Deshan Xuanjian
Deshan Xuanjian
782 – 865
Deshan Xuanjian began his practice as a specialist in the Diamond Sutra within the traditional Buddhist educational system of the north, and he traveled south specifically to refute what he regarded as the dangerous claim that awakening could be direct and immediate. On his way he stopped at a roadside stand where an old woman was selling rice cakes. When he told her what he was carrying, she asked which mind he intended to refresh with her rice cakes—the past mind which cannot be got, the present mind which cannot be held, or the future mind which has not yet come. Deshan could not answer, and this encounter cracked open his certainty.
He subsequently studied with Longtan Chongxin and had his awakening when Longtan blew out a candle in the darkness. He burned all his commentaries on the Diamond Sutra, saying: "Exhausting learning is like a single hair in the vastness of space; all the world's wisdom is like a drop in a great ocean." He became famous for carrying a staff and striking any student who spoke and any student who did not speak, any student who answered quickly and any student who answered slowly. His famous saying—"Thirty blows whether you can say it or whether you cannot"—became a Chan archetype of the teaching that breaks through conceptual hesitation.
Names
Teachers
Teachings
- koanTokusan Holds His Bowl
Tokusan went to the dining room from the meditation hall holding his bowl. Seppo was on duty cooking. When he met Tokusan he said: "The dinner drum is not yet beaten. Where are you going with your bowl?" So Tokusan returned to his room. Seppo told Ganto about this. Ganto said: "Old Tokusan did not understand ultimate truth." Tokusan heard of this remark and asked Ganto to come to him. "I have heard," he said, "you are not approving my Zen." Ganto admitted this indirectly. Tokusan said nothing. The next day Tokusan delivered an entirely different kind of lecture to the monks. Ganto laughed and clapped his hands, saying: "I see our old man understands ultimate truth indeed. None in China can surpass him." Mumon’s comment: Speaking about ultimate truth, both Ganto and Tokusan did not even dream it. After all, they are dummies. Whoever understands the first truth Should understand the ultimate truth. The last and first, Are they not the same?
- koanBlow Out The Candle
Tokusan was studying Zen under Ryutan. One night he came to Ryutan and asked many questions. The teacher said: "The night is getting old. Why don't you retire?" So Tokusan bowed and opened the screen to go out, observing: "It is very dark outside." Ryutan offered Tokusan a lighted candle to find his way. Just as Tokusan received it, Ryutan blew it out. At that moment the mind of Tokusan was opened. "What have you attained?" asked Ryutan. "From now on," said Tokusan, "I will not doubt the teacher's words." The next day Ryutan told the monks at his lecture: "I see one monk among you. His teeth are like the sword tree, his mouth is like the blood bowl. If you hit him hard with a big stick, he will not even so much as look back at you. Someday he will mount the highest peak and carry my teaching there." On that day, in front of the lecture hall, Tokusan burned to ashes his commentaries on the sutras. He said: "However abstruse the teachings are, in comparison with this enlightenment they are like a single hair to the great sky. However profound the complicated knowledge of the world, compared to this enlightenment it is like one drop of water to the great ocean." Then he left that monastery. Mumon’s comment: When Tokusan was in his own country he was not satisfied with Zen although he had heard about it. He thought: "Those Southern monks say they can teach Dharma outside of the sutras. They are all wrong. I must teach them." So he traveled south. He happened to stop near Ryutan's monastery for refreshments. An old woman who was there asked him: "What are you carrying so heavily?" Tokusan replied: "This is a commentary I have made on the Diamond Sutra after many years of work." The old woman said: "I read that sutra which says: 'The past mind cannot be held, the present mind cannot be held, the future mind cannot be held.' You wish some tea and refreshments. Which mind do you propose to use for them?" Tokusan was as though dumb. Finally he asked the woman: "Do you know of any good teacher around here?" The old woman referred him to Ryutan, not more than five miles away. So he went to Ryutan in all humility, quite different from when he had started his journey. Ryutan in turn was so kind he forgot his own dignity. It was like pouring muddy water over a drunken man to sober him. After all, it was an unnecessary comedy. A hundred hearings cannot surpass one seeing, But after you see the teacher, that one glance cannot surpass a hundred hearings. His nose was very high But he was blind after all.
- sayingThirty Blows
Deshan said: "Thirty blows if you can speak; thirty blows if you cannot speak."
- dialogueNothing Within, Nothing Without
Deshan came to the dharma hall and said, "Tonight I will not answer any questions. Anyone who asks a question gets thirty blows of the stick." A monk came forward and bowed. Deshan immediately struck him. The monk said, "I haven't even asked a question yet. Why do you hit me?" Deshan said, "Where are you from?" The monk said, "From Silla." Deshan said, "Before you even boarded the ship, you already deserved thirty blows."
Master Record Sources
782-865
Deshan Xuanjian
Qingyuan line
- koan_refsChart of the Chan Ancestors
4 14, 22, 55 13 82 28 96
- nameZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
Deshan Xuanjian
- teachersZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
Longtan Chongxin