Gateless Gate 43

193
Gateless Gate (Mumonkan, Wumenguan) #43
Dogen's 300 #269
Shoushan's Shippei

Personnel and Date

• SHOUSHAN Xingnian (Shuzan Shônen, 926-93, 15th gen), disciple of Fengxue Yanzhao
Date guess: ca. 979

Case

Master Shoushan held up a shippei before his disciples and said, “You monks, if you call this a shippei, you ruin the matter. If you do not call this a shippei, you oppose (the matter). Tell me, you monks, what will you call it?”

(Note: A shippei is a staff made of bamboo about half a meter in length and shaped like a small bow. A Zen master keeps it at his or her side in the zendo when guiding the disciples. It symbolically represents Buddha’s arm. --Sato)

Wumen's Comment

If you call this a shippei, you ruin (the matter). If you do not call this a shippei, you oppose (the matter). You should not use words. You should not use no-words. Speak at once! Speak at once!

Wumen's Verse

Holding up a shippei,
He issues the order to kill and to give life;
When ruining and opposing interweave,
Even Buddhas and patriarchs beg for their lives.

Daido Loori's Comment (Dogen's 300)

If you call it a stick, you are caught up in the words and ideas that describe it, and that misses it. If you say it is not a stick, you deny its existence, and that, too, misses it. To say it is both a stick and not a stick is a thousand miles from the truth. To say it is neither a stick nor not a stick is like living in a ghost cave.
Putting aside Shoushan's question, how do you understand Shexian's actions? Moreover, what is his blindness? If you can say a word of Zen and clarify this matter without opening your mouth to explain, I'll grant that you have a bit of understanding.

Extended Case -- with Daido's Interjections (Dogen's 300)

Shoushan Xingnian held up a bamboo stick
     (Throughout heaven and earth, there is just this.)
and said to the assembly, "If you call it a stick, you defile it."
     (Why create limitations?)
"If you don't call it a stick, you miss it."
     (It would be difficult to deny its existence.)
"What do you call it?"
     (Gaa! He's asking them to speak of the unspeakable.)
Shexian Guixing, who heard him, had great realization.
     (I wonder, what did he realize?)
He went close to Shoushan, snatched away the stick, and broke it in two. He threw the pieces down on the ground and said, "What is this?"
     (Without a moment's hesitation, he comes right back. But does he really see it?)
Shoushan said, "You blind fool!"
     (Indeed! But what kind of blindness is it?)
Shexian bowed.
     (Teacher and student are both bathing in the same foul water.)

Daido's Verse

In the middle of the night, there is light;
within light, there is night.
The truth of this matter is not to be seen
within the realm of yin and yang.

Hotetsu's Verse Hotetsu's Verses on Koans

Appendix: Alternate Translations

Case

Master Shoushan held up a shippei before his disciples and said, “You monks, if you call this a shippei, you ruin the matter. If you do not call this a shippei, you oppose (the matter). Tell me, you monks, what will you call it?”

Aitken: The priest Shou-shan held up his short bamboo staff before his assembly and said, “You monks, if you call this a staff, you’re entangled. If you don’t call this a staff, you ignore the fact. Tell me, what do you call it?”

Cleary: Master Shoushan held up a bamboo stick before a group and said, "If you call it a bamboo stick, you are clinging. If you do not call it a bamboo stick, you are ignoring. So tell me, what do you call it?"

Guo Gu: Master Shoushan held up a bamboo stick and showed it to the assembly, saying, “If you call it a stick, you oppose it. If you don’t call it a stick, you deny it. Tell me, all of you, how would you call it?”

Hinton: Master Origin-Mountain raised his bamboo abbot-staff before the sangha and said: “All right, you monks. If you say this is a bamboo abbot-staff, you violate what it is. If you don’t say it’s a bamboo abbot-staff, you deny what it is. So, right now: speak up! Tell me! What is it?”

Low: Shuzan Osho held up a staff in front of his disciples and said, “You monks! If you call this a staff, you hide reality; if you say it is not a staff, you deny the fact. Tell me monks, what will you call it?”

Sekida: Shuzan Oshō held up a shippei (staff of office) before his disciples and said, “You monks! If you call this a shippei, you oppose its reality. If you do not call it a shippei, you ignore the fact. Tell me, you monks, what will you call it?”

Senzaki: Shuzan held out his short staff and said, “If you call this a short staff, you oppose its reality. If you do not call it a short staff, you ignore the fact. Now, what will you call it?”

Shibayama: Master Shuzan held up his staff, and showing it to the assembled disciples said, ““You monks, if you call this a staff, you are committed to the name. If you call it not-a-staff, you negate the fact. Tell me, you monks, what do you call it?”

Verse

Holding up a shippei, /He issues the order to kill and to give life; /When ruining and opposing interweave, /Even Buddhas and patriarchs beg for their lives.

Aitken: Holding up a short staff — /faithfully giving and taking life; /entangling and ignoring interweave; /Buddhas and Ancestors beg for their lives.

Cleary: Picking up a bamboo stick, /He enforces a life and death order: /With clinging and ignoring neck and neck, /Buddhas and Zen masters beg for their lives.

Guo Gu: Holding up a bamboo stick /To mandate the killing or the giving of life. /(If you are) entangled in opposing and denying, /The buddhas and ancestral masters will beg for their lives.

Hinton: Raising his abbot-staff, Origin fulfilled our /ancestral imperative to kill and bring to life. /Once you weave deny and violate together, /Buddhas and patriarchs beg for their lives.

Low: Holding up the staff, /He gives life, he takes life. /Hiding and denying are one whole. /Even Buddha and patriarchs beg for their lives.

Sekida: Holding up the shippei, /He takes life, he gives life. /Opposing and ignoring interweave. /Even Buddhas and patriarchs beg for their lives.

Senzaki: Holding up his short staff /He gave an order to kill and to give life. /When positive and negative interweave, /Even buddhas and patriarchs cannot escape this attack.

Shibayama: Holding up a staff, /He is carrying out the orders to kill and to revive. /Where committing and negating are interfusing, /Buddhas and Patriarchs have to beg for their lives.