A somewhat puzzling section of Master Tiantong Rujing's Goroku (Record of Collected Sayings; 如淨禪師語錄序) is a section in which Master Rujing very clearly recommends work with the famous "Mu" Koan in Zazen (the "Mu" of the classic question put to Joshu, "Does a dog have Buddha Nature?") The advice is puzzling simply because Rujing happens to be Master Dogen's teacher in China, the Soto abbot of Tiantong Monastery, and thus not someone one might expect to be advising Koan work during Zazen. Absorption in the phrase "Mu" is most well known as a common entry practice in Rinzai style Wato Koan Introspection Zazen, not something that one would expect a Soto teacher to herald, given our legendary leanings toward Silent Illumination and Shikantaza.
I long suspected that Rujing's advice to engage this Koan might, in fact, have been intended in a similar way to like advice which Soto founder in Japan, Master Keizan, gave in his own Zazen Yojinki (Points to be Aware of in Zazen; https://antaiji.org/en/classics/english-zazen-yojinki/). In that writing, after offering detailed instructions on "Just Sitting" Shikantaza in language tracking and expanding on Dogen's keystone Fukanzazengi, Keizan does recommend Koan work. However, Keizan does so simply as one of many possible special practices to try at those difficult times when one is especially tired, cloudy in mind, or when the monkey mind is running unusually wild. For example, Keizan writes:
Now it is a gross misunderstanding to assert, as some people do, that "Soto folks don't do Koans," or (even more of a mischaracterization) that "Soto folks only approach Koans in an intellectual fashion." Nothing(ness) could be farther from the Truth! (Pun intended!) Master Dogen's writings like Shobogenzo are wall-to-wall dances with classic Koan stories and other traditional Zen lore, and the same is true for Keizan and in Rujing's Goroku. Rujing's Record, in fact, largely consists of Rujing riffing on Koans and in Koan like style in pretty much the typical wild and rollicking way associated with Zen Masters of old. Far from an intellectual presentation, Dogen, Keizan and Rujing play, pounce and poeticize the Koans in their traditional yet creative expounding. We Soto folks DIG KOANS! However, that is a separate question from whether Soto progenitors like Rujing, Dogen and Keizan would recommend Introspection on a phrase from a Koan as their standard instruction for how to sit Zazen. Was Rujing's advice just a helpful measure for those particularly tired, confused or mind-running-away days, as it was in Keizan's instructions?If dullness or sleepiness overcome your sitting, move to the body and open the eyes wider, or place attention above the hairline or between your eyebrows. If you are still not fresh, rub the eyes or the body. If that still doesn’t wake you, stand up and walk, always clockwise. .... If you still don’t feel fresh after doing kinhin, wash your eyes and forehead with cold water. Or chant the “Three Pure Precepts of the Bodhisattvas”. Do something; don’t just fall asleep. ...
If the mind wanders, place attention at the tip of the nose and tanden and count the inhalations and exhalations. If that doesn’t stop the scattering, bring up a phrase and keep it in awareness – for example: “What is it that comes thus?” or “When no thought arises, where is affliction? – Mount Sumeru!” or “What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from the West? – The cypress in the garden.” Sayings like this that you can’t draw any flavour out of are suitable.
A clue that such is the case [pun intended!] is, first off, found in the fact that the passage in question is not located particularly prominently in Rujing's Record, but among a miscellaneous collection of sayings, coming right before a short talk to commemorate lighting the monastery furnace for the winter. More important, however, is the wording of Rujing's advice itself:
上堂。心念分飛。如何措手。趙州狗子佛性無。只箇無字鐵掃帚。掃處紛飛多。紛飛多處掃。轉掃轉多。掃不得處 拼命掃。晝夜豎起脊梁。勇猛切莫放倒。忽然掃破太虛空。萬別千差盡豁通。
I submitted the following translation by me to the great Dogenologist, historian and translator, Prof. Steven Heine, commenting that Rujing's words seem to present an expedient measure when the mind is particularly clouded:
Dr. Steve was kind enough to send me his version, which he said I can share here:Dharma Hall Discourse: When the mind is divided with thoughts flying away, what measures can we take (措手)? There’s Zhàozhōu’s little dog buddhanature mu. This one word mu [can be like] a broom made of iron. Sweep [with it] where so many confused (thoughts) are swirling around, so much confusion swirling so you sweep. Turn and sweep and turn repeatedly. Do your utmost to sweep even places one cannot reach. Day and night (sit) with your backbone always vertical and straight, boldly, don’t give up for any reason. [Then] all of a sudden, one will sweep right through to the great empty and open sky, as the 10,000 distinctions and 1,000 differences become thoroughly free flowing.
Lovely. The final line (which I render as "the 10,000 distinctions and 1,000 differences become thoroughly free flowing" and Dr. Heine has as "myriad differences and distinctions are fully revealed") is particularly telling. Upon encountering the open sky of boundless clarity, the differences and distinctions of this world need not vanish, but rather, become freely flowing, or clear and fully revealed. As Heine describes this in his wonderful book, "Like Cats and Dogs: Contesting the Mu Koan in Zen Buddhism" (p. 65), the final line suggests "that discursive thought is an avenue rather than an obstacle to realization." (https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=...%80%9A&f=false)上堂. Dharma Hall Sermon
心念分飛. 如何措手. When the mind is distracted, what can be done?
趙州狗子佛性無. Consider Zhaozhou's "mu" in response to the question of whether a dog has Buddha-nature.
只箇無字鐵掃帚. Just sweep with the word mu used as an iron broom.
掃處紛飛多. 紛飛多處掃. Sweep away distracted thoughts everywhere, so that distracted thoughts are no longer anywhere.
轉掃轉多. Sweeping again and again causes many transformations.
掃不得處拼命掃. Sweep with all your might, even in places that are hard to reach.
晝夜豎起脊梁. Keep doing this while being upright day and night.
勇猛切莫放倒. Sweep relentlessly without letting up.
忽然掃破太虛空. 萬別千差盡豁通. All of a sudden, sweeping breaks through to empty space, and myriad differences and distinctions are fully revealed.
It is not so common these days for Soto teachers to recommend taking up a Koan at those especially hard times when the mind is particularly stormy. It is much more common to hear recommendations to return to following or counting the breath, or to focus on the posture. I have sometimes recommended some calming and centering mantra to students who were particularly upset and confused after a tremendously tragic personal loss. Keizan, as quoted above, recommended all such measures. It is sometimes a needed expedient means until the mind settles, and one can return to simply Just Sitting. Of course, Shikantaza is a powerful practicing of simply allowing in equanimity. However, it seems clear that teachers, both old and modern, have known that, sometimes, some days, we all might need a little extra device to help sweep the mind clear of its swirling storms of dusts.
Gassho, J
STLah
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Originally Posted by Inshin
