Case 13 Tokusan Holds His Bowls                     
 


One day Tokusan went down toward the dining room, holding his bowls.

Seppõ met him and asked, "Where are you off to with your bowls? The bell has not rung, and the drum has not sounded." Tokusan turned and went back to his room.

Seppõ mentioned this to Gantõ, who remarked, "Tokusan is renowned, but he does not know the last word

Tokusan heard about this remark and sent his attendant to fetch Gantõ. "You do not approve of me?" he asked.
Gantõ whispered his meaning.
Tokusan said nothing at the time, but the next day he ascended the rostrum, and behold! he was very different from usual!
Gantõ, going toward the front of the hall, clapped his hands and laughed loudly, saying, "Congratulations! Our old man has got hold of the last word!
From now on, nobody in this whole country can outdo him!"
 
Mumon's Comment
As for the last word, neither Gantõ nor Tokusan has ever dreamed of it!
When you look into the matter, you find they are like puppets on the shelf!
 
Mumon's Verse 
 If you realize the first,
 You master the last.
 The first and the last
 Are not one word.



          Nice little story.  Was this all a ploy to liven up the teaching of old man Tokusan?  Maybe the story had passed around the monastery and all the monks were primed for a good talk.  We need not spend much time thinking about this.  This is not the heart of the koan.  What is the heart is the koan is the question of the first and last word of Zen.  This is what you must resolve for yourself.
          Over the last many years I have had many experiences and many insights sitting zazen but I would find it difficult to classify any of these insights as a first or last word of Zen.  If you have read much of this blog you will realize that I emphasize Zazen and Samadhi.  But sometimes I emphasize insight into the non-dual.  And then there is compassion and acting out of compassion.  In making a deep commitment to the practice we take a series of vows which are encapsulated in the Three Pure Vows.

Not to commit evil
Do all that is good
Keep one's thought pure.

Maybe these are the first and last words.  

And then the Buddha emphasized such teachings as non-attachment, no desire, interdependent causation.  I could go on and on.  The teachings are infinite.  Every experience can become a teaching.  How can we possibly say there is a first or last word.  Our head spins as we try to think out this koan.

         This koan is not about thinking out an answer.  We must always return to zazen to understand a koan.  I have a student who came to me.  She was a committed practitioner who had been doing sesshins with a Soto Zen teacher in a distant city.  She was preparing to do a Jukai (a ceremony in which vows are taken and the student receives a dharma name and a rakasu)  In preparation for the Jukai she was asked to read various books on the vows. When she came to me as a student she had not yet completed her preparations for the Jukai but now wanted me to do the Jukai ceremony.  I told her that I was not going to have her read anything or discuss any doctrine, I told her that I just wanted her to up her commitment to the practice of zazen and that I would individually work with her on her zazen.  Zazen is the foundation of our practice, the source of the wisdom of the Buddha, patriarchs and teachers in our lineage.  But this is not just the zazen that most of us do.  This deep zazen, which is that source, is not filled with thoughts but deeply quiet.  As Mumon tells us in his closing poem, " The first and last are not one word."
           Can you enter this place of not one word, where the past and the future are forgotten, where there is no seperation between inside and outside, self and others, where concepts are forgotten, and yet the mind is absolutely clear to see the world as it truly is?  This is why we practice zazen.








































Case 13 Tokusan Holds His Bowls                     十三　徳山托鉢
 
徳山、一日托鉢下堂。
One day Tokusan went down toward the dining room, holding his bowls.
見雪峰問者老漢鐘未鳴鼓未響、托鉢向甚處去、山便回方丈。
Seppõ met him and asked, "Where are you off to with your bowls? The bell has not rung, and the drum has not sounded." Tokusan turned and went back to his room.
峰擧似巖頭。 頭云、大小徳山未會末後句。
Seppõ mentioned this to Gantõ, who remarked, "Tokusan is renowned, but he does not know the last word."
山聞令侍者喚巖頭來、問曰、汝不肯老僧那。
Tokusan heard about this remark and sent his attendant to fetch Gantõ. "You do not approve of me?" he asked.
巖頭密啓其意。
Gantõ whispered his meaning.
山乃休去。明日陞座、果與尋常不同。
Tokusan said nothing at the time, but the next day he ascended the rostrum, and behold! he was very different from usual!
巖頭至僧堂前、拊掌大笑云、且喜得老漢會末後句。
Gantõ, going toward the front of the hall, clapped his hands and laughed loudly, saying, "Congratulations! Our old man has got hold of the last word!
他後天下人、不奈伊何。
From now on, nobody in this whole country can outdo him!"
 
Mumon's Comment
無門曰、若是未後句、巖頭徳山倶未夢見在。
As for the last word, neither Gantõ nor Tokusan has ever dreamed of it!
撿點將來、好似一棚傀儡。
When you look into the matter, you find they are like puppets on the shelf!
 
Mumon's Verse 頌曰
識得最初句 If you realize the first,
便會末後句 You master the last.
末後與最初 The first and the last
不是者一句 Are not one word.

Case 12 Zuigan Calls His Master                         
 
Zuigan Gen Oshõ called to himself every day, "Master!" and answered, "Yes, sir!"
Then he would say, "Be wide awake!" and answer, "Yes, sir!"
"Henceforward, never be deceived by others!" "No, I won't!"
 
Mumon's Comment
Old Zuigan buys and sells himself. He takes out a lot of god-masks and devil-masks and puts them on and plays with them.
What for, eh?
One calling and the other answering; one wide awake, the other saying he will never be deceived.
If you stick to any of them, you will be a failure.
If you imitate Zuigan, you will play the fox.
 
Mumon's Verse 
   Clinging to the deluded way of consciousness,
   Students of the Way do not realize truth.
   The seed of birth and death through endless eons:
   The fool calls it the true original self.


          During my first sesshin with Sezaki Roshi this koan was the theme for his talks.  That was a long time ago (1980) and I  understood very little of what he said.  I do remember he told us that every day Zuigan sat on this rock and and did what every Zen adept should do, remind himself to be awake.  One might think that a transformative experience like Enlightenment would somehow change one in such a way that they would never after loose that awakeness found in samadhi.  But in fact it is more complicated.  The old habits of our thought and emotions are not so easily vanquished.  Even after years of practice and many deep experiences one can still be prone to be caught by selfish emotions like fear and anger, and repetitive selfish thinking.  Personally, my wife is capable of getting my blood boiling and for many years I had a boss who at times also upset me.  But then through years of practice I developed an ability to drop emotions and when anticipated not let them arise.  For the very reason that my wife is at times challenging she has been a great teacher for me.  It is always difficult to drop selfish emotions in close relationships like marriage and work.  We are all humans, prone to selfishness, easily deceived etc. but now that we have some skill in clear sightedness we need to remind ourselves to not be decieved, to be clear sighted, it doesn't happen automatically, at least for quite some time,  Maybe for some, after years of practice clarity in all situations will be natural, but I am still quite failable .  This is why Zuigan sits on the rock ( another translation) everyday and reminds himself to be awake.
          But what is all this stuff about calling his Master and then responding like he is a bifurcated personality?  This sure isn't the non-duality that I write about so much, or maybe it is.  This is one of those catches in koans that can drive you crazy.  So who is Zuigan's Master and who is your Master? If we weren't talking from within Buddhism but rather one of the many other world religions the answer would be God, but Buddhism is not a theocratic religion.  We don't talk about the a single creator and ruling God like most of the other world religions.  Buddhism arose out of a non-dual understanding in opposition to the traditional dualism that existed within Hinduism all those many years ago.  Like most religions Hinduism set up a distinction between the individual and God.  (Hinduism is often thought of as a polytheistic religion but still they have that single ineffable Universal Being they call Brahma.)  Each individual human is thought to have it's independence, a spark of divinity which in the Hindu tradition is called the atman and in the Judeo-Christian- Moslem tradition is called the soul.  Shakyamuni taught that there is nothing like a soul or atman in the human that fundamentally separates us from other beings, human or non-human.  There is nothing at all special about us accept that there is something special.  We have a large brain and we can understand.  And we are all faced with a fundamental question which if we don't answer we will never find complete repose, there will always be an edge of suffering.  Traditionally in Zen this is called the Question of Life and Death but it is often posed to us in other forms.  In this Koan we see the question as, who is our true Master?  This is the deep question of this koan.
          Here is a story I heard from Harada Roshi that might put some light on the issue.  There once was this monk who completed his training then left the monastery took off his robes and settled in a small village.  He found shelter and not needing much more then some food he worked around town volunteering his services helping people.  The people of the town liked the monk but didn't respect him because he showed no ambition.  One day a messenger arrived in the town searching for the monk.  The Great Buddhist Master of the monastery had died and had chosen the monk as his successor.  The people of the town were amazed, this fellow who they had thought so little of was actually a Great Buddhist Master.  They gathered in the town square and asked for a teaching from the monk before he left.  The monk asked a couple from the town to come up and sit in the middle of the town square and then without any warning banged their heads together.  They instantly cried out in pain.  The monk asked, "Who gave this shout?"
          The shout in pain that this couple made was done instantly without thought.  There was no idea of self involved.  Who then gave the shout?  We might say some deeper unconscious self gave the shout but what is this self.  A baby with his head hit will also cry out in pain but a baby does not have any idea of self, conscious or unconscious.  Who is this baby's true Master?  This is a very subtle question which can only be truly answered if we become like a baby, without thought, without an ego.  The Buddha taught that all things come about through causes and conditions.  This is true even with humans.  This web of causality is all just natural, it could not be anything other then what it is.  Nothing and no one is separate from what is natural but we human are very complex and we don't understand.  We are filled with ideas and desires and an idea of our own separateness which creates a sort of fog in our understanding.  We can't see clearly because of all that is going on in our head.  But through the practice of zazen we can slowly clear out the fog and become like a baby and come to understand our true Master.