Yunmen Wenyan
Yunmen Wenyan
864 – 949
Yunmen Wenyan was the founder of the Yunmen school, one of the Five Houses of Tang and Song dynasty Chan[1]. He was a student of Xuefeng Yicun and is renowned for the extraordinary economy and precision of his teaching language. His responses were often one word, and these single-word responses—called "one-word barrier" answers—became some of the most studied koans in the tradition[2]. His famous saying "Every day is a good day" appears as case 6 in the Blue Cliff Record and has been contemplated by practitioners for a thousand years[3].
Yunmen's teaching style was demanding and unsparing. He described three types of Dharma eye: "containing heaven and earth," "cutting off the myriad streams," and "following the waves."[2] His one-word answers function as direct gestures toward reality that cannot be reasoned about but must be directly entered. The Yunmen school did not survive as a separate institution after the Song dynasty, but its spirit was preserved through the Blue Cliff Record, whose cases largely come from the Yunmen tradition, and continues to permeate all koan practice[1].
Names
Disciples of Yunmen Wenyan
Teachers and lineage of Yunmen Wenyan
Teacher / root master:
Teachings
- koanBells And Robes
Ummon asked: "The world is such a wide world, why do you answer a bell and don ceremonial robes?" Mumon’s comment: When one studies Zen one need not follow sound or color or form. Even though some have attained insight when hearing a voice or seeing a color or a form, this is a very common way. It is not true Zen. The real Zen student controls sound, color, form, and actualizes the truth in his everyday life. Sound comes to the ear, the ear goes to sound. When you blot out sound and sense, what do you understand? While listening with ears one never can understand. To understand intimately one should see sound. When you understand, you belong to the family; When you do not understand, you are a stranger. Those who do not understand belong to the family, And when they understand they are strangers.
- koanDried Dung
A monk asked Ummon: "What is Buddha?" Ummon answered him: "Dried dung." Mumon’s comment: It seems to me Ummon is so poor he cannot distinguish the taste of one food from another, or else he is too busy to write readable letters. Well, he tried to hold his school with dried dung. And his teaching was just as useless. Lightning flashes, Sparks shower. In one blink of your eyes You have missed seeing.
A Zen student told Ummon: "Brilliancy of Buddha illuminates the whole universe." Before he finished the phrase Ummon asked: "You are reciting another's poem, are you not?" "Yes," answered the student. "You are sidetracked," said Ummon. Afterwards another teacher, Shishin, asked his pupils: "At what point did that student go off the track?" Mumon’s comment: If anyone perceives Ummon's particular skillfulness, he will know at what point the student was off the track, and he will be a teacher of man and Devas. If not, he cannot even perceive himself. When a fish meets the fishhook If he is too greedy, he will be caught. When his mouth opens His life already is lost.
- proverbWhy Put on Your Robe?
The whole world is vast and wide. Why do you put on your robe at the sound of a bell?
- dialogueYunmen's One-Word Barriers
A monk asked, "What is the teaching of the Buddha's whole lifetime?" Yunmen said, "An appropriate statement." A monk asked, "What is it when the tree withers and the leaves fall?" Yunmen said, "Body exposed in the golden wind." A monk asked, "What is the one road of Yunmen?" Yunmen said, "Personal experience!" A monk asked, "What is the sword that kills and the sword that gives life?" Yunmen raised his staff. A monk asked, "What is the Dharma body?" Yunmen said, "A garden of flowers with a thousand kinds of beauty."
- sayingEvery Day Is a Good Day
Yunmen said to the assembly: "I'm not asking you about the days before the fifteenth of the month. Come, give me a word about after the fifteenth." No one answered. Yunmen answered for them: "Every day is a good day."
Yunmen said: "Medicine and disease cure each other. The whole earth is medicine. What is your self?"
- dialogueA Dried Shit Stick
A monk asked Yunmen, "What is Buddha?" Yunmen said, "A dried shit stick."
- dialogueBody Exposed in the Golden Wind
A monk asked Yunmen, "When the tree withers and the leaves fall, what then?" Yunmen said, "Body exposed in the golden wind."
- proverbDry Shit-Stick
What is Buddha? A dry shit-stick. The blunt phrase is the medicine for the polished mind.
- proverbEvery Day Is a Good Day
What about before the fifteenth of the month? I will not ask. After the fifteenth? Every day is a good day. The good is not in the calendar but in the willingness to meet whatever shows up.
- proverbOne-Word Barrier
What is the dharma? Suitable. What is the practice? Through. What is the highest matter? Look. One word, one barrier; pass it, and you walk.
- proverbThree Statements of Yunmen
A statement that meets heaven and earth; a statement that follows the waves; a statement that cuts off all streams. Use them in turn — never as a formula, always as a fit.
- proverbBell and Robe
When the bell rings, why do you put on the seven-piece robe? The bell does not require the robe; the robe does not require the bell. Yet when the bell rings, the robe goes on. That is the practice.
Medicine and sickness cure one another. The whole earth is medicine; the whole earth is also sickness. Where is the patient?
Other masters in Yunmen
Master Record Sources
864-949
Yunmen Wenyan
Yunmen
- koan_refsChart of the Chan Ancestors
6,8,14,15 11,19,24,26 15,16 36,42 22,27,34,39 31,40,61,71 21,39 46,89 47,50,54,60 78,82,92,99 48 62,77,83,86 87, 88
- nameZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
Yunmen Wenyan
- teachersZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
Xuefeng Yicun