Gateless Gate 18, Blue Cliff Record 12

192
Gateless Gate (Mumonkan, Wumenguan) #18
Blue Cliff Record (Hekiganroku, Biyan Lu) #12
Dogen's 300 #172
Dongshan Shouchu's Masagin

Personnel and Date

• DONGSHAN Shouchu (Tôzan Shusho, 910-90, 14th gen), disciple of Yunmen Wenyan
• an unnamed monastic
Date guess: ca. 978

Yuanwu's Introduction (Sato)

The sword that kills, the sword that gives life: This has been the standard rule since of old, and is the pivotal point of today.
If you talk about killing, you don't harm even a single hair; if you talk about giving life, you lose your body and life.
Therefore it is said: The supreme one way can't be transmitted even by the thousand holy ones.
Practitioners who labor for forms are like monkeys trying to grasp reflections.
Just tell me, if it can't be transmitted, why are there so many entangling koans?
Those who have an eye to see, let them see!

Case

A monk asked Master Dongshan in all earnestness, “What is Buddha?”
Dongshan said, “Masagin (Three pounds’ flax).”

Wumen's Comment

Old Dongshan realized a bit of clam Zen. Slightly opening the two halves of the shell, he exposed his liver and intestines. This may be so, but tell me, where do you see Dongshan?
Be that as it may, tell me: where do you see Dongshan?

Wumen's Verse

“Masagin” juts forth.
The words are intimate and the meaning is even more intimate.
A person who speaks about right and wrong
Is a person of right and wrong.

Sequel (Shibayama)

The questioning monk later called on Master Chimon and asked, ‘What is the true significance of Master Tozan’s answer ‘Three pounds of flax’?”
In reply to this, Master Chimon said,

Flowers in abundance;
Brocade in brilliance.

Then he asked the monk, “Do you understand?”
When the monk confessed that he did not, Chimon further remarked,

Bamboos in the south,
Trees in the north.

On his return to Tozan’s monastery the monk reported to the Master what Chimon had said.
Tozan took the rostrum, saying, “I will talk not to you alone but to all the monks on the subject,” and gave the following kind instruction: “It is impossible to express exactly the reality of things in words, and to show correctly the truth of inner spirituality in language. If you keep on clinging to words, you will lose your True Self. If you cling to letters and are not able to transcend them, your spiritual eye will never be opened.”

Aitken's Comment

“What is Buddha?” This question appears four times in the forty-eight cases of the Gateless Gate [GG18, GG21, GG30, GG33] and countless times throughout Zen literature. The question might be paraphrased: “What is the essential aspect of life in this world? What is the substance of life and death? Can you show it to me concretely?” However often the question is asked, it never fails to be a challenge. The fact and its rich presentation are one: with “Three pounds of flax,” Dongshan evokes the unswerving candor he retained from the beginning. Thus he enters the Kingdom of Heaven, and without his spirit we cannot follow. There is a noetic flavor, an insightful taste, to his “Three pounds of flax.” The flavor of knowledge, of wisdom, of understanding, infuses “Three pounds of flax!” — “Rice cake!” — “Oak tree in the garden!” — even “Kaaats!”
If you want to interpret, then you will be an interpretive person. If you decide you want to be right, then you will be a righteous person, self-righteous, in fact. If you decide to be intimate, then you and Dongshan can squat on the same zafu — you and your protagonist in the family or on the job or in the Buddha Sangha can hold hands and work together. This is Zen on your cushions and in your daily life. This is Buddha if anything is. Wumen and Freud tangle here. You do everything on purpose. What is your purpose? If you wish to present “Three pounds of flax,” then you can be a presentational person. You will have clam-Zen down cold. Open up and show!

Yuanwu's Comment (Cleary)

Many people base their understanding on the words and say that Dongshan was in the storehouse at the time weighing out hemp or burlap when the monk questioned him, and therefore he answered in this way. Some say that when Dongshan is asked about one thing he answers about another. Some say that since you are Buddha and yet you still go asking about Buddha, Dongshan answers this in a roundabout way. And there's yet another type of dead men who say that the three pounds of burlap is itself Buddha. These interpretations have nothing to do with it.

Tianbao's Comment (Cleary)

To make rope of the hemp is still okay, but how can it be right to construe the rope as a snake?"

Jinsu's Comment (Cleary)

If you can understand here, it is easy to see Dongshan, but hard to see your own self. Once you have seen Dongshan, why don't you see yourself?

Cleary's Comment

This koan illustrates the kind of consciousness that Buddhists call the "great mirror knowledge," which is direct perception of being-as-is, reflection of suchness without subjective projections. Because it is impartial and objective, this kind of consciousness or "knowledge" is represented as being like a mirror. Wumen calls Dongshan's realization "clam Zen," in that you can see everything inside the minute he opens up, just as you can see inside a clam when it opens. Tiis is a simple description of what the mirror knowledge is like: The whole panorama of immediate reality is reflected the instant the eye of this knowledge opens. This knowledge is only one aspect of enlightenment.

Guo Gu's Comment

“What is buddha?” -- i.e., What is it that constitutes buddha, in other words, his awakening? The question asks, “What is awakening?” This touches the very heart of you. Where is your freedom? Why are you not free? Perhaps this is what drives you to practice for ten, twenty, thirty years. So when the monk asks Dongshan, it is perhaps out of a deep spiritual crisis. Dongshan answers, “Three pounds of flax!” Why this answer? Dongshan, without hesitation or reservation, completely reveals to the student the liver and guts of Chan, of awakening. Do you see that Dongshan is not holding anything back? That he is so compassionate in his teaching? Our discriminating mind is characterized by yes and no, liking and disliking, and by thoughts like “I understand now: everything is buddha-nature, enlightenment is everywhere.” All of these are products of the discriminating mind. So how do you see the liver and guts — the heart of Chan — in this answer? You would have to meditate on “What is buddha? Three pounds of flax! Why? Why is buddha three pounds of flax?” This is the huatou, or critical phrase, of this koan. Arouse an earnest desire to resolve this. Embrace the not-knowing — this is the way to see the liver and guts of Dongshan.
There’s freedom waiting to be discovered beyond the confines of passing emotions and ideas. So what is buddha?
When you face challenges in your daily life, or when you discover vexations, have the courage and earnestness to bring up “Where is buddha?" That’s where you see Dongshan’s liver and guts.

A Summative Zen Couplet (Low)

She goes into the lake without making a ripple,
She goes into the forest without disturbing a blade of grass.

Low's Comment

"What is Buddha?" What kind of monk was it asking this? Without seeing clearly that it was no ordinary monk, we fail to see that Dongshan's answer was no ordinary answer.
It is fundamental to Buddhism that we are whole and complete. We lack nothing. Our true nature is knowing. Buddha is associated with Bodhi, which means light or knowing. Why then do we suffer, or, more to the point here, from where does ignorance come? This is really the most basic question that we can ask in Zen practice. It was this question that drove Dogen deeper and deeper into himself.
Ignorance arises when we turn our back on the whole in favor of some part and claim that this part is the whole. In the West we call it idolatry. We surrender all-knowing, our true nature, in favor of knowing something that we claim is the whole. Money, fame, love, knowledge, and success are the idols of our time, and in our search for them we forget our true home.
Buddha is wholeness or completeness; how is Dongshan to reply without falling into the klesa of ignorance, without committing idolatry? Because the monk is awake, Dongshan cannot say Buddha is this or that, he cannot give explanations; the monk knows that Buddha is not this or that, and that explanations are so many bubbles of air. As Wumen declares in his verse: the one “who explains this and that, yes and no, the relative and absolute is himself only a relative person.”

Sekida's Comment

You may have enjoyed entering positive samadhi when you become one with a sound or an object. But the problem is how to enter such a state of samadhi independently of external circumstances. “Masagin” is the appreciation of the moment of asking and responding with nothing coming between. The apparently meaningless word “masagin” suddenly appears and pierces you through. It is immaterial what the actual, historical circumstances of the case are: whether Dongshan was weighing flax, seeing others doing it, or just remembering a certain occasion. In answer to the question, the “masagin” intuitively sprang up in him and came bursting forth. “Masagin” was just a projection of Dongshan’s mind.
Wumen asks, "How do you see Dongshan?" Dongshan is nowhere. Now, how do you find him and identify him?

Famous Gatha (Senzaki)

The Buddha-body fills the world,
Universally immanent in all things;
It manifests wherever and whenever conditions are mature,
Though it never leaves the seat of Bodhi.

Senzaki's Verse

What is Buddha?
Ma san gin.
What is Buddha?
Ma san gin.
What is Buddha?
The third stick of incense has just burned down.

Japanese Zen Poem (Senzaki)

Buddhism is practiced on the doorknob,
On the pine tree of yonder hill,
On the matches and cigarette,
And in the songs of spring birds.

Senzaki's Comment

“What is Buddha?” The questioner meant the true body of Buddha, “Buddhakaya,’ which fills the world.
You ask continually, “What is Buddha?” And why? Because you are trying to draw a picture of the everlasting Buddha on the blackboard of your dualistic mind. The real Buddha resides in you. But do not think that it is confined within you — within your body or your mind. You have no such lodging place in your possession. You are floating on the ocean of Buddhakaya, and there is nothing but Buddha within and without. The so-called “you” is a piece of ice, which is another form of water in the ocean of Buddhakaya. In your introspection, it is your buddha-nature. Objectively, it includes all sentient beings.

Master Toin's Comment (Shibayama)

Just this three pounds of flax. Just this live three pounds; just this dead three pounds; just this adverse three pounds; just this favorable three pounds. Wherever you may go, it is the same amount. How vast is this three pounds! How remote is this three pounds! Even Buddhas and Ancestors beat a retreat, to say nothing of devils.

From Bannan-sho (Shibayama)

Tozan said, ‘Three pounds of flax!’ This is certainly a solid iron wedge that refuses all our attempts and approaches. You may have to struggle in the abyss of darkness for ten years, for twenty years. Cast away all discriminating consciousness and be no-mind, be no-self; otherwise you will not be able to grasp the essence of this koan.

Tenkei's Verse (Shibayama)

“What is Buddha?”
“Three pounds of flax,” he answers.
Not increasing, not decreasing;
Just as it is!

Dogen's Comment (Shibayama)

The color of the mountain and the sound of the stream,
Each as it is, is Sakyamuni Buddha’s figure and voice.

Therefore, some may say, three pounds of flax is Buddha. What absurd nonsense!

Shibayama's Comment

"What is Buddha?" In Zen, Buddha is to be grasped by each individual through his own realization experience. The monk is seeking Buddha as the fact of Zen experience. Like the great Master with deep, genuine experience that he was, Dongshan at once answered, “Three pounds of flax!” How lucid and direct his Zen working is! This answer is to be appreciated as a free expression of Dongshan’s Zen at work. It is not a lukewarm philosophical statement such as “The Buddha body pervades the universe and manifests itself before all sentient beings,” or “Every single thing is nothing but Buddha.” In Dongshan's answer we see the Truth vividly working, penetrating through space and time, life and death, subject and object, and transcending all intellect and reasoning. If you cannot see it, you have not grasped Dongshan's life and spirit.
Let me repeat: if you try to find the meaning in the expression itself, you have made an irreparable mistake. Unless you directly see into Dongshan’s Zen, from which this answer sprang out, you can never get the true significance of the koan.

Yamada's Comment

"What is Buddha?" -- Let us take this Buddha to be the Buddha mind, our essential nature or our primal face before our parents were born. It is the Buddha Hakuin Zenji speaks about when he says, “All living beings by nature are Buddha.” Without true enlightenment, we cannot meet our own inner Buddha.
Just cry out, “Masagin!” At that moment, is there anything but “Masagin”? As a matter of fact, just the first syllable “ma” is enough, or “sa” or “gin,” or even more simply just “n.” Whatever you say, it is just that. Nothing else. When you say “ma,” what else is there? When there is nothing else, “ma” is Mu, and it is the perfect manifestation of the whole universe. The whole universe is occupied by “ma,” and nothing remains outside of it. This is the same as the “Whack!” in BCR67 in which Great Master Fu ascended the platform and sat down to explain the Diamond Sutra. Then he hit the stand with a resounding whack — Ka-chin! — and came down from the platform. He had finished the lecture on the sutra. When you open the enlightened eye, you will realize at once that masagin is nothing other than the one who is standing up, sitting down, eating meals, reciting sutras, sleeping, crying, and so on. Really, masagin is another name for your essential nature right here and now. If you want to realize masagin absolutely, work on masagin just as you work on Mu. If you keep working on masagin as though your very life depended on it, suddenly your true inner life will spring forth. That is masagin! The fact is self-evident. If a person argues and searches for something more than the fact, he is a man of dualistic concepts. He will never grasp the fact.

Xuedou's Verse

The Golden Raven is quick, the Jade Rabbit is swift. Is there any sloppiness in the marvellous response? If you see Tôzan as displaying something to meet his student, You are a lame and blind turtle falling into an open gorge. Blossoms are abundant, the foliage is colourful; Bamboos in the north; trees in the south. Therefore I think of Chôkei and Official Rikukô, Who could say, “Laugh! Don't cry!” Li!

Daido Loori's Comment (Dogen's 300)

This is an old case that has been echoing in the halls of Zen monasteries for centuries, and yet there have been only a handful who have been able to penetrate Dongshan's meaning. People immediately rush to the words to understand, bnot realizing that words and speech are just vessels to convey the truth -- not yet the truth itself.
If you take Dongshan's "Three pounds of flax" to mean that this, in and of itself, is buddha, then you have missed his intent by a hundred thousand miles. We shoul understand at the outset that "Three pounds of flax" is not just a reply to the question about buddha, and it cannot be understood in terms of buddha. This being the case, then you tell me, what is buddha?

Daido's Interjections

Zen master Shouchu of Dongshan (Zonghui) was asked by a monastic, "What is buddha?"
     From amid the forest of brambles, a voice calls out.
Dongshan said, "Three pounds of flax."
     Like a bell when struck, the sound immediately appears.
The monastic had realization and bowed.
     I wonder about this.

Daido's Verse

Seeing a gap opening up in the monastic's question,
the old master moved quickly to stuff it with flax.
Those who accept words are lost:
those who linger in phrases are deluded.

Hotetsu's Verse Hotetsu's Verses on Koans

Three pounds flax and a dried shit-stick.
This very mind and ordinary mind and you are Huichao.
Rice cake and a tree in the yard.
The price of rice in Luling.
A seven-pound hempen shirt and a seven-panel robe
at the sound of of a temple bell.
The sound of a pebble striking bamboo.
There is nowhere to dwell.
Nowhere to dwell.
Nowhere to dwell.
Never has been.

Appendix: Alternate Translations

Case

A monk asked Master Dongshan in all earnestness, “What is Buddha?” Dongshan said, “Masagin (Three pounds’ flax).”

Aitken: A monk asked Tung-shan, "What is Buddha?" Tung-shan said, "Three pounds of flax."

Cleary: A monk asked Master Dongshan, "What is Buddha?" Dongshan said, "Three pounds of burlap."

Guo Gu: One time when a monk asked Dongshan, "What is buddha?" Dongshan responded, "Three pounds of flax."

Hinton: A monk asked Master Fathom Mountain: "What is Buddha?" "Flax. Three pounds."

Low: A monk asked Tozan, "What is Buddha?" He replied, "Three pounds of flax."

Sekida: A monk asked Tozan, "What is Buddha?" Tozan replied, "Masagin!" (three pounds of flax).

Senzaki: A monk asked Tozan, "What is Buddha?" Tozan, who was engaged in weighing some flax, replied, "This flax weighs three pounds."

Shibayama: A monk asked Master Tozan, "What is Buddha?" Tozan said, "Three pounds of flax."

BCR:

T. and J.C. Cleary: A monk asked Tung Shan, "What is Buddha?" Tung Shan said, "Three pounds of hemp."

Cleary, Secrets: A monk asked Tozan, "What is Buddha?" Tozan said, "Three pounds of flax."

Shaw: Attention! A certain monk asked To-san: What is Buddha? To-san said: Here is hemp -- three pounds of it.

Wumen's Verse

“Masagin” juts forth. /The words are intimate and the meaning is even more intimate. /A person who speaks about right and wrong /Is a person of right and wrong.

Aitken: Thrusting forth "three pounds of flax!" /The words are intimate, mind is more so; /if you argue right and wrong, /you are a person of right and wrong.

Cleary: He thrusts out three pounds of burlap; /The words are close, the intent even closer. /Those who come talking of right and wrong /Are therefore right and wrong people.

Guo Gu: The abrupt utterance of "Three pounds of flax!" /These words are close to the truth, but the intention is even closer. /Those who talk about yes or no, affirm or deny, /Are just yes and no people.

Hinton: Revealing flax three pounds in a flash, he made /words all kindred intimacy, and ch'i-mind too. /But if you start babbling yes-this no-that logic, /you're just one of those yes-this no-that people.

Low: "Three pounds of flax" -- without a thought, spontaneously it comes out. /The words and meaning are one, indivisibly so. /Anyone who explains this and that, yes and no, the relative and the absolute, /Is himself only a relative person.

Sekida: "Three pounds of flax" came sweeping along; /Close were the words, but closer was the meaning. /Those who argue about right and wrong /Are those enslaved by right and wrong.

Senzaki: Three pounds of flax are right in front of your nose. /You are close enough, yet mind is still closer. /Whoever talks about affirmation and negation /Lives in the region of right and wrong.

Senzaki, "feer translation": Ma san gin in front of your nose. /See it before you hear the words. /Realize it before you see it. /Whosoever comes to you and says right or wrong /Lives in the region of right and wrong /And is a stranger to Zen!

Shibayama: Thrust forth is "Three pounds of flax!" /Words are intimate, even more so is the mind. /He who talks about right and wrong /Is a man of right and wrong.

Xuedou's Verse

The Golden Raven is quick, the Jade Rabbit is swift. /Is there any sloppiness in the marvellous response? /If you see Tôzan as displaying something to meet his student, /You are a lame and blind turtle falling into an open gorge. /Blossoms are abundant, the foliage is colourful; /Bamboos in the north; trees in the south. /Therefore I think of Chôkei and Official Rikukô, /Who could say, “Laugh! Don't cry!” /Li!

T. and J.C. Cleary: The Golden Raven hurries; The Jade Rabbit is swift. /Has there ever been carelessness in a good response? /To see Tung Shan as laying out facts in accordance with the situation /Is like a lame tortoise and a blind turtle entering an empty valley. /Flowering groves, multicored forests; /Bamboo of the South, wood of the North. /So I think of Ch'ang Ch'ing and Officier Lu: /He knew how to say he should laugh, not cry. /Ha!

Cleary, Secrets: Th sun rushes, the moon hurries. /Has there ever been carelessness in a good response? /To see Tozan as laying out facts according to the situation /Is like a lame tortoise or blind turtle gone into an empty valley. /Flowering groves, multicolored forests; /Bamboo of the southlands, wood of the northlands. /So I think of Chokei and Officer Riku; /He could say he should laugh, not cry. /Ha!

Hinton: Gold-crow sun fleet, /jade-rabbit moon fast: /answering like that, you never feel the slightest blow. Inhabit /this loom-of-origins unfurling, and you see Fathom Mountain. /If not, you're turtles lamd and blind gone into empty valleys. /And wildflower blossoms blooming brocade-blossom blooms, /southern bamboo vast -- O -- vast northern forests: it makes me /think of Reward-Perpetua Mountain at his teacher's funeral /telling monks that it was a time not for tears, but for laughter. /CHAA!

Sekida: The golden crow swoops, the silver hare bounds; /The echo comes back, direct and free. /Who judges Dongshan by his word or phrase /Is a blind tortoise, lost in a lonely vale. /The abundant blossoms, the luxuriant flowers, /The southern bamboo, the northern trees. /One recalls Officer Lu and Changqing: /"You should not cry, but laugh!" Eh!

Shaw: The golden cormorant hurries; the jeweled hare is swift. His (To-san's) answer was good. However could it have been considered a light bantering remark? That young monk was merely seizing the obvious opportunity when he saw To-san. He was a lame turtle, a blind tortoise going down into a deep dark gully. Flowers in abundance, embroideries in luxuriance. In the Southern land bamboos, the Northern land trees. /One is made to think of Cho-kei and Ryu-tan-fu. When one has understanding one should laugh, one should not weep.