “Sun
Face Buddha, Moon Face Buddha.”