Reflections on the Wumenkuan

“Mu” calligraphy by Hakuin Zenji Table of Contents Case 1. Much Ado about Mu................................................................. 4 Case 2. Baizhang’s Fox....................................................................... 24 Case 3. One Finger Zen....................................................................... 33 Case 4. The Barbarian Has No Beard................................................. 39 Case 5. Up a Tree................................................................................. 44 Case 6. Buddha Holds up a Flower.................................................... 47 Case 7. Zhaozhou’s Bowl-Washing.................................................... 56 Case 8. The Cart................................................................................... 69 Case 9. Ch’ing-jang’s Nonattained Buddha....................................... 74 Case 10. Qingshui, Poor and Alone................................................... 82 Case 11. Zhaozhou Examines the Hermits........................................ 88 Case 12. Zuigen calls “Master”........................................................... 96 Case 13. Deshan: Bowls In Hand..................................................... 101 Case 14. Nanquan Kills the Cat........................................................ 112 Case 15. Dongshan’s “Three-Score Blows”.................................... 129 Case 16. The Sound of the Bell and the Seven-Panel Robe.......... 139 Case 17. The National Master’s Three Calls.................................... 144 Case 18. Dongshan’s Three Pounds of Hemp................................. 151 Case 19. Ordinary Mind is the Way.................................................. 155 Case 20. A Man of Great Strength.................................................... 163 Case 21. Yunmen’s Dry Piece of Shit............................................... 168 1 Case 22. Kashyapa’s Flagpole.......................................................... 174 Case 23. Think Neither Good Nor Evil.............................................. 185 Case 24. Detachment From Words................................................... 196 Case 25. Sermon from the Third Seat.............................................. 199 Case 26. Two Monks Roll up the Blinds.......................................... 208 Case 27. It Is Not Mind or Buddha.................................................... 213 Case 28. Long Have I Heard.............................................................. 222 Case 29. Not the Wind, Not the Banner............................................ 232 Cases 30 and 33. Mind and Buddha................................................. 240 Case 31. Zhaozhou Checks a Woman.............................................. 253 Case 32. An Outsider Questions Buddha........................................ 260 Case 34. Knowledge Is Not the Way................................................. 270 Case 35. Wu-tsu: Which is the True Ch’ien?................................... 276 Case 36. Meeting Adepts on the Road............................................. 286 Case 37. Zhaozhou and the Cypress Tree....................................... 289 Case 38. The Ox Passing Through the Window Screen................. 296 Case 39. Trapped in Words............................................................... 302 Case 40. Kicking Over a Water Pitcher............................................ 305 Case 41. Pacifying the Mind.............................................................. 316 Case 42. A Woman Comes Out of Absorption................................. 325 Case 43. Shou-shan’s Short Bamboo Staff...................................... 331 Case 44. The Staff.............................................................................. 336 2 Case 45. Who Is That?....................................................................... 342 Case 46. Stepping off The One Hundred-Foot Pole........................ 345 Case 47. Tou-shuai’s Three Barriers................................................ 348 Case 48. One Road............................................................................. 355 Works Consulted................................................................................ 359 3 Case 1. Much Ado about Mu (1) The Case A monk asked Zhaozhou, “Has the dog Buddha nature or not?” Zhaozhou said, “Mu.” Wu-Men’s Comment For the practice of Zen it is imperative that you pass through the barrier set up by the Ancestral Teachers. For subtle realization it is of the utmost importance that you cut off the mind road. If you do not pass the barrier of the ancestors, if you do not cut off the mind road, then you are a ghost clinging to bushes and grasses. What is the barrier of the Ancestral Teachers? It is just this one word “Mu”—the one barrier of our faith. We call it the Gateless Barrier of the Zen tradition. When you pass through this barrier, you will not only interview Zhaozhou intimately. You will walk hand in hand with all the ancestral Teachers in the successive generations of our lineage—the hair of your eyebrows entangled with theirs, seeing with the same eyes, hearing with the same 1 Unless indicated, texts of koans are rewritten by me.The text of this koan was translated by Aitken Roshi. All "Reflections" etc. written by me. 4 ears. Won’t that be fulfilling? Is there anyone who would not want to pass this barrier? So, then, make your whole body a mass of doubt, and with your three hundred and sixty bones and joints and your eighty-four thousand hair follicles concentrate on this one word “Mu.” Day and night, keep digging into it. Don’t consider it to be nothingness. Don’t think in terms of “has” and “has not.” It is like swallowing a red-hot iron ball. You try to vomit it out, but you can’t. Gradually you purify yourself, eliminating mistaken knowledge and attitudes you have held from the past. Inside and outside become one. You’re like a mute person who has had a dream— you know it for yourself alone. Suddenly Mu breaks open. The heavens are astonished, the earth is shaken. It is as though you have snatched the great sword of General Kuan. When you meet the Buddha, you kill the Buddha. When you meet Bodhidharma, you kill Bodhidharma. At the very cliff edge of birth-and-death, you find the Great Freedom. In the Six Worlds and the Four Modes of Birth, you enjoy a samadhi of frolic and play. How, then, should you work with it? Exhaust all your life energy on this one word “Mu.” If you do not falter, then it’s done! A single spark lights your Dharma candle. Wu-men’s Verse 5 Dog, Buddha nature— The full presentation of the whole; With a bit of “has” or “has not” Body is lost, life is lost. Reflections Zhaozhou lived to be 120 years (778-897). He had his first experience of kensho when he was seventeen. He said about it, "Suddenly I was ruined and homeless." He studied with Nanquan for about sixty years. Nanquan died and then Zhaozhou went on pilgrimage through China. Before departing he made a famous statement, that if he were to meet a child of three years old who could teach him he would become the child's pupil and if he were to meet someone over a hundred years old whom he could teach, then he would teach that person. He finally ended his wanderings after twenty years and began teaching at eighty for another forty years. His mode of teaching was to speak softly. They say his lips gave off Light. I guess if one were to list the two most famous koans they would be, “Mu” and Hakuin Zenji’s “Sound of One Hand.” Probably more has been written about Mu than any other koan. So who am I to add my two cents? Writing about Mu is like trying to describe to someone who has never had a Coca Cola how the soda tastes. The only way to know Coke is to drink it. Indeed, when I read the exotic descriptions of wine tastings, I wonder? Likewise the only way to know what Mu is all about is to practice Mu. To do Mu. To be Mu. 6 All words, all descriptions, explications, analyses, miss the mark. And yet, it is incumbent upon those of us who are teachers to try to express the Dharma in words. Even though Dharma itself cannot be verbally expressed. Knowing that words miss the mark, the only hope I have in writing about Mu is that you will plunge yourself into the depths of Mu. This incident of this koan took place during the T’ang Dynasty or roughly 1500 years ago. It took a few hundred years for the koan to take off and become more than the verbal exchange cited in the koan. The word “Mu” transcends the koan. It transforms the koan. It becomes greater or, at least, other, than the koan. It takes on cosmic, super-natural, dharanic, mantric, significance. It goes way beyond what the original compilers of the koan had in mind. What either the questioning monk or Zhaozhou had in mind. Much has been made of this koan. It defies translation, explication, and understanding. In the canon of koan literature, it is pre-eminent. In the most famous collection of koans, the Wumenkuan, the editor, or compiler, Wu-men says he spent eight years working on Mu, before he was able to get it. Aitken Roshi, who says he has spent a lifetime working with Mu, is now in his 90s, and probably still working with Mu. Mu has transcended its own text. Transcended Zhaozhou, the nameless monk who asked the famous question, the koan collections which contain the koan, and the thousands of Zen masters who have worked with Mu and have given this koan to the many more thousands of students to work with. Mu has taken on a life of its own in much the same way literary creations

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