62. All-Inclusive Study The great way of buddha ancestors is to penetrate the ultimate realm, soaring with no strings attached or like clouds arising below your feet. This being so, “The world of blossoming flowers arises,” and “I am always intimate with this.” Accordingly, sweet melon has a sweet stem, bitter gourd has a bitter root. Sweet melon and its stem are sweet through and through. Thus, the way has been studied thoroughly.
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Xuansha,who would later become Zen Master Zhonyi, was called upon by his master Xuefeng, who said,” Acetic Bi, why don’t you go toward all-inclusive study?” Xuansha said, “Bodhidharma did not come to China. Huike did not go to India.” Xuefeng was deeply impressed with this.
All-inclusive study here means to study by doing cartwheels, where “Sacred truth doesn’t do anything. What degrees can there be?”
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Nanyue, who would later become Zen Master Dahui, first went to meet Huineng, the Old Buddha of Caoxi. Huineng said, “What is it that thus comes?” Nanyue studied this lump of mud all-inclusively for eight years and finally presented a move to Huineng: “I understand now. When I first came here you instructed me: ‘What is it that thus comes?’” Then, Huineng said, “How do you understand it?” Nanyue said, “Speaking about it won’t hit the mark.” This is the actualization of all-inclusive study, the realization of eight years. Huineng said, “Does it depend on practice and realization?” Dahui said, “It is not that there is no practice and no realization, it is just that they cannot be divided.” Then Huineng said, “I am like this, you are like this, and all the buddha ancestors in India are also like this.” After this Nanyue praticed all-inclusively for eight more years; counting from beginning to end it was an all-inclusive study of fifteen years.
To thus come is all-inclusive study. To open up the hall and see all buddhas and all ancestors where Speaking about it won’t hit the mark is all-inclusive study. Since entering into and seeing the picture, there have been sixty-five hundred thousand myriad billions of turning bodies of all-inclusive study. Leisurely entering the monastery and leisurely leaving the monastery is not all-inclusive study. Seeing with the entire eyeball is all-inclusive study. Getting all the way through is all-inclusive study. To understand whether the face sking is thick or not is all-inclusive study.
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The meaning of all-inclusive study as asserted by Xuefeng does not mean that he encouraged Xuansha to leave the monastery, or go north or come south. His expression provoked the all-inclusive study of Xuansha’s words Bodhidharma did not come to China. Huike did not go to India. Xuansha’s words Bodhidharma did not come to China do not confusedly state that Bodhidharma did not come although he actually did come. They mean that there is not an inch of land on earth. This Bodhidharma is the tip of the life vein. Even if the entire eastern land appears to accompany him, his body is not turned, nor is it moved by the words. Because Bodhidharma did not come to China, he faces China. Even if China sees the buddha face, the ancestor face, it is not that Bodhidharma came to China. To grasp the buddha ancestor is to lose his nostrils.
The lands do not lie to east or west. East-and-west has nothing to do with lands. Huike did not go to India means that to study India all-inclusively, you need not go to India. Should Huike go to India, he would miss his arm. What then is the meaning of Huike, the Second Ancestor, not going to India? He leaped into the eyeball of the blue-eyed one [Bodhidharma]; there was no need to go to India. Had he not leaped into the blue eyes, he should have gone to India. Plucking out Bodhidharma’s eyeball is all-inclusive study. To go to India or to go to China is not all-inclusive study. To visit Tiantai or Nanyue or to reach Wutai or heaven is not all-inclusive study. If the Four Seas and Five Lakes are not penetrated, it is not all-inclusive study. To go back and forth on the Four Seas and Five Lakes is not to allow the Four Seas and Five Lakes to study all-inclusively. By treading back and forth you will make the road smooth, the ground beneath your feet will become smooth, but all-inclusive study will be lost. Because Xuansha studied all-inclusively the understanding of “The entire universe of the ten directions is the true human body,” he reached the understanding of Bodhidharma did not come to China. The Second Ancestor did not go to India. All-inclusive study means “If the top of a stone is large, the bottom is large. If the top of the stone is small, the bottom is small.” Without changing the top of a stone you allow the stone to be large or to be small. To study a hundred thousand myriad things only as a hundred thousand myriad things is not yet all-inclusive study. To turn a hundred thousand myriad bodies even in half a statement is all-inclusive study. For example, “Just hit the earth when you hit the earth” is all-inclusive study. Merely hitting the earth once, hitting the sky once, or hitting the four directions and eight directions once is not all-inclusive study. But Juzhi’s studying with Tianlong and attaining one finger is all-inclusive study. Juzhi’s raising just one finger is all-inclusive study.
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Xuansha taught the assembly, “Old Man Shakyamuni and I studied together.” A monk came up and asked, “I wonder, who did you two study with?” Xuansha said, “We studied with the third son of Xie [Xuansha] on a fishing boat.”
Old Man Shakyamuni’s study from beginning to end is itself studying together with old man Xuansha. Xuansha’s study from beginning to end is studying closely together with Old Man Shakyamuni. Between Old Man Shakyamuni and old man Xuansha, there is no one study that is more complete or incomplete than another. This is the meaning of all-inclusive study. Old Man Shakyamuni is an ancient buddha because he studied together with old man Xuansha. Old Man Xuansha is a descendant because he studied together with Old Man Shakyamuni. Study the meaning of this all-inclusively. Clarify the words, We studied with the third son of Xie on a fishing boat. This is to study all-inclusively in pursuit of the moment when Old Man Shakyamuni and old man Xuansha studied together at the same time. When Xuansha saw the third son of Xie on the fishing boat, they were sharing study. When the third son of Xie saw the baldheaded fellow [himself] on Mt. Xuansha, they were sharing study. Studying together or not studying together—you should allow yourself and others to reflect on this. Old Man Xuansha and Old Man Shakyamuni studied together, studied all-inclusively. Together study all-inclusively: “With whom did the third son of Xie and Xuansha study?” If the meaning of all-inclusive study does not appear, then studying the self is not attained, studying the self is not complete; studying others is not attained, studying others is not complete; studying a true person is not attained, studying yourself is not attained; studying the fist is not attained, studying the eyeball is not attained; self hooking self is not attained, catching the fish without a hook is not attained. If you thoroughly experience all-inclusive study, all-inclusive study is dropped away. When the ocean is dry, no bottom is visible. When the man is dead, no mind remains. “The ocean is dry” means the entire ocean is completely dry. The ocean is dry and you cannot see the bottom. Not remaining and completely remaining—both are the person’s mind. When the person is dead, the mind does not remain. When death is taken up, the mind does not remain. This being so, know that the entire person is mind, the entire mind is the person. In this way, investigate thoroughly from top to bottom.
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Rujing, my late master, Old Buddha Tiantong, was once asked to give a discourse when accomplished priests, who were elders from various places, assembled. He ascended the teaching seat and said:
The great road has no gate. It leaps out from the heads of all of you. The open sky has no road. It enters into my nostrils. In this way we meet as Gautama’s bandits, or Linji’s troublemakers. Ha! The great house tumbles down and spring wind swirls. Astonished, apricot blossoms fly and scatter—red.
This discourse was given when Rujing was abbot of the Qingliang Monastery in Jiankang Prefecture, when he was visited by temple elders from various places. These accomplished priests and Rujing had known one another as teacher and disciples or had been students together. He had friends like this in all directions. They got together and asked him for a discourse. Elders who did not have a teaching phrase were not his associates and were not included. Only the most venerable priests were requested to attend. Rujing’s all-inclusive study cannot be fully accomplished by everyone. There has not been an ancient buddha like him for two or three hundred years in Great Song. As The great road has no gate, it is four or five thousand avenues of pleasure quarters, two or three myriads of wind-and-string pavilions. But when the whole body of the great road leaps out it leaps out from the head, not from anywhere else. In the same way it enters the nostrils. Both leaping out and entering are studies of the way. Those who have not leaped out of the head or inhaled the body through the nostrils are not students of the way or persons of all-inclusive study. Study the meaning of all-inclusive study just with Xuansha.
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Long ago Daoxin, who would later become the Fourth Ancestor, studied with Sengcan, the Third Ancestor, for nine years. This is all-inclusive study. Later Nanquan, Zen Master Puyuan, lived in Chiyang for almost thirty years. This is all-inclusive study without leaving the mountain. Yunyan, Daowu, and others engaged in practice when they were at Mt. Yao for forty years. This is all-inclusive study. Long ago Huike, who would later become the Second Ancestor, practiced at Mt. Song for eight years. He studied all-inclusively the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow.
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All-inclusive study is just single-minded sitting, dropping away body and mind. At the moment of going there, you go there; at the moment of coming here, you come here. There is no gap. Just in this way, the entire body all-inclusively studies the great road’s entire body. Stepping over the head of Vairochana is samadhi without conflict. To attain this firmly is to step over the head of Vairochana. The complete practice of all-inclusive study by leaping out is gourd leaping out from gourd. For a long time the gourd’s head has been the practice place. Its vital force is vines. Gourd studies gourd all-inclusively. In this way a blade of grass is actualized. This is all-inclusive study.
Taught in a grass-thatched hut at the foot of Yamashi Peak, Echizen Province on the twenty-seventh day, the eleventh month, the first year of the Kangen Era [1243].