5. Lin-chi's Shouts and Tŏk-san's Strikes

The fundamental truth of Dharma is so deep and bright that lightning can't reach it; the stone fire can't penetrate it; the bloodstream makes waves of blood; the corpses make a mountain.

The knowledge of this profound truth will make you the supreme patriarch, a teacher of truth, and the light and power to all the people in the world.

Lin-chi (臨濟) and Te-shan (德山) of T'ang China were the true sŏnjisik (善知識), kalyanamitra, or the masters of good knowledge of the world, teachers of teachers, who possessed eyes of wisdom in the family of Zen masters, and were models of the Buddhist family.

Lin-chi set his heart on Zen meditation and visited the assembly of monks led by Hua-pei (黃檗). He shut himself in the mountains for three years  and devoted all his energies to Zen meditation. Of hundreds of monks, he had the deepest conviction and power of concentration. A Buddhist monk called Mao-chou (睦州), who was in charge of discipline in the monastery, had his eye on Lin-chi and thought that he would become a great pillar. He called on Hua-pei in the Meditation Hall, and praised Lin-chi highly.

"Master of the sŏnims, there exists a very capable person who will become a pillar of the big pavilion. I want you to meet him."

"I know him."

Hua-pei had already figured him out to be a great master.

"After evening prayer is over, I'll send him in,"

said Mao-chou, who then called on Lin-chi and said,

"You have been studying hard and I want you to call on the supervisor of the Meditation Hall and  ask him to evaluate your efforts."

Lin-chi said to him,

"What shall I ask him?"

"Ask him what is the essence of Dharma."

Priest Lin-chi called on the master, offered three bows, and asked him the following question, as Mao-chou had suggested:

"Master, what is the essence of Buddhism?"

Hardly had he uttered this question when he was struck on the head with twenty hard blows by Zen Master Hua-pei's staff. Lin-chi dragged himself out of the Meditation Hall and was tended to in the monastery infirmary. Then Monk  Mao-chou called on Lin-chi again.

"Did you call on him?"

"Yeah. I called on the supervisor and asked him what you had told me to ask and I was struck so hard I think my bones have been crushed."

"Lin-chi, you must be determined to exert yourself so that you may bring the Great Road of Truth home. In order to get the truth, you must not pay attention to the welfare of your body. Don't pay attention to whether your bones have been crushed into powder or not. Cheer up, call on him, and ask him one more time."

Encouraged, Lin-chi again entered the hall and asked,

"What is the essence of Buddhism?"

As before, as soon as his utterance had been made, he was showered with twenty hard strikes of the wooden staff.

Mao-chou once again visited Lin-chi, who was lying in bed. Listening to his story, he said,

"The dharma and kalyanamitra are extremely difficult to meet in a millenium. Sleep well and be encouraged, and with your indefatigable will, have an audience with him one more time."

The next day Master Huang-pei again struck Lin-chi with twenty hard raps as soon as he had crossed the threshold of the hall. Lin-chi had not thought that this would happen yet another time, and he said to Mao-chou,

"Sŏnim, I think I'm not fit for this place. I think I have to go."

"You can leave if you want, but I would like for you to go to him and say goodbye. He probably will tell you where you should go."

Lin-chi packed his belongings and went to Mentor Hua-pei, saying,

"Sŏnim, although you mercifully bestowed on this humble monk many strikes of Buddhist truth, he has been unable to open his eyes and accept your teachings. I'm very sorry for that, Master."

"Where are you going?"

"I have no idea, sir."

"Then, go to koan River Beach and look for Zen Master Ta-yu (大愚). He will teach you with kindness and sincerity."

Thus Lin-chi shouldered his bag and walked hundreds of miles with doubts leading his way. He could not understand why Hua-pei had showered him with 60 strikes, three times in a row, when he had asked about the essence of Buddhism. Immersed in thought, unconscious of walking for hundreds of miles, his every step was full of these doubts.

Ch'amsŏnbŏp (參禪法), the pursuit of hwadu, namely the exploration of the ko-an (公案), results in the consistent, continuous tangling of one single mind. You end up dissipating your karma with the intense continuity of one thought, and suddenly you enter into the gate of truth. The reason why many a man  has failed to enter this gate is that  on his way, misled into delusion by what he sees and hears, he no longer clings to the one consistent thought and instead drops it. You must overcome the six roots of sense perception and the six kinds of perception; only in this way can you maintain consistency of thought and be led to the sight of truth.

After walking for several months, Lin-chi arrived at koan (* here koan is the name of a place) and paid a courtesy call to Zen Master Ta-yu. After exchanging greetings with him, Ta-yu asked,

"Where do you come from?"

"I've been under the guidance of Master Hua-pei."

"What did he teach you?"

"I asked him about the essence of Buddhism, and I was struck by him. I don't know what's wrong with me."

Then Ta-yu struck his own lap, saying,

"Your mentor Hua-pei  made his utmost efforts to teach you, and you ask me what's wrong with you, coming all this way?"

He said this while laughing "hahaha."

At that very moment, hearing him laughing, Lin-chi opened the eyes of truth. He realized where the "60 strikes of Hua-pei" had fallen. Clouds of doubt evaporated. Then he exclaimed,

"The dharma of Hua-pei is not so important!"

Hearing Lin-chi belting out this utterance, Zen Master Ta-yu grabbed his collar, yelling at him,

"You child, still wetting the quilt! What on earth do you know, asking earlier what's wrong with you, and saying now that the dharma of Hua-pei is not so important?"

Then Lin-chi punched his rib's three times; this made Ta-yu let go of his collar, and he said,

"Your mentor is Hua-pei;  it's none of my business!"

Lin-chi returned to Hua-pei, attending to him and continuing on with his meditation for several more years, eventually becoming a great originator of the Chogyye Order.

The tradition of Zen Buddhism requires that if a priest is equipped with the resources to become a Zen master, he must inherit his mentor's staff or pulcha (拂者), a kind of brush, which symbolizes the dharmas of Buddha, and must hold assemblies to teach the dharma. One day Lin-chi said goodbye to his mentor Hua-pei, who called his attendant, saying,

"Bring the staff and the pulcha."

Then Lin-chi extemporized the order, saying,

"Bring the fire!"

He could extemporize anything, at any moment, as rapidly as stone fire or lightning. From then on, Lin-chi taught at Hua-pei's temple. He made it a practice to give a lightning shout when anyone entered the room to inquire of the law, the way or the truth of Buddhism.

Have you come to know the three toins--Zen Masters Hua-pei, Ta-yu, and Lin-chi? There being no answer from the congregation, he recited the following poem:

同坑無異土

千里同風

萬里知音

There is no different soil

In the same pit.

We feel the same wind

Hundreds of miles apart.

We hear the words of wisdom

From thousands of miles away.

Let me take another master, Te-shan, for example. Sŏnim Te-shan lived in the northern part of China and exerted himself in the study of the Buddhist Scriptures. He was especially versed in the study of the  Diamond Sutra, and the lay people called him Diamond Chou (Chou was his original name). The sŏnim was vexed at the tendency, widely accepted in the southern part of China, of putting too much emphasis on Zen meditation. People even asserted that if we explore the minds of men, we can discover the nature of men and become Buddhas (直指人心 見性成佛). He packed a copy of the Diamond Sutra in his bag and went southward on a journey of exploration.

Diamond Chou thought that it was written in the scripture that it takes  three asamkhyeyakalpa (三阿僧祗劫) (a very, very long time) to become a buddha. Nevertheless, 'the demons of the southern province' claimed that the sight of one means that one is becoming a buddha, Chou thought. He decided to go there and discipline them. How courageous of him! Walking hundreds of miles on foot, he arrived at a town called Yeyang. It was the lunch hour. He was very hungry and saw an old woman selling ttŏk, or rice cake at the side of the road. He put his bag down on the road and said to the woman,

"I'm hungry. Please give me a cake."

The woman, looking up at the monk, said,

"Sŏnim, what's in the bag?"

"The Diamond Sutra is in there."

"Then I'll ask you a question about the themes contained in it. If your answer is satisfying, Your honor will be treated with a good meal; but if it isn't, I won't give you any food. You will have to go to another place."

"Agreed."

The woman then questioned him, saying,

"In the Diamond Sutra, there's a saying that goes: 'you can't come by the mind of the past, nor the mind of the present, nor the mind of the future'. On which mind will you put the mark (tien-hsin *點心), Sŏnim?" (or idiomatically, 'With, what kind of mind will you eat your lunch?' *點心, the two Chinese characters meaning lunch are tien (點), 'to put a mark or point' and hsin (心), mind. Together they literally mean 'to put a mark on the mind', but the years after this episode they came to mean lunch)

Chou got stuck then and there. He had thought he was versed in the scriptures, and was travelling southward to take those who over emphasized Zen meditation to task. But, what had happened? At a question posed to him by an old woman cake seller, he had become speechless. Discouraged, and giving up the hope of eating, he asked,

"Is there k'ŏnsŏnim around here?" (k'ŏnsŏnim, meaning a knowledgeable monk of high caliber).

"There's a temple called Lung-tan ssu (龍潭寺), where you'll find an extraordinary Zen master named Ch'ung-hsin (崇信)"

The question thrown at him became a hwadu, an inevitable precept, and pricked his mind throughout his journey to the temple. Arriving there deep in thought, he summoned his courage  and exclaimed pompously,

"I have heard about Lung-tan (龍潭) for a long time, but I can find neither a dragon nor its pond."

Hearing this remark, the master bolted out of the room, saying,

"You have arrived at Lung-tan  by yourself."

Chou became stuck once again. But he had access to the world of Zen Buddhism through Zen Master *Lung-tan (*the place name Lung-tan  became the pen name of Master Sungshin). When he was about to return to the guest room, the night was so dark that, as a stranger to the place, he needed a light.  Lung-tan  lighted a lantern and as Chou stretched his hand to receive it, Lung-tan  blew it out. At this, Chou's mind's eye opened brightly.

Why did Lung-tan light the lantern and then blow it out the moment Chou reached to take it? Only toins are able to demonstrate this kind of kibong (機鋒), or mental attitude. However deeply one is versed in the Buddhist scriptures, if he has not reached the state of toinhood, that kind of extemporaneous reaction will not manifest itself.

The next day at dawn, Chou unpacked his books and burned them in the backyard of the temple, saying,

"Although all the Buddhas of the past, present, and future should lecture throughout their entire future, preaching the Buddhist principles is just like blowing a feather into the air. Although all the saints should spend their entire future doing so, exhausting  all the precepts of the world is just like throwing a drop of water into a great valley."

Listening to this remark, Zen Master Lung-tan said to the monks after they had finished the morning offering of meals,

"I am warning you; Listen to me. There is a ferocious guy in the precinct. Be careful of him. He has teeth as sharp as the blade of a knife; He has a mouth as big as a big pot. Investigate why he used such words; Then you will come to know the magnitude of Chou's enlightenment."

Master Lung-tan  also advised his listeners to be more serious and more intense in their exploration of the Buddhist truth.

I hereby say that only indefatigable confidence and unflinching courage will enable you to become a  dharrma  master as great as Patriarch Chou, who is armed with such a mental caliber. After he attained the wisdom of Buddha, he conferred a lightning strike on whoever entered the room. Do you understand Chou's spiritual world?

三世諸佛祖

氷山裏發火

Buddhas of the past, present, and future

And Zen Masters of the past, present, and future

Put forth the fire of dharma

Underneath the icebergs.

  Zen Master Lin-chi belted out a lightning shout whenever any follower of his was about to enter the door and form a question, and Zen Master Chou struck the ground with his staff. Do you understand  why they used such drastic methods?

(Sŏnim Chinje struck his staff once and said,)

The shouts of Master Lin-chi were attempted to blind

All the eyes of the people of the world;

The strikes of Master Te-shan were meant to open them.

Then which is right: to blind the eyes of the people or to open them?

春生夏長秋收冬藏

Plants sprout in the spring;

Grow in the summer;

Are harvested in the autumn;

And stored in the winter.

[At the Main hall of Haeun Monastery, 1986]

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