An Invitation for the Ancestor to go to East India

Record of Going Easy, Case 3, in Brief

Photo by Rijin Raj

I’m going to jump right in and share the kōan and brief commentary for the case at hand. If you want an explanation of what’s going on here, see “The Shake Out Your Sleeves And Go three-step and more” way below.

舉

The king of East India invited the twenty-seventh ancestor, Prajñātāra, to a meal. The king asked, “Why don’t you read the sutras?”

The ancestor said, “When inhaling, this poor person of the Way does not rest in the realm of the aggregates, when exhaling does not get involved in the myriad conditions; thus always turning millions and millions of sutra scrolls.”

“[…] Thus always turning millions and millions of sutra scrolls,” is like the video posted above - a recent sunrise over Gichi-gami (aka, Lake Superior). The breath sutra is always rolling, rolling, rolling.

In The Record of Going Easy, Case 2: “Bodhidharma’s ‘Just Clarity,” we came face-to-face with Bodhidharma, the first ancestor in China. Now, in Case 3, we meet Bodhidharma’s teacher, Prajñātāra, back in the old country.

The key issue in this kōan is this: if you’re truly just rolling in the aggregates (form, feeling, perception, formation, consciousness) like the great ancestor, Prajñātāra, and intimate with the ten-thousand dharmas, why not read the sutras from time-to-time?

In other words, if we’re already perfect and complete, lacking nothing, why not do some practice?

Wànsōng’s biting assessment of Prajñātāra is this:

They only knew that their iron spine supported the heavens.
They did not know that their forehead touched the earth.

“They” is particularly fitting here because some scholars think that Prajñātāra may have been a woman. That would make her the only woman in the continuing ancestral line until recently. Male, female, or nonbinary, Wànsōng’s point is that their comment, “not resting in the realm of the aggregates,” is a bit hoity-toity.

Even “poor person of the Way” is a bit much. If you’re really a poor person of the Way, you wouldn’t notice that you’re poor. Or that you’re “of the Way.” Come on!

Wànsōng does not question that Prajñātāra has realized great awakening, that “their iron spine supported the heavens,” but where’s the humility (why don’t they “know that their forehead touched the earth”)?

Tiāntóng’s Verse

A cloud rhinoceros plays with the moon’s luster, sucking in the shine.
A wooden horse plays in spring, an unbridled noble steed.
Beneath the eyebrows, a pair of cold blue eyes.
How can reading sutras penetrate oxhide?
The luminous mind awakens innumerable kalpas.
Heroic power destroys the double enclosure.
Marvelous function turns wondrous, perfect, pivotal words.
Hánshān forgot the road he came in on.
Together, Shídé brought him back, hand-in-hand.

Before you have that delightful feeling of having penetrated Tiāntóng’s meaning, the first seven lines might take some reflection. But there aren’t any technical terms that you would need to have unpacked, so I’ll leave that to you. If you get stumped, though, I welcome questions below in the comment section. I’ll do my best not to do your work for you.

In the last two lines we meet two semi-mythical figures, Hánshān and Shídé, who were great dharma friends from the Tang Dynasty, although their exact dates are unknown and evidence points to a wide range of possibilities. They often shared a hermitage together and would visit a nearby monastery for scraps of food. Their wild, iconoclastic behavior came to be typical of the Zen narrative.

At one point, Hánshān went deep in to Cold Mountain (i.e., “Hánshān” in Chinese) and remained for ten years, forgetting the path out. Shídé found him, took his hand, and escorted him down the mountain.

Wànsōng offers the following poem by Hánshān in his commentary, a poem that is still well-known today in both Chinese and English:

If you wish to be at rest in body and mind,
Hánshān can maintain you for a long time.
The breeze blows through the secluded pines.
The closer you get, the better they sound.
Below the pines there is a person with nothing at all.
Chattering, chattering, reading Daoism aloud.
After ten years without returning.
I’ve forgotten the path by which I came.

See The Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan, translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt, for their version (the above is my translation) and much more.

So here we have a kōan with Prajñātāra breathing in and out, and Tiāntóng’s verse throws Hánshān and Shídé under the bus. What’s the connection? What is Tiāntóng’s subtle meaning?

Next week, I’ll post "There's Nothing To Get Rid Of: A Conversation with Melissa Myozen Blacker Roshi” where we have a hoot talking about this case. The following week, I’ll offer you the full case and commentary.

Thank you for breathing.

---

Meanwhile at Vine of Obstacles Zen:

Why is the Long, Last Moment So Important?

---

The Shake Out Your Sleeves And Go three-step and more:

I’m offering each case of the teaching of Wànsōng and Tiāntóng in The Record of Empty Hall to you here in three steps. First, I’ll share the main case (aka, kōan) and Tiāntóng’s Verse with some brief comments in order to highlight the case and verse. This post represents the first step for Case 3.

Second, I’ll offer an interview with another Zen teacher where we talk about kōan work generally, and the case-at-hand specifically. For this case, I zoomed with Melissa Myozen Blacker Roshi and will post that on Wednesday, July 30, 2025. Teshin Sweger Roshi is up next in August.

Third, I’ll offer the full case, that is, with Wànsōng’s introduction, commentaries, and capping phrases, including the kōan and verse, of course. I also include annotations to explain key phrases and figures. I’ll post that on Wednesday, August 6th, 2025.

I’m fully to blame for all the translations.

For now, at least, all Shake Out Your Sleeves And Go posts and podcasts are free and open to all. Subscribers get email notifications for new posts (usually on Wednesdays). I appreciate your subscription - I then know you’re interested. You are welcome to comment and/or ask a question. I’d like this to be an active place for playing with kōan mud balls.

If you’d like to express your support for Tetsugan Sensei and my work with a monthly contribution, you will then receive an invitation to Sunday Practice Sessions, One-Day Retreats, etc. Simply become a subscriber at our Vine of Obstacles Zen Ghost site.

Thank you.