What Tettō Left

Text

After Tettō Gikō died, Gongai inherited not only the abbacy of Daitoku-ji but an institution fragile and politically exposed. A senior monk came to him and said: 'The temple is half empty and the bakufu is indifferent to us. What do you intend to do?' Gongai said: 'Tettō left me a lamp and a platform. The lamp is still lit. The platform is still level. Let the political wind blow. When the wind stops, people always come looking for a lit lamp. Until then: keep the practice; maintain the form; do not beg and do not boast. The dharma has survived worse indifference than the bakufu's.'

license: public_domain

Attribution

• Speaker
  Gongai Sochu

Lineage: Rinzai

By Gongai Sochu

• Verse on Calligraphyverse

From Daitoku-ji Historical Records

• On Preserving the Line in Difficult Times
• On the Ōtōkan Bone
• Verse on Calligraphy

Sources

• contentZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation

  Zen project editorial

  Daitoku-ji historical records; cf. Dumoulin, Zen Buddhism: A History, Vol. 2, pp. 161–163

  Daitoku-ji Historical Records: What Tettō Left