Attendant Kuò Passes Tea: Let It All Rest
Record of Going Easy, Case 14 In Brief
With this post, we begin the cycle again. First, I’ll offer my translation of an old case and some brief comments with background on Déshan and then highlight one of the main issues in the case. Wànsōng expresses that main issue in his introduction:
“Using the hard against the soft is one thing,
but how is it when meeting the strong with the weak?”
Next, I’ll post an interview with another Zen teacher, in this case, my old friend Daniel Tarragno Rōshi. Finally, I’ll share my translation of the full case with commentaries, verse, and capping phrases.
Our focus in this cycle is Record of Going Easy, Case 14: “Attendant Kuò Passes Tea.” Here’s my translation of the main case:
舉
Attendant Kuò asked Déshān, “Where have all the ancestral teachers gone?”
Déshan said, “How’s that? What?”
Kuò said, “The imperial orders were for a flying dragon, but out comes a lame turtle.”
Déshan let it rest. The next day, Déshan came from the bath and Kuò passed him tea. All of a sudden, Déshan gently patted Kuò’s back.
Kuò said, “This old man has finally had a glimpse.”
Déshan let it rest.
Background
Déshan lived from 782-865 and was a leading member of the unsurpassed eleventh-generation of Zen masters in China (including, for example, Dòngshān, Iron Grindstone Liú, Jùzhī, Línjì, Mùzhōu, Shíshuāng, Tóuzǐ, and Yǎngshān). Among that esteemed group of peers, Déshan is unusual in that the many kōans in the main collections in which he appears give us a sense of his development—both as a student and as a teacher. He’s also unusual in that both his teacher and his students made comments about his development, specifically about whether he really knew the last word of Zen or not.
As a young practitioner, Déshan was deeply impacted by The Diamond Sutra and even seems to have written a commentary on it. When he heard about the Zen heretics in the south who taught that “this mind is Buddha,” he said,
“Those who leave home may study the great meaning of Buddhism for a thousand kalpas and spend a further ten thousand kalpas performing detailed Buddhist practice, yet they still won’t become a Buddha. How dare those southern devils say that just by pointing at the human mind one can see self-nature and attain buddhahood? I’ll go drag them from their caves and exterminate their ilk, and thus repay the kindness of Buddha!”
He then packed up his commentary into a little cart and went to confront them. After walking several hundred miles in straw sandals while pulling his little cart, though, he seems to have mellowed a bit.
Wúmén tells the next part of the story here:
“On the journey, Déshan reached Lǐzhōu and asked an old woman if he could purchase dimsum (literally, that which “points to the mind”). The grandmother said, ‘Great virtue, what text are you pulling in your little vehicle?’
“Déshān said, ‘A commentary on The Diamond Sutra.’
“The grandmother said, ‘In that sutra it says, “past mind cannot be grasped, present mind cannot be grasped, future mind cannot be grasped.” Great virtue, what is the essential point of the one mind?’
“Déshān was smothered by this single question and his mouth hung open like a tablet under the eaves. Even though it’s like this, he was still unwilling to face down the old woman’s words and die. Finally, he asked the old woman, ‘Is there an ancestral teacher nearby?’”
Wànsōng’s comment about Attendant Kuò asking “Where have all the ancestral teachers gone?” applies to Déshan at this point in his development:
“He very much seems to be missing what’s passing through right in his presence.”
I.e., Déshan misses that there was an ancestral teacher right before him—the old woman. But she didn’t blink and gave him a referral to her master—Lóngtán in the Shítou succession. And when Déshan met Lóngtán he was really ready to meet. He must have thoroughly digested that dimsum! As the story continues,
“Déshān continued to ask Lóngtán about the dharma late into the night. Finally, Lóngtán said, ‘Dark night! Why not withdraw?’
“Déshān said, ‘Please treasure yourself,’ then opened the curtain to go out. Seeing the darkness outside, he turned back and said, ‘It’s dark outside.’
“Thereupon, Lóngtán lit a paper candle and passed it to Déshān. As Déshān anticipated receiving it, Lóngtán blew it out. Déshān suddenly understood and bowed.”
Déshan then redirected his passion and burned up his commentaries, i.e., lit up the mind. He then stomped through many of the zendos of the land, shouting “Mu” (“there is nothing”). And when he became a teacher, he would often invite practitioners to come forward to engage with him by saying, “If you say a word, 30 blows. If you don’t say a word, 30 blows!”
Quite the invitation, eh?! Nevertheless …
… one time a monk came forward and bowed. Déshan struck him.
The monk said, “I just bowed. Why did you hit me?”
Déshan said, “What use would it be to wait until you opened your mouth?”
The upcoming interview on this case will be “So Much Spaciousness–Everything is Possible: An Interview with Daniel Terragno Rōshi.” Terragno Rōshi, a successor of John Tarrant Rōshi and a teacher with the Diamond Sangha, is the founder of Rocks and Clouds Zendo in Sebastopol, CA.
Daniel summarizes “Attendant Kuò Passes Tea” as follows:
“As a young man, Déshān was loud and forceful and liked to beat people up and scream. Here [in this case] he is an older man […]. I think that Déshān has grown. He was so arrogant—as we see him with the tea lady, and the tea lady transformed him, and then he ends up with Lóngtán. It seems to me that [in this case] Déshān was just being—he didn’t do anything. No, he didn’t want to interfere with [Attendant Kuò] too much. Somehow he could just relax and not push him. Aitken Rōshi said, ‘Déshān shows him where all the Buddhas and Ancestors live.’”
Tetsugan Sensei and I recently wrote about Déshan’s death here:
Is There Someone Who Does Not Get Sick?
Now, let’s return to the main issue: “Using the hard against the soft is one thing, but how is it when meeting the strong with the weak?”
How do you relate?
The Shurangama Sutra taught that apprehension of darkness arises from darkness, apprehension of light comes from a light source. When darkness and light are gone so is the apprehension of them. Yet that which does not cease with objects is surely yourself.
Longtan blowing out the candle points to this in a practical way too. Deshan recognised the distinction between that which comes and goes, as well as that which stays in an instant.