Xuefeng said to the assembly, “On South Mountain, there’s a turtle-nosed snake. You must all have a close look at it.”
Changqing said, “Today, in this very hall, there is definitely someone who has lost his body and life.”
A monk told Xuansha about this. Xuansha said, “Only Brother Leng [Changqing] would put it that way. I wouldn’t say it like that.”
“What would you say, Your Reverence?” asked the monk.
“Why use South Mountain?” responded Xuansha.
Yunmen picked up his staff and threw it down before Xuefeng, and made a gesture of fright.
* Translator note: Species uncertain, possibly a cobra.
(Translated by Yamada Kōun, Robert Aitken, and Nelson Foster, with revisions by Michael Kieran. Honolulu Diamond Sangha 2008.)
This is case 22 of the Blue Cliff Record. Hsueh-tou collected one hundred koans and wrote a verse for each. Yuan wu took the collection and wrote introductions and commentaries for each story; he published the compilation as The Blue Cliff Record in the 12th century China. It became so popular that Yuan Wu’s successor, Ta Hui, feared it had become a distraction from living Zen. Ta Hui destroyed the manuscript, but copies remained such that it was amended and republished in the 14th century.
I offer this history because it contains a theme woven through Zen as a tradition, and necessary for each of us in every moment. Destroy all that you know, and everything you believe so you can see and hear. We can still remember how to balance a check book, while forgetting all but that one act for its own sake.
In the introduction to this case, Hsueh-tou wrote this:
…If you want to free what is stuck and loosen what is bound, you simply must cut away the traces…and swallow the … All people occupy the essential crossing place; each and every one towers up like a thousand fathom wall. But tell me, whose realm is this? To test, I’m citing this old case: look!
Thomas Cleary, Blue Cliff Record, 1997
In this reading of the translation by Thomas Cleary I’ve left out some words that Cleary included in parentheses. I didn’t find those words in other translations; though not in the Chinese, Cleary apparently added them to enhance our understanding of the meaning of Hsueh-tou’s introduction. I’ll read it again with Cleary’s words included. So you can more easily pick out the difference as I read, I’ll tell you ahead of time the added words are, “of thought,” and “of words.”
…If you want to free what is stuck and loosen what is bound, you simply must cut away the traces (of thought) and swallow the sounds (of words). All people occupy the essential crossing place; each and every one towers up like a thousand fathom wall. But tell me, whose realm is this? To test, I’m citing this old case: look!
Cleary, Blue Cliff Record, 1997
The vitality of Zen is apparent when traces of thought fall away, and words aren’t a hood over our heads, hiding life from us. Story after story reiterates this with changing characters and images. If it were easy shed the hood of concepts, one story would suffice.
Xuefeng said to the assembly, “On South Mountain, there’s a turtle-nosed snake. You must all have a close look at it.”
What do you think, how far do you need to go to see the snake on South Mountain?
In his commentary on this case, Yuan wu writes about Xuefeng’s backstory for context in understanding the koan I started with. In the commentary we are told of the time Xuefeng and Yantou were stuck in an inn by heavy snows. Day after day Xuefeng sat in meditation while Yantou slept. Yantou admonished Xuefeng over and over, telling him he looked like a clay image and should get some sleep. Xuefeng said he could not, because he was not yet at peace. Yantou expressed respect for Xuefeng at times as well, telling him he expected to see him propagating great teaching. After another admonishment and Xuefeng repeating he was not at peace, Yantou told Xuefeng to bring forward his views so Yantou could correct or approve them.
In response to the request that Xuefeng shared his views, he told three stories of times of insight for him. Xuefeng told of his “[gaining] an entry” when seeing a Zen master teach on form and void. Yantou said he should not mention it again for thirty years. Xuefeng then told of how he had an insight seeing another teacher’s verse on crossing the river. Xuefeng said this way he wouldn’t be able to save himself. Xuefeng told of asking a question of a third teacher and getting struck by his staff. Xuefeng said at that time “it was like the bottom falling out of a bucket.”
Yantou shouted, “Haven’t you heard it said that what comes through the front gate is not the family jewels?” After Xuefeng asked, “Then what should I do?” Yantou said, “In the future, if you want to propagate the great teaching, let each point flow out from your own breast, to come out and cover heaven and earth for me.” In the commentary at this point we are told that Xuefeng was greatly enlightened.
Xuefeng was dedicated to the Way and tasted the fruits before sitting day after day, snowed in on what may as well have been South Mountain. His friend Yantou must have seen something in him that was stuck, something calling for the cutting away of the traces (of thought) and swallowing the sounds (of words). Yantou asked for Xuefeng’s views – whatever they were. Receiving them, Yantou cut them away; sweet though those memories were, the insights they contained did not flow from Xuefeng’s own breast. After those days of sitting, Xuefeng must have been well prepared and ready; he saw the turtle-nosed snake for what it was.
You and I are on South Mountain, sitting diligently. It’s our sixth day being snowbound together in a room. If not watching the front gate, what do we do? We’re already at the essential crossroads just here. So, where do we look? Not to past insights. Not to words and gestures of inspiration from others. Not to thoughts of concentration and distraction and not to words at all.
Xuefeng said to the assembly, “On South Mountain, there’s a turtle-nosed snake. You must all have a close look at it.”
Changqing said, “Today, in this very hall, there is definitely someone who has lost his body and life.”
Changqing said nothing about mountains or snakes, but he did not miss the point. He let his response flow from his breast to cover heaven and earth. Changqing never left the hall, and gates and family jewels were not necessary. He is talking to us – snakes abound ready to strike, let them. What they would kill is already dead; what they will leave is already vital. They hide within the breath filling your lungs and flowing out, and hide in this sound in your ears.
A monk told Xuansha about this. Xuansha said, “Only Brother Leng [Changqing] would put it that way. I wouldn’t say it like that.”
“What would you say, Your Reverence?” asked the monk.
“Why use South Mountain?” responded Xuansha.
Yunmen picked up his staff and threw it down before Xuefeng, and made a gesture of fright.
Xuansha wouldn’t respond as Changqing did, he would have challenged Xuefeng’s sending us all off to find South Mountain. Yunmen too had his way, of standing right here and throwing a staff into the dirt of South Mountain.
You and I are in the assembly of Xuefeng, being told we must see the dangerous snake on some mountain. But we sit here, in the United States and Xuefeng’s message is relevant now. There is great danger in that the presence of the snake doesn’t rely on us seeing or not seeing it. Either way, if bitten we can lose body and life. Changqing tells us that’s already been the fate of someone in the room.
The danger of relying on the front gate for our treasure is greater than the danger of the snake. Yet we survive by monitoring the world through understanding small and large things – that when pouring coffee I need a cup, when caring for myself and family I research health insurance. Yantou did not tell Xuefeng to tear down the gate, only that the treasure that brings peace to our own heart-minds does not come through it. That’s another matter altogether. For that treasure we find our own way to set aside thoughts and words.
I’m grateful for intensive periods of practice, generously giving me time to try this and that to set aside thoughts, while my body is learning in some way I don’t understand, can’t understand.
So, what do I do now? There seems to be no advice as to where to look, when to look, and what we should be looking for! What’s left is only this. Without looking anywhere, eyes see. Without seeking anything, diaphragm expands, and we inhale. Diaphragm contracts and we exhale. There are times when we need more direction, but not today. Today the schedule tells us all we need to know. Do nothing more than what is called for and all is well.
You know what to do. It doesn’t work to sit to become something, or to model ourselves on the way of the Buddha or others we respect. Doing so is putting the head of another on my head. You are well prepared and can find your way to see beyond thoughts and words. Take those of our ancestors only as they are a spark to your own tinder. It is Your way, go all in with it and enjoy it fully.
I’ll finish with something from the book of Yunmen’s essential sayings:
Someone asked Master Yunmen, “What is most urgent for me?”
The Master said, “The very you who is afraid that he doesn’t know!”App, Urs. Zen Master Yunmen: His Life and Essential Sayings (p. 108). Shambhala.