Gateless Gate 33

25
Gateless Gate (Mumonkan, Wumenguan) #33
No Mind, No Buddha

Personnel

• MAZU Daoyi (Baso Doitsu, 709-88, 8th gen), disciple of Nanyue
• An unnamed monk
Possible date: 784 (a couple years after GG30)

Case

A monk asked Mazu in all earnestness, “What is Buddha?”
Mazu replied, “Non-mind, non-Buddha.”

Wumen's Comment

If you can see and grasp what was said here, your Zen study is finished.

Wumen's Verse

If you meet a swordsman, you may present a sword;
You should not offer a poem unless you meet a poet.
When you speak to others, say only three-quarters of it;
You should never give the remaining part.

Background: From the Avatamsaka (Flower Garland) Sutra, ca. 3rd-century CE

Living beings falsely discriminate,
That is the Buddha, this is the world.
For the one who comprehends the Dharma-nature,
There is neither Buddha nor world.

Aitken's Comment

The Buddha is many things, including my body and yours, including the earth with its awesome vitality. But after a while you will use up the term Buddha, just as you use up any object or concept, just as you use up yourself. In about half a day of cooking with Buddha and worrying as Buddha, you will have had enough. I wonder that Mazu could say, "This very mind is Buddha" more than once without getting disgusted with himself.

Dahui's Verse (Cleary)

"Mind itself is Buddha" -- don't seek arbitrarily.
"Not mind, not Buddha" -- stop searching elsewhere.
Snowflakes fly over the flames of a glowing furnace:
A dot of coolness removes the torment of the heat.

A Sequel (Cleary)

A seeker asked Mazu, "Why do you say mind is Buddha?"
Mazu said, "To get children to stop crying."
The seeker asked, "After the crying stops, then what?"
Mazu said, "Not mind, not Buddha."

Cleary's Comment

In the simplest possible terms, "Not mind, not Buddha" means Buddhahood is not the temporally conditioned mentality with its compulsive habits of thought, and is not any idea or image of "Buddha" that this mentality can conceive. In a deeper pragmatic sense, "not mind" refers to detachment from thoughts, "not Buddha" refers to detachment from undifferentiated clarity as a mental state or object in itself. The next step cannot be communicated directly from one person to another, because it is the individual's first-hand experience of real suchness.

Guo Gu's Comment

Mazu’s first teaching — mind is buddha — is for the deaf. Mazu’s second teaching — not mind, not buddha — is for the mute.
You should know by now that the mind is buddha, but because of attachments, you still look outside yourself for it. “Not mind, not Buddha.” This is like someone who says, “My mind is buddha, my mind is buddha” or “I’m holding water in my hand, I’m holding water in my hand,” and so Mazu says, “Not mind, not buddha.” If you think “Not mind, not Buddha” — being mute — is better than “Mind is buddha” — being deaf — then you have taken poison as medicine. Abandon the project of both and you will, for the first time, hear and see.
In principle, Mazu could have said anything. The move to try to reconcile the two answers — or to think of one as higher and the other lower, that one is an expedient means and the other is a more advanced teaching — is just another form of intellectualization or objectification. The truth is this: if there is anything that you can hold on to, it is wrong.
In times of vexations, you have to ask: What is buddha? Is mind buddha? Or is it not? Is it not mind, not buddha? Asking in this way will make this case come alive. There are many such opportunities in your life.

Sekida's Comment

"No mind, no Buddha." Mazu is denying his former words. “This very mind is the Buddha” is the thesis, and “No mind, no Buddha” is the antithesis. Then what is the synthesis? Mazu himself answered this question. He once said, “To say ‘This very mind is the Buddha’ is to stop a baby from crying.”
“Then what do you say when the baby stops crying?” asked a monk.
“No mind, no Buddha.”
“What do you say when a man comes who has finished these two?”
“I would say to him, ‘No things.’”
“How about when a man comes who has finished all these?”
“I would make him understand the Great Way.”
Then what is the Great Way?
“This very mind is the Buddha,” and again on to “No mind, no Buddha.”
This circuit was also stopped by Mazu. He sent a monk to ask Damei, who had now retired to live the life of a hermit, “What did you get under Mazu, and what makes you live on this mountain?”
Damei answered, “Mazu said to me, ‘This very mind is the Buddha,’ and that made me live a life of seclusion on this mountain.”
“But lately Mazu’s Buddhism is different. He now says, ‘No mind, no Buddha.’”
“The old dotard bewilders others. Let him say what he likes: I say nothing but ‘This very mind is the Buddha.’”
The monk returned and informed Mazu of this, and Mazu said, “The plum is ripened.” ("Da" = great; "Mei" = plum.)

Senzaki's Comment

If a student were to seek Buddha outwardly, Mazu would say, "This mind of yours is Buddha," pointing to the inner understanding of the student. If the student were to picture Buddha within, the master would say, "This mind is not Buddha," crushing the inner image, to reveal the formless and independent mind of the student. Mazu sent his first medicine, "This mind is Buddha," out into the market, but soon had to issue a new formula for an antidote when people began taking overdoses of the medicine. If he were living in our day, Mazu might have said, "The true Buddha is neither within nor outside your mind. There exists no such thing to be called 'mind.' When you say 'mind,' you are wrong. When you say, 'Buddha,' you are quite mistaken."

Hakuin's Comment (Shibayama)

"Mind is Buddha" is like a dragon without horns; while "No mind, no Buddha" is like a snake with horns.

Daichi's Verse (Shibayama)

"No mind, no Buddha!" -- the talk changes.
Zen students all over the country can hardly see it.
If you can leap out of the thresher's mouth,
You are free to run barefoot over the sword-mountain.

Shibayama's Comment

The philosophical answer is made as follows: "No mind, no Buddha" is a negative statement. It protects against mistakes, shuts out faults, crushes attachments, and thus takes away all discriminating consciousness. To those who rely on intellectual interpretations and cling to them, Mazu says, "No mind, no Buddha" in order to take away their attachments. That is a good philosophical explanation, but Master Mazu's answer has to be taken up as a Zen koan. The Buddha asked about here is Buddha as the fact of one's religious experience in Zen, and there is no concern with its philosophical meaning or theoretical interpretation. "No mind, no Buddha" is of course a direct expression of Mazu's religious experience, and if one fails to grasp his answer in this sense, it loses its life and real significance as a Zen koan. One has to work personally with it in his training and himself be "No mind, no Buddha." What is "No mind, no Buddha"? Cast away all intellectual understanding and plunge into it with your whole being. Unless you grasp its truth as a fact of your own experience you can never really appreciate what Zen is.

Yamada's Comment

We should know that both mind and Buddha are concepts. However deeply we may search for our mind, we will never find it to have form, color weight, or a place of abode. In a word, it is empty. When we fell joyful, it is very clear to us that the joy arises out of our mind, but of itself, joy has no substance. We cannot show others what it looks like, for it too is empty. In the same way, all the activities of the mind are, in the end, totally void.

Hotetsu's Verse

Snowflakes are beautiful because they are gone.
Flowers come after, also gone, gone before they arrive.
Rocks, lakes, stars -- all that is mind --
All long departed: beauties of absence.

Appendix: Alternate Translations

Case

A monk asked Mazu in all earnestness, “What is Buddha?” Mazu replied, “Non-mind, non-Buddha.”

Aitken: A monk asked Ma-tsu, “What is Buddha?” Ma-tsu said, “Not mind, not Buddha.”

Cleary: A monk asked Mazu, "What is Buddha?" Mazu said, "Not mind, not Buddha."

Guo Gu: Once when a monk asked, “What is buddha?” Mazu said, “Not mind, not buddha.”

Hinton: A monk asked the patriarch Sudden-Horse Way-Entire: “What is Buddha?” “Not mind, not Buddha,” replied Sudden-Horse.

Low: A monk asked Baso, “What is Buddha?” Baso answered, “No mind, no Buddha.”

Sekida: A monk asked Baso, “What is the Buddha?” Baso answered, “No mind, no Buddha.”

Senzaki: A monk asked Baso, “What is Buddha?” “This mind is not Buddha,” replied Baso.

Shibayama: A monk once asked Baso, “What is Buddha?” Baso answered, “No mind, no Buddha.”

Verse

If you meet a swordsman, you may present a sword; /You should not offer a poem unless you meet a poet. /When you speak to others, say only three-quarters of it; /You should never give the remaining part.

Aitken: Present a sword if you meet a swordsman; /don’t offer a poem unless you meet a poet. /When speaking say one-third of it; /don’t give the whole thing at once.

Cleary: When you meet a swordsman on the road, draw; /If you do not meet a poet, don't recite. /When you meet people, tell thirty percent; /Don't give away the whole thing.

Guo Gu: When you meet a swordsman on the road, show him your sword. /If you do not meet a poet, do not display your verses. /If you meet someone with potential, tell that person three-fourths of the truth. /You should not give the whole of it.

Hinton: Encounter a swordsman on the road, bare your sword. /But unless you meet a poet, keep your poems hidden. /When you meet someone, talk about things altogether: /talk about this or that, and you never reveal the whole.

Low: If you meet a swordsman, give him a sword; /Only give a poem to a poet. /When talking, tell one third of it; /Don’t divulge the whole at once.

Sekida: Present a sword if you meet a swordsman; /Don’t offer a poem unless you meet a poet. /When talking, tell one-third of it; /Don’t divulge the whole at once.

Senzaki: If you meet a swordsman on the road, /You may present a sword. /If you meet a poet, you may offer him a poem. /When you speak to others, say only part of what you intend, /Never give all of it at once.

Shibayama: If you meet a swordsman in the street, give him a sword; /Unless you meet a poet, do not offer a poem. /In talking to people, tell them three quarters only, /Never let them have the other part.