Gateless Gate 20

209
Gateless Gate (Mumonkan, Wumenguan) #20
A Person of Great Strength

Personnel and Date

• SONGYUAN Chongyue (Shôgen Sugaku, 1132-1202, 25th gen), disciple of Mi-an Xianjie (1118-1186)
Date guess: ca. 1182

Case

Master Songyuan said, “Why is it that a person of great strength does not lift up his or her leg?”
He also said, “It is not with the tongue that we speak.”

Wumen's Comment

It should be said that Songyuan poured out all that he had in his intestines and belly. But there is nobody who can recognize this. However, even someone who realized this immediately would be given a bitter blow by me. Why? Look! If you want to know whether it is pure gold or not, you must look at it in the midst of fire.

Wumen's Verse

Raising a leg, I upturn the Scented Ocean;
Lowering my head, I look down on the four dhyana heavens.
This single body can’t be placed anywhere.
Please finish this poem in your own words.

Note: The four heavens in the World of Phenomena (shiki-kai, one of the Three Worlds), which only those who practiced Zen amid the World of Desires (yoku-kai) are allowed to climb up to.

Songyuan's Third Turning Word

Why is it that the crimson lines [of tears] of a clearly enlightened person never cease to flow?

Aitken: Why is it that someone of great satori does not cut off the vermilion thread?
Guo Gu: Why is it that a person who has great awakening cannot let go of his discriminations?
Sekida: Why does a man of enlightenment not cut away the red strings dangling from his legs?
Shibayama: Why is it that a man of satori cannot cut off the red thread under his feet?

Related Case (first part)

See BOS41: A monk stepped forward and said, “Green Mountain always lifts up its legs.”

Related Cases (second part)

BCR70, BCR71, and BCR72 all feature Baizhang asking: "How does one speak with one's lips and throat closed?"

Aitken's Comment

You yourself are the agent of all this paradox. It is deep in your own realization of Mu, deep in the universal realization of Mu, that Songyüan’s mind becomes clear. Then Green Mountain, Sung-yüan, the person of great strength, and you yourself all fit on a single cushion. “The person of great strength” is strong in realization and in integrating realization into daily life. Athletes provide an analogy, and their writings can be very interesting for the Zen student. When an athlete is “up,” it is as though he or she were floating, as well as driving hard. Hands rise spontaneously to catch the ball, legs work naturally to run. It is as though the player is in a dream. Songyuan's person of great strength steps beyond the peak experience into lifetime transformation. What is great strength? It rings like a fine bell, and there is no mistaking it. What is great weakness? It is a return to categorical thinking, to summarizing, to generalizing, to abstracting.
“Why?” is the key word to both parts of this koan. “Why do you put on your seven-piece robe at the sound of the bell?” Frequently people ask about the inquiring spirit that is so often mentioned as a requisite of Zen practice. They worry about whether or not they have enough of it. To inquire about inquiry may be all right in the beginning, but sooner or later one must just sink in to that “why?”
"Please finish this poem in your own words." This is not a test of your prosody. It’s a test of your whole life!

Xutang's Verse (Cleary)

Power cannot lift aloft, let me tell you;
Why bother to whip a topflight horse?
With one leap sail into the thirty-six open skies;
When you arrive, your ordinary bones will turn immortal.

Cleary's Comment

Songyuan is pointing to the experience of total absorption in the unity of being. Someone in this state "cannot lift a foot" because the "whole body" of this awareness fills the universe. Also, this awareness can only be expressed through the whole being and is therefore literally indescribable in the language of ordinary conceptions. Genuine realization of Buddha-nature, in which the unity of nirvana and samsara be- comes an evident reality, is tested and refined in the "fire." When you awaken, the world and everything in it will be found to have turned into suchness itself.

Guo Gu's Comment

“Why can’t a person of great strength lift his own foot?” Of course he can; but that is precisely the point! If you want to know Chan, you have to admit that you really don’t have anything. Don’t even know who you are. If you think you gained something, even a spiritual awakening, then that is an attachment. All day long, you talk. Are you using your tongue? Have you said anything? If you think you have said something, then come to my place for a good, thorough beating!

Lines from the Heart Sutra (Low)

The Bodhisattva
holding to nothing whatever
who is freed from delusive ignorance
and rid of the fear bred by it.

Fu Xi's Verse (Low)

Empty-handed I carry the hoe.
Walking I ride the water buffalo.
The bridge across which I walk flows,
The stream is still.

Yunmen's Comment (Low)

When a man of Chan speaks, it is as if he stood unharmed in the midst of flames. He may speak all day but not carry a word in his mouth. He eats and dresses every day, yet it is as if he had neither tasted a grain of rice nor covered himself with so much as a thread.

Low's Comment

I was driving to the airport on a two-lane highway and, realizing the lateness of the hour, put my foot down hard on the gas. The car in front of me suddenly swerved out to overtake two cars that were doing barely thirty miles an hour. I had no option but to swerve out also. Just as I got into the left lane the car in front abruptly swung back into the right lane, tucking into the very small space between the two slow-moving cars. And in front of me was another car, rushing toward me at about the same speed at which I was rushing toward him, and there didn’t seem to be any space for me to get out of its way. But it was done. I did not move, I was too frightened. When it was over my heart was pounding, my teeth were clenched, and my arms were like water. But at the time somehow, without my doing a thing, all that had been necessary had been done. What was remarkable was that it was done without haste and with great precision. I did not lift a finger to get out of the mess.
It is of no use, Mumon is saying, trying to understand this koan, understanding is not enough. On the contrary, one must pass through the fire again and again.

Sekida's Comment

“A man of great strength” is a man of great enlightenment. He fills all space; he is as boundless as the universe. There is no space vast enough for him to move about in. But if he is a man of great enlightenment, he should be able to move freely, because he must be free in every way. How, then, will he move? That was Songyuan's question. But no one could answer it.
It is not the tongue he speaks with. A skilled professional storyteller once told a story before a special gathering to which a certain famous Zen master was invited. Later the master said, “The storyteller was good, but he was still speaking with his tongue.” Hearing these words, the storyteller taxed his ingenuity to work out a way of talking without his tongue. On another occasion, he again had a chance to tell a story before the master, who said, “Oh, this time he has lost his tongue.” The narrator became the master’s disciple, and later he became a most distinguished storyteller. When a sprinter runs, he forgets his legs; when an invalid walks, he uses his legs consciously.

Senzaki's Comment

It is a two-fold aphorism: one is to wake up those who are stuck in the formality of meditation, and the other is to reprove those who are running around after preachings.
In the Chinese idiom, “Pick up the leg and stand” means “pick himself up” or “brace himself.” And “opening mouth” means “speech” or “preaching.” The whole two-fold aphorism should be, “Pick yourself up and do something, if you are a man of great strength, and remember that speech does not always come from your mouth. The monks of the Soto School of Zen used to meditate for long hours. They would say, “We meditate, not seeking enlightenment; this is enlightenment itself.” They needed sharp remarks every once in a while, like this koan — "Why doesn’t the enlightened man stand on his own two feet and explain himself?”
“Let another continue this poem.” It is your koan at the end to make your own line and complete it. I can hear the water boiling, I can smell the roasting bancha in the kitchen. “Let us pour the hot tea, just one-third of a cup, and sip it slowly.” What? Do you say I made the fourth line? Zen students should not repeat what they hear.

Dogen's Comment (Shibayama)

Extinction of thinking and doing is nothing other than every form of doing and acting. Abandonment of words and letters is nothing other than every word and phrase.

Shibayama's Comment

With this negative “Why?” is he asking his disciples to forget their legs and be awakened to the mysterious work of no-leg? Or is he saying with the negative “Why?” that the true man of great strength is one who has transcended the dualistic discrimination of “lifting” and “not lifting”? With this “Why?” he is urging you to completely cast away yourself and the universe. When there is no self, there can be nothing that would restrict the self. On the contrary, so-called free legs will cause the self to stumble. When one walks with no-mind, he is truly a man of great strength worthy of the name. Let me stress once again: plunge into this “Why?” and cast away not only your leg but your very self.
When there is truly no self, what can there be that would interfere with speaking and silence? All day long he may speak, yet he never moves his tongue. Master Songuan is asking us to attain this mysterious work of no-tongue and to freely use and enjoy it.
Abandonment of words and letters is not to be dead silent without moving your tongue; it is, for Dogen, to be the free master of speech and silence, leaving no trace of any doing or speaking. This is certainly the wonderful life of the man of great strength.

Yamada's Comment

As you know, a deeply enlightened person is one who has extinguished all delusions and all the concepts and feelings that arise from the dualistic opposition of you and me, subject and object. That person is not aware of himself when he does something. When he eats, he just eats and is not conscious that he is eating. When he walks, he just walks. He has no awareness of his legs. But, you may say, it is the same for any ordinary healthy person who is not conscious of his legs when he walks. He just puts one foot ahead of the other again and again, without any awareness of his legs or of walking. Then there is the man whose legs pain him when he walks; he is fully aware of his legs when he is using them. Now I ask you, is there any difference between a person who is unaware of his legs and a person who is keenly aware of his painful legs? We must realize that from the essential point of view, no one lifts up his legs when he stands up or walks.
Just as we do not lift our leg, so we do not move our tongue. When speech flows, we are not aware that we are speaking, nor are we aware that our tongue is moving. Our essential nature does not move an iota, and this is true even in the case of the stutterer who is most painfully aware of his tongue in his stammering.

Hotetsu's Verse Hotetsu's Verses on Koans

"Dongshan," I said, as we watched the athletes,
"None of them move."
"Not a one, not a millimeter," he said.
"But see how the stone woman dances!"

Appendix: Alternate Translations

Case

Master Songyuan said, “Why is it that a person of great strength does not lift up his or her leg?” He also said, “It is not with the tongue that we speak.”

Aitken: The priest Sung-yuan asked, “Why can’t the person of great strength lift up a leg?” Again he said, "It is not with the tongue that you speak.”

Cleary: Master Songyuan said, “Why is it that someone of great power cannot lift a foot?” He also said, "Speaking out is not a matter of the tongue.”

Guo Gu: Master Songyuan said, “Why can’t a person of great strength lift his own foot?” "[Because] he speaks without using his tongue," he continued.

Hinton: Master Cascade-Pine Summit said: “How does a person of great power walk without raising a foot?” Then he continued: "Or speak without moving a tongue?”

Low: Shogen Osho asked, “Why is it a man of great strength does not lift his legs?” And he also said, "He does not speak with his tongue.”

Sekida: Shogen Osho asked, “Why is it that a man of great strength does not lift his legs?” And he also said, “It is not the tongue he speaks with.”

Senzaki: Shogen asked, "Why is it that the man of great strength cannot pick up his own leg and stand?" and he also said, “Opening the mouth has nothing to do with the tongue.”

Shibayama: Master Shogen said, “Why is it that a man of great strength cannot lift his leg?” Again he said, "It is not with the tongue that he speaks.”

Verse

Raising a leg, I upturn the Scented Ocean; /Lowering my head, I look down on the four dhyana heavens. /This single body can’t be placed anywhere. /Please finish this poem in your own words.

Aitken: Lifting my leg, I kick the Scented Ocean upside down; /inclining my head, I look down on the Four Dhyana Heavens; /there is no place to put my complete body -- /please add the final line here.

Cleary: Lifting a foot, one stamps over the ocean; /Lowering the head, one looks down upon the heavens: /The whole body has nowhere to stay; /Please follow up with another line.

Guo Gu: Lifting a foot, he kicks over the fragrant ocean. /Lowering his head, he sees the four meditation heavens. /One whole body -- ungraspable.

Hinton: Walk, each step kicking this fragrant ocean of a universe head-over-heels, gaze down into the four heavens of ch'an stillness, and still, there isn't room enough to reveal your nature wholly. /--Go ahead, add your own line here--

Low: Lifting his leg, he kicks up the scented ocean; /Lowering his head, he looks down on the highest heaven. /His body is so big there is no where to put it-- /Now, somebody write the last line here.

Sekida: Lifting his leg, he kicks up the Scented Ocean; /Lowering his head, he looks down on the fourth Dhyana heaven. /There is no space vast enough for his body -- /Now, somebody write the last line here.

Senzaki: If the leg of enlightenment moved, the great ocean would overflow, /If that head bowed, it would look down upon the heavens. /Such a body has no place to rest.... /Let another continue this poem.

Shibayama: Lifting his leg he kicks up the Scented Ocean, /Lowering his head, he looks down on the Four Dhyana Heavens. /There is no place to put this gigantic body. /You please add another line.