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Guo Gu (Professor Jimmy Yu) Is a Worthy Heir to the Great Chan Master Sheng Yen

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Guo Gu (Professor Jimmy Yu) Is a Worthy Heir to the Great Chan Master Sheng Yen “A very helpful guide to the investigation of the Zen kōan from a perspective not yet widely known in the West. Guo Gu (Professor Jimmy Yu) is a worthy heir to the great Chan master Sheng Yen. He provides lucid comments on each of the cases in the classic kōan collection, the Gateless Gate, inviting us into our own intimate encounter with Zen’s ancestors and our own personal experience of the great matter of life and death. Anyone interested in understanding what a kōan really is, how it can be used, and how it uses us, will be informed and enriched by this book. I highly recommend it.” —James Ishmael Ford, author of If You’re Lucky, Your Heart Will Break and co-editor of The Book of Mu: Essential Writings on Zen’s Most Important Koan “Guo Gu’s translation of The Gateless Barrier and his commentary reveal a fresh, eminently practical approach to the famous text. Reminding again and again that it is the reader’s own spiritual affairs to which each kōan points, Guo Gu writes with both broad erudition and the profound insight of a Chan practitioner; in this way he reveals himself to be a worthy inheritor of his late Master Sheng Yen’s teachings. Zen students, called upon to give life to these kōans within their own practice, will find Passing Through the Gateless Barrier a precious resource.” —Meido Moore Roshi, abbot of Korinji Zen Monastery “A fresh, original translation and commentary by a young Chinese teacher in the tradition of Sheng Yen. Finally, a commentary on the Gateless Barrier that can take its place alongside Zenkei Shibayama’s classic work.” —Jeff Shore, translator of Great Doubt: Practicing Zen in the World “It is such a delight to read this book, a translation of many stories of enlightenment from the ancient Chan masters. Helpful for Chan practitioners as well as a general audience.” —Venerable Guo Yuan ABOUT THE BOOK Gateways to awakening surround us at every moment of our lives. The whole purpose of kōan (gong’an, in Chinese) practice is to keep us from missing these myriad opportunities by leading us to certain gates that have traditionally been effective for people to access that marvelous awakening. The forty-eight kōans of the Gateless Barrier (Chinese: Wumenguan; Japanese: Mumonkan) have been waking people up for well over eight hundred years. Chan teacher Guo Gu provides here a fresh translation of the classic text, along with the first English commentary by a teacher of the Chinese tradition from which it originated. He shows that the kōans in this text are not mere stories from a distant past, but are rather pointers to the places in our lives where we get stuck—and that each sticking point, when examined, can become a gateless barrier through which we can enter into profound wisdom. GUO GU (Dr. Jimmy Yu) is the founder of the Tallahassee Chan Center (www.tallahasseechan.com) and is also the guiding teacher for the Western Dharma Teachers Training course at the Chan Meditation Center in New York and the Dharma Drum Lineage. He is one of the late Master Sheng Yen’s (1930–2009) senior and closest disciples, and assisted him in leading intensive retreats throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Guo Gu has edited and translated a number of Master Sheng Yen’s books from Chinese to English. He is also a professor of Buddhism and East Asian religions at Florida State University, Tallahassee. Sign up to receive weekly Zen teachings and special offers from Shambhala Publications. Or visit us online to sign up at shambhala.com/ezenquotes. PASSING THROUGH THE GATELESS BARRIER Kōan Practice for Real Life GUO GU SHAMBHALA BOULDER 2016 FRONTISPIECE: Calligraphy of Wu Men Guan (“Gateless Barrier”) by Tianshi Kun Shambhala Publications, Inc. 4720 Walnut Street Boulder, Colorado 80301 www.shambhala.com © 2016 by Guo Gu (Jimmy Yu) Cover calligraphy by Melody Yang Cover design by Katrina Noble All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. eISBN: 978-0-8348-4017-1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Huikai, 1183–1260, author. / Guo gu, 1968– editor, translator. Title: Passing through the gateless barrier: kōan practice for real life / Guo Gu. Other titles: Wumen guan. English Description: First US edition. / Boulder, Colorado: Shambhala, 2016. Identifiers: LCCN 2015030955 / ISBN 9781611802818 (paperback) Subjects: LCSH: Koan—Early works to 1800. / BISAC: RELIGION / Buddhism / Zen (see also PHILOSOPHY / Zen). / RELIGION / Buddhism / Sacred Writings. / RELIGION / Buddhism / General (see also PHILOSOPHY / Buddhist). Classification: LCC BQ9289 .H8413 2016 / DDC 294.3/443—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015030955 This book is dedicated to my teacher, Master Sheng Yen (1930–2009), and my students. They made this book a reality. Without my teacher I would not have a life. Without my students, life would not have meaning. Special thanks go to Estelle Gerard, who transcribed all the talks diligently and made many editorial suggestions. Without her, this book project would never have started. I also thank Myosen Sprott, Linda Howard, Maria Williams, and Fran Berry for their assistance in preparing the manuscript for my edits. I would also like to thank Liz Shaw and John Golebiewski at Shambhala Publications for editing the manuscript. Finally, my gratitude to all the Chan lineage masters who kept the flames of the Three Jewels alive in successive generations. CONTENTS Publisher’s Note Introduction CASE 1 Zhaozhou’s Dog CASE 2 Baizhang and the Wild Fox CASE 3 Juzhi Holds Up a Finger CASE 4 The Barbarian Has No Beard CASE 5 Xiangyan Is Up in a Tree CASE 6 The World-Honored One Holds Up a Flower CASE 7 Zhaozhou’s “Wash the Bowl!” CASE 8 Xizhong Makes a Carriage CASE 9 Great Penetrating and Supreme Wisdom CASE 10 The Destitute Qingshui CASE 11 Zhaozhou Discerns the Hermits CASE 12 Ruiyan Calls His Master CASE 13 Deshan Carries His Bowl CASE 14 Nanquan Kills a Cat CASE 15 Dongshan’s Three Rounds of Blows CASE 16 The Sound of the Bell, the Seven-Piece Robe CASE 17 The National Teacher’s Three Calls CASE 18 Dongshan’s Three Pounds of Flax CASE 19 Ordinary Mind Is the Path CASE 20 A Person of Great Power CASE 21 Yunmen’s Dried Shitstick CASE 22 Mahākāśyapa’s Temple Flagpole CASE 23 Not Thinking of Good or Bad CASE 24 Apart from Words CASE 25 The One from the Third Seat Preaches the Dharma CASE 26 Two Monks Rolled Up Blinds CASE 27 Not the Mind, Not the Buddha, No Things CASE 28 Long Have We Heard of Longtan CASE 29 Not the Wind, Not the Flag CASE 30 Mind Is Buddha CASE 31 Zhaozhou Tests the Old Granny CASE 32 An Outsider Questions the Buddha CASE 33 Not Mind, Not Buddha CASE 34 Wisdom Is Not the Way CASE 35 When a Beautiful Woman’s Spirit Departs CASE 36 If You Meet a Person Who Has Reached the Path CASE 37 The Cypress in the Courtyard CASE 38 A Water Buffalo Passing Through a Window Frame CASE 39 Yunmen’s “Your Words Fail” CASE 40 Kicking Over the Water Jar CASE 41 Bodhidharma Pacifies the Mind CASE 42 The Girl Comes Out of Samādhi CASE 43 Shoushan’s Bamboo Stick CASE 44 Bajiao’s Staff CASE 45 Who Is He? CASE 46 A Step beyond the Hundred-Foot Pole CASE 47 Tuṣita’s Three Barriers CASE 48 Qianfeng’s One Path Wumen’s Postscript Glossary of Names, Foreign Terms, and Texts Index E-mail Sign-Up PUBLISHER’S NOTE This book contains diacritics and special characters. If you encounter difficulty displaying these characters, please set your e-reader device to publisher defaults (if available) or to an alternate font. INTRODUCTION The Gateless Barrier (Ch., Wumenguan; Jp., Mumonkan) is a thirteenth-century work that offers forty-eight entryways to wake up to your life. These entryways are presented as a “barrier” or checkpoint at a gate. They are short cases of life scenarios that show where you are stuck. The truth is, there is no gate or barrier. Where you feel stuck is precisely where you realize awakening or freedom. In other words, all of life’s ups and downs are opportunities to realize your true nature. This is why these checkpoints or entryways are “gateless.” The main message of this work is clear: You are already free. But knowing this is not enough. You have to live it. Take everything you meet as an opportunity that can free you from bondage. This book shows you how. If you allow the entryways or cases in this book to stand as mere stories from the distant past, unrelated to your life, then even if you read this book a hundred times you will still meet barriers everywhere you go. But if you take these cases as insights to aspects of your life, then they will come alive and you will wake up from the slumber of delusion, vexations, and suffering. You will open up to wisdom. Chan master Wumen Huikai (1183–1260), whose name actually means “open to wisdom [and realize] the gateless” is the compiler of the Gateless Barrier. In 1228, he compiled and edited forty-eight cases of past Chan masters’ interactions with their students, many of which involve awakening experiences. These short, insightful cases are called gong’ans (Jp., kōans). Each case is followed by Wumen’s own comments and poetic verses as pointers.
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