3 1867 00712 0558 THE BOOK OF F Q U ANIMITY • • • ILLUMINATING CLASSIC ZEN KOANS GERRY SHISHIN WICK foreword by BERNIE GLASS MAN ### 3# # Lsfnno 1778 • # # # # # # PHILLIPS • ACADEMY # # # # # # T # # OLIVER*WENDELL*HOLMES # # # # LIBRARY I # A ♦ # _ # a£ citiOKi % # # # # # # # Gift of Anonymous Donor THE BOOK OF EQUANIMITY Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/bookofequanimityOOOOwick THE BOOK OF EQUANIMITY Illuminating Classic Zen Koans Gerry Shishin Wick Foreword by Bernie Glassman A Wisdom Publication • Boston Wisdom Publications, Inc. 199 Elm Street Somerville MA 02144 USA www.wisdompubs.org © 2005 Gerry Shishin Wick All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or me¬ chanical, including photography, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system or technologies now known or later developed, without permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wick, Gerry Shishin. The book of equanimity : illuminating classic Zen koans / Gerry Shishin Wick , foreword by Bernie Glassman. p. cm. Item consists of English translation and commentaries of Zhengjue's Tiantong Jue he shang song gu. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-86171-387-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1 Zhengjue, 1091-1 157. Tiantong Jue he shang song gu. 2. Koan. 1 Zhengjue, 1091-1157. Tiantong Jue he shang song gu. II. Title. BQ9289.Z543W53 2005 294.3'444—dc20 2004028142 ISBN 0-86171-387-7 First Edition 09 08 07 06 05 5 4 3 2 1 Cover design by Rick Snizik. Interior design by Gopa&Ted2, Inc. Set in Weiss 10.5/14 pt. Wisdom Publications' books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability set by the Council on Library Resources. Printed in the United States of America. dedicated to Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi (i93i-1995) Table of Contents Foreword by Bernie Glassman xi Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 Case 1. The World-Honored One Ascends the Platform 11 Case 2: Bodhidharma's Vast Emptiness 13 Case 3: An Invitation for the Patriarch 16 Case 4: The World-Honored One Points to the Earth 18 Case 5: Seigan's Cost of Rice 20 Case 6: Baso's White and Black 22 Case 7: Yakusan Takes the High Seat 25 Case 8: Hyakujo's Fox 28 Case 9: Nansen Cuts a Cat 31 Case 10: Joshu Sees Through the Old Woman 34 Case 11: Ummon's Two Sicknesses 37 Case 12: Jizo Plants the Field 40 Case 13: Rinzai's Blind Donkey 43 Case 14: Attendant Kaku Serves Tea 46 Case 15: Kyozan Plants His Mattock 49 Case 16: Mayoku Thumps His Staff 51 Case 17: Hogen's Hair's-Breadth 54 Case 18: Joshu's Dog 57 VII Case 19: Ummon's Mount Sumeru 60 Case 20: Jizo's "Not Knowing Is the Most Intimate" 63 Case 21: Ungan Sweeps the Ground 66 Case 22: Canto's Bow and Shout 69 Case 23: Roso Faces the Wall 72 Case 24: Seppo's Poison Snake 75 Case 25: Enkan's Rhinoceros-Horn Fan 78 Case 26: Kyozan Points to Snow 81 Case 27: Hogen Points to the Blind 84 Case 28: Gokoku's Three Shames 87 Case 29: Fuketsu's Iron Ox 90 Case 30: Daizui's Kalpa Fire 94 Case 31: Ummon's Free-Standing Pillar 98 Case 32: Kyozan's State of Mind 100 Case 33: Sansho's Golden Carp 103 Case 34: Fuketsu's Speck of Dust 106 Case 35: Rakuho's Acquiescence 108 Case 36: Baso's Illness 112 Case 37: Isan's Karmic Consciousness 114 Case 38: Rinzai's True Man 117 Case 39: Joshu's Bowl-Washing 120 Case 40: Ummon's White and Black 123 Case 41: Rakuho's Last Moments 126 Case 42: Nanyo's Washbasin 130 Case 43: Razan's Arising and Vanishing 132 Case 44: Koyo's Garuda Bird 134 Case 45: The Sutra of Complete Awakening 1 38 Case 46: Tokusan’s Completion of Study 141 Case 47: Joshu's Cypress Tree 144 Case 48: Vimalakirti's Nonduality 147 Case 49: Tozan Offers to the Essence 150 Case 50: Seppo's "What's This?" 154 VIII THE BOOK OF EQUANIMITY Case 51: Hogen's "By Boat or Land" 158 Case 52: Sozan's Dharmakaya 161 Case 53: Obaku's Dregs 164 Case 54: Ungan's Great Compassionate One 168 Case 55: Seppo the Rice Cook 171 Case 56: Mishi's White Rabbit 174 Case 57: Genyo's One Thing 178 Case 58: The Diamond Sutra's Reviling 181 Case 59: Seirin's Deadly Snake 184 Case 60: Ryutetsuma's Old Cow 187 Case 61. Kempo's One Stroke 190 Case 62: Beiko's No Enlightenment 193 Case 63: Joshu Asks About Death 196 Case 64: Shisho's Transmission 199 Case 65: Shuzan's New Bride 203 Case 66: Kyuho's Head and Tail 206 Case 67: The Avatamsaka Sutra's Wisdom 210 Case 68: Kassan's Slashing Sword 214 Case 69: Nansen's Cats and Cows 217 Case 70: Shinzan Questions the Nature of Life 220 Case 71: Suigan's Eyebrows 223 Case 72: Chuyu's Monkey 226 Case 73: Sozan's Requited Filial Piety 229 Case 74: Hogen's Substance and Name 232 Case 75: Zuigan's Permanent Principle 235 Case 76: Shuzan's Three Phrases 238 Case 77: Kyozan Holds His Own 241 Case 78: Ummon's Farm Rice-Cake 245 Case 79: Chosha Advances a Step 248 Case 80: Ryuge Passes the Chin Rest 252 Case 81: Gensha Comes to the Province 256 Case 82: Ummon's Sounds and Shapes 259 CONTENTS IX Case 83: Dogo's Nursing 262 Case 84: Gutei's One Finger 265 Case 85: The National Teacher's Seamless Tomb 268 Case 86: Rinzai's Great Enlightenment 271 Case 87: Sozan's With or Without 275 Case 88: The Shurangama's Unseen 278 Case 89: Tozan's No Grass 282 Case 90: Kyozan Respectfully Declares It 286 Case 91: Nansen's Peony 289 Case 92: Ummon's One Treasure 292 Case 93: Roso's Not Understanding 295 Case 94: Tozan's Illness 299 Case 95: Rinzai's One Stroke 302 Case 96: Kyuho's Disapproval 305 Case 97: Emperor Ko's Cap 309 Case 98: Tozan's Heed 312 Case 99: Ummon's Bowl and Pail 315 Case 100: Roya's Mountains and Rivers 318 Appendix: Masters Referenced in The Book of Equanimity I. Ancient Chinese and Japanese Ancestors 321 II. Indian Ancestors and Bodhisattvas 327 III. Modern Ancestors and Teachers 328 Suggested Further Reading 329 X THE BOOK OF EQUANIMITY Foreword Attention! Master Jizo asked Hogen, "Where have you come from?" "I pilgrimage aimlessly," replied Hogen. "What is the matter of your pil¬ grimage?" asked Jizo. "Idon't know," replied Hogen. "Hot knowing is the most intimate," remarked Jizo. At that, Hogen experienced great enlightenment. -—Case 20 of the Book of Eguanimity I met Gerry Wick at the Zen Center of Los Angeles in the early 1970s, dur¬ ing the time when 1 was studying with Taizan Maezumi Roshi. He had just arrived in California from London, England, where he had worked as a physi¬ cist and science editor for a magazine while studying Zen with Sochu Suzuki Roshi, a disciple of Soen Nakagawa Roshi. He had received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California-Berkeley in the 1960s and soon began to work at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. At ZCLA, Maezumi Roshi gave him the Buddhist name Shishin, which means "lion heart." This was the early 1970s, and hippies were far more common than sci¬ entists at the Zen center. Shishin stood out. Eventually, Maezumi Roshi put him in charge of the administration of both the Zen Center of Los Angeles and the Kuroda Institute for the Study of Buddhism and Human Values. In 1990, Shishin Wick succeeded Maezumi Roshi in his lineage, becoming full heir to his Dharma. I recall during that time that Shishin wrote a scientific paper on torna¬ does—not those born of the meeting of warm, moist Gulf air with cold Cana¬ dian air or the dry air from the Rockies, but rather tornadoes created by cars going speedily in different directions on the Los Angeles freeways, seeding dramatic swings in wind patterns, which were, in fact, small tornadoes. You XI might say that at that time tornadoes were also coming out of the vortex of the Zen Center of Los Angeles, not due to freeway traffic but the traffic going back and forth across the Pacific. Japanese and American teachers and practitioners were bringing their Zen from Asia to America and back to Asia again. The impact of Japanese Zen on America is clear. Important Japanese teachers introduced the Dharma to thousands of new students in this coun¬ try. And even in those days America was beginning to have some percepti¬ ble impact on Japan. American practitioners were seen by certain Japanese teachers largely as more sincere, energetic, and committed to realizing the Buddha Way than their Japanese counterparts. Americans like Shishin were invigorating the practice with fresh ideas and inquisitiveness and exploring the very essence of Buddhism. And that caused turbulence. This American Zen master who as a Zen student once wrote so cleanly and scientifically about tornadoes on Los Angeles freeways now turns his scien¬ tific eye to what lies at the center of the twisters of our minds, the twisters of our lives. In the present book, Shishin provides an incisive Western com¬ mentary on a collection of koans, poems, and thoughts developed in China many centuries ago.