Gateless Gate 16

144
Gateless Gate (Mumonkan, Wumenguan) #16
The Sound of the Bell and the Seven-Panel Robe

Personnel

• YUNMEN Wenyan (Ummon Bunen, 864-949, 13th gen), disciple of Xuefeng

Case

Yunmen said, “The world is vast and wide like this. Why do we put on our seven-panel robe at the sound of the bell?”

Wumen's Comment

Generally speaking, in practicing and studying Zen, it is most detestable to follow sounds and pursue colors. Even though you may become enlightened through hearing sounds and come to realize mind by seeing colors, that is the ordinary way of things. People do not know that for real Zen monks, when they are riding on sounds and becoming one with colors, everything is clear, moment by moment, everything is full of wonder, action after action. When you hear a sound, however, just tell me, does the sound come to the ear or the ear go to the sound? Even though you have extinguished both sound and silence, what will you realize here? If you hear with the ear, you cannot realize it. When you hear with the eye, for the first time it will become intimate.

Wumen's Verse

With realization, all things are of one family;
Without realization, everything is separate and different.
Without realization, all things are of one family;
With realization, everything is separate and different.

Aitken's Comment

There are two elements to be careful about here. Yünmen is not challenging us at the level of propriety. He is not asking why one should be prompt. He is not even suggesting that one should be prompt. The second point is that he is not talking about “samādhi power.” He is not referring to the ability to respond promptly that one finds with long Zen training. When the bell rings, without a thought you come in to do zazen. Very commendable, perhaps. But we can be sure that it is not Yün-men’s purpose to dwell on such ordinary matters.
You must face the ssential aspect — and you must face its truth carried to the ultimate. When Yünmen says, “See how vast and wide the world is!” he means your consciousness of countless universes, known and unknown. When you truly appreciate Buddha nature pervading the whole universe, then it has pervaded you too. You are one with the majesty of the universe. Suspicions are gone, grudges are gone, self-punishment is gone — concern about schedule, doubts about motives, all have disappeared in the original garden where the morning stars sing together and all the sons and daughters of God shout for joy. That is the world so vast and wide — at least for a moment! In the context of the wide world, why do you rise and go to work at the sound of your alarm clock? Why do you pick up the phone when it rings? Why? With that “why” the Buddha arose from beneath the Bodhi Tree. With that “why” Bodhidharma came from India to China. With that “why” you stand up and sit down. At that point Samantabhadra, the Bodhisattva of Great Action, herself appears.

Gushan's Verse (Cleary)

The formal vestment goes on at the sound of a bell;
The whole world cannot hide the appearance of a monk.
But if you see by way of form, or seek by way of sound.
The Buddha's successor, our teacher, was a fake.

Cleary's Comment

The point of this koan follows the preceding one. The "vastness" of the world to which Yunmen refers is the experience of nirvana in the essence of mind. From the point of view of absolute nirvana, all order is relative, so the mind should be open and fluid if one is to experience the fullest possible extent of that portion of infinity accessible to consciousness. The danger of misunderstanding or exaggerating this point of view, however, is to slip into habits of ignorance, heedlessness, and denial masquerading as realization of emptiness and transcendence. The point of this koan, therefore, is to examine the transcendence of transcendence, which means emergence from quiescent nirvana into perception of suchness as a cosmic web of events and processes.

Guo Gu's Comment

Why do you let signals and bells govern your life? You are so free. Why do you get up when you hear the alarm ring in the morning? Why do you go to work? Why is it that you do the things you do? Why do you engage in Chan practice?
This gong’an is asking you: Despite your understanding and experience of things, why is it that when you see something beautiful you are enamored? When you see someone you love die, why is it that you feel sorrow? Why is it that when you hear a pleasant sound, like a praise, you respond in a certain way? Why is it that when someone calls you names, you feel uncomfortable? Are your emotional responses predictable? Do you respond to form and sound in a patterned way? Where is your freedom?
Forms and sounds are not the issue. Being bound by them is.

Hubert Benoit's Remark (Low)

Freedom is total determinism.

Low's Comment

Beyond the question of why we engage in rituals, in this koan is buried a more serious question, on which in turn the question about rituals stands: “Why do zazen? Why submit yourself to any kind of discipline? Is not Zen the way of the Great Liberation?”
“The way is vast and wide” What does this mean? One is reminded of Bodhidharma’s “vast emptiness and nothing that can be called holy.” Or, in terms of what we are saying here, vast emptiness with nothing that can be called ultimately meaningful. Why then put on your robe? Why then sit on the meditation mat? What is the point? To answer this we must see into vast emptiness. See into this and you will see that all things are as though one family. If you don’t, you will be something in a world of somethings, a fragmented world lacking coherence and point. Even if you do not see into it, the world is still one coherent whole, but it is “my” world, circumscribed by fear and aggression, defended against the encroachment of the “unknown” and “unconscious” forces by greed and desire. On the other hand, if you see into it, everything is as it is.
When a bird sings, where are you? See into this and you will know why it is that when the bell rings you put on your seven-piece robe.

Huxley Remark (Sekida)

Let me be wound up every day like a watch to go right faithfully and I ask no better freedom.

Sekida's Comment

The world that is vast and wide corresponds to the realm of the absolute, where perfect freedom reigns over everything. But at the sound of the monastery bell you obediently put on your robe. Are you not therefore restrained? In everyday life we are in the world in which individual beings coexist, and there, of necessity, the problem of liberty and restraint arises. An enlightened man also lives in this world of liberty and restriction, but he lives in the realm of mutual interpenetration of liberty and restriction. So when he puts on his robe at the sound of the bell, he is indeed restricted; but since he is also acting in positive samadhi, he is also perfectly free.

Senzaki's Comment

When you train yourself in meditation, your mind has no trace of unnecessary thought. It is as empty and clear as a mirror. When a flower comes in front of that mirror, its delicate color reflects on the silvery face instantly. As soon as the flower passes, that reflection vanishes. There is no trace of the flower. If a bird comes in front of that mirror, the reflection is of a bird, and nothing else. Yunmen is testing the monks to see how many of them have such empty mirror minds. “Why do you put on your ceremonial robe when you hear the bell?” Such a foolish question! You call, and I answer. Voice is not an entity, nor is its echo. Yunmen’s words, “such a wide world,” are to catch you. Do not pay any attention to the words, and then you will be peacefully and naturally at home in “such a wide world.” Inspiration for an artist comes the same way. A Japanese swordsman forgets the sword and wins the battle. If your every movement is made without self-consciousness, your action will be perfect, physically and morally; it will be the unrecognized merit of your constant meditation.

Old Zen Master's Verse (Shibayama)

So thick the bamboos grow,
Yet they do not obstruct the running stream;
So lofty the mountain is,
Yet it does not impede the white cloud floating.

Shibayama's Comment

I-myself am the world; the world is I-myself. When this is seen, there is no self. When there is no self, this is the true no-mind in Zen. When one lives with this no-mind, can there be anything to obstruct I-myself? What can there be, then, to restrict the world? “The world is vast and wide” refers to this no-mind.
“Why?” is the core of this koan, and it is the outflow of Master Yunmen’s ardent compassion. He asks it out of his wholehearted wish that we may be reborn as the subjectivity of seeing and hearing.
“The sound of the bell” is here to be taken as representing all sounds and hence all objective existences. While living in this world which is vast and wide we are not aware of it; we are constrained by varied phenomena in the objective scene. What a pity that we thus suffer — that we ourselves make our free subjectivity into constricted slavery! Both Yunmen and Wumen are urging us, in their compassion, to throw off this restriction and return to our original freedom. At the sound of the bell you put on your robe; at the sound of the bell you go to the dining room; at the sound of the telephone you take up the receiver. On answering the call, you have to see the wonderful work of Zen. The Old Zen Master's verse points to the mystery of the free and creative working of no-mind.

Yamada's Comment

“The world is so vast and wide like this!” When you have no consciousness of “I,” everything is yours; there is nothing that is not yours. The world is truly very spacious, and you are completely free of all restrictions.
Upon hearing the bell, the monks put on their seven-panel kesa and go to the hall to participate in the morning ceremony. But why? Ah, this “why”! It is the wonderful charm, the magical talisman which brings a Zen student to enlightenment. This “why” is the miraculous means of putting away the “why” of reasoning with all its thoughts and ideas. And to pursue the “why” you must surpass the “why.”
The sound of the bell is empty in itself. In the act of putting on the robe, both the robe and you yourself are totally void. When you put on your robe there is no reason or “why” in it. Why do you put on a suit and go out at eight o’clock every morning? Why do you eat lunch at noon? Why do you go to bed at ten in the evening? Why? Why? Try to search out this “why.” There is no reason for the “why” in anything! When we stand up, there is no reason “why.” We just stand up! When we eat, we just eat, without any reason “why.” When we put on the kesa, we just put it on. Our life is a continuous just . . . just . . . just.

Hotetsu's Verse (See: Hotetsu's Verses on Koans)

What was it that fox said?
Causes make effects.
And we -- enlightened, like everything --
Do not fall under, or fall into, cause and effect,
And neither obscure nor evade cause and effect;
We are not subject to them and are not blind to them.
We cannot escape them, we know: we are not deluded about them.
We are neither tangled in them nor free of them.
We neither fall under their yoke, nor ignore them.
We are one with them.
Something called me sometimes congeals around
Some of the causes and some of the effects --
For a moment, then is gone again.

Appendix: Alternate Translations

Case

Yunmen said, “The world is vast and wide like this. Why do we put on our seven-panel robe at the sound of the bell?”

Aitken: Yun-men said, "See how vast and wide the world is! Why do you put on your seven-piece robe at the sound of the 0bell?"

Cleary: Yunmen said, "The world is so wide, so vast; why put on a formal vestment at the sound of a bell?"

Guo Gu: Yunmen said (to his assembly of monk practitioners), "The world is so vast and wide -- why do you put on your seven-piece robe at the sound of the bell?"

Hinton: Cloud-Gate said: "This world here stretches boundless away. So why let a bell-sound tell you when to don your seven-piece robe?"

Low: Ummon said, "The world is vast and wide; why do you put on your seven-piece robe at the sound of the bell?"

Sekida: Ummon said, "The world is vast and wide. Why do you put on your seven-piece robe at the sound of the bell?"

Senzaki: Ummon said to his disciples, "You monks live in such a wide world. Why do you put on your seven-piece reobe when you hear the bell calling for services?"

Shibayama: Unmon said, "Look! This world is vast and wide. Why do you put on your priest's robe at the sound of the bell?"

Verse

With realization, all things are of one family; /Without realization, everything is separate and different. /Without realization, all things are of one family; /With realization, everything is separate and different.

Aitken: With realization, all things are one family; /without realization, all things are disconnected. /Without realization, all things are one family; with realization, all things are disconnected.

Cleary: Understand, and things are all one; /If you don't understand, there are myriad distinctions, a thousand differences. /When you don't understand, things are all one; /Understand, and there are myriad distinctions, a thousand differences.

Guo Gu: If you understand, all are one and the same; /If you do not understand, there are thousands of differences and distinctions. /If you do not understand, all are one and the same; /If you understand, there are thousands of differences and distinctions.

Hinton: With realization, you see everything's a great family together; and without, you see ten thousand differences and separations. /Without realization, you see everything's a great family together; and with, well, you see ten thousand differences and separations.

Low: If you are enlightened, all things are as though of one family, /But if not, everything is separate and disconnected. /If you are not enlightened (it makes no difference because) all things are as of one family, /And if you are enlightened; (it also makes no difference because) every single thing is different from everything else.

Sekida: With realization, things make one family; /Without realization, things are separated in a thousand ways. /Without realization, things make one family; /With realization, things are separated in a thousand ways.

Senzaki: With realization, you belong to the family; /Without realization, you are a stranger. /Without realization, you belong to the family; With realization, you are a stranger.

Shibayama: If you understand "it," all things are One; /If you do not, they are different and separate. /If you do not understand "it," all things are One; /If you do, they are different and separate.