Dìzàng Planting the Fields: Following the Flow, Realizing Wonder
Record of Going Easy, Case 12 in Full
Given my working-class background, I’ve long appreciated the way this kōan embraces manual labor as a dharma practice. As a kid, I spent many a long, hot summer day at my family’s northern Minnesota home (nine of us in a four bedroom house) working in the large gardens—growing potatoes, corn, and other stables—that provided a major source of nutrition for us.
When we complained about the work, my mom would ask, “Do you want to eat this winter?”
In addition, the commentary for this kōan offers a Zen hero much like the illiterate Sixth Ancestor. At the time Dìzàng was discovered by the elite monks appearing in the kōan and commentary—Xiūshān Zhǔ, Fǎyǎn, Wùkōng, and Jìnshān Zhǔ—he was a rugged country monk, living in a temple that the elite monks thought had been abandoned. When Dìzàng shows himself, Xiūshān compares him to an unpopular rodent, saying, “Does a rat’s mouth have ivory tusks?”
Many others through the centuries have also found great inspiration from the collection of Zen stories offered in this case. For example, the great Zen ancestor Keizan cites the kōan from this main case and the first supplemental case from the commentary in his retelling of Shakyamuni Buddha’s journey in The Record of Illumination (Denkoroku).
Above, you’ll find my reading of The Record of Going Easy, Case 12 , without annotations (thanks go to Martin Kaku’on for editing the recording). You’ll find annotations below in the text version of the full case, explaining the terms that are in need of explaining and identify the various Zen masters.
If this is your first time here for a full case, and as a reminder to those of you who are making a return visit, the kōan cases in The Record of Going Easy were compiled by the renowned Hóngzhì Zhēngjué (1091-1157; referred to as Tiāntóng in this text) who also wrote a verse for each kōan. The introduction, commentaries, and capping phrases were written by Wànsōng Xíngxiù (1166–1246). Both were great teachers in the Cáodòng/Sōtō lineage of Chán/Zen. Below, the capping phrases are italicized.
In case you missed either my interview about this case with Charlie Korin Pokorny or Case 12 in brief, you can find them below.
Dìzàng Planting the Fields: How Do You Pass Your Days?
With The Record of Going Easy, Case 12: Dìzàng Planting the Fields, we all might sink in the muck together. Wànsōng, you see, ends his introduction to the kōan with a question that tempts us to do just that: “How do you pass your days?”
Record of Going Easy, Case 12: Dìzàng Planting the Fields
Presenting to the assembly, saying:
An able scholar plows with their brush. An eloquent person plows with their tongue. Our patched-robe monk family takes it easy, looking after a white ox in the open fields without paying heed to rootless, auspicious grasses. How do you pass your days?
舉
Dìzàng asked master Xiūshān Zhǔ, “Where are you coming from?”
What place does not knowing come from?
Xiūshān said, “Coming from the south.”
It would be proper to join the unpacking.
Dìzàng said, “How is the buddhadharma doing in the south these days?”
A good word about practice and discourse?
Xiūshān said, “Discussed extensively.”
Lower your voice.
Dìzàng said, “How does that compare to us farming and eating lots of rice?”
Stop showing off.
Xiūshān said, “How can one help the three worlds?”
Yet there is this one place to be.
Dìzàng said, “What do you call the three worlds?”
The south is getting some sun, but the north is getting parched.
The teacher [Wànsōng] said,
Zen Master Guìchēn lived in Luóhàn temple in Zhāngzhōu. A high government official from Zhāngzhōu in the Rock Mountains, west of Mǐn city, established Dìzàng temple and then asked the teacher to live there. After a while, he moved to Luóhàn in Zhāngzhōu.1 For this reason, he is also known as Dìzàng.
Xiūshān Zhǔ, Fǎyǎn, Wùkōng, and Jìnshān Zhǔ were bound together as friends and traveled beyond the lakes.2 Arriving in Zhāngzhōu, their further progress west of the city was blocked by rain, snow, and rising creeks. So they stopped at Dìzàng temple and gathered around a brazier, checking out the place. It seemed uninhabited.
At first, Dìzàng had concealed himself in order to check them out but then drew near the fire and said, “There’s something on my mind that I’d like to ask about if I may, no?”
Xiūshān said, “If there’s something on your mind, go ahead and ask about it.”
Dìzàng said, “Mountains, rivers, the great earth, and you esteemed practitioners - are they the same or different?”
Xiūshān said, “Different.”
Dìzàng raised two fingers. Xiūshān hurriedly said, “Same! Same!”
Again, Dìzàng raised two fingers, then got up and left.
Fǎyǎn asked, “The temple master raised both fingers - what was his meaning?”
Xiūshān said, “Just making trouble.”
Fǎyǎn said, “Don’t give way to coarse thought and belittle him.”
Xiūshān said, “Does a rat’s mouth have ivory tusks?”
The next day, the group took their leave. When they arrived at the place for their first night’s lodging, Fǎyǎn said, “Elder brothers, please go ahead. I felt accord with Dìzàng. Maybe he has some strong points.” So he did not continue with them on their search.
Fǎyǎn had already been practicing with Dìzàng for a long time before Xiūshān, Wùkōng, and Jìnshān Zhǔ all returned to practice with Dìzàng. After Xiūshān returned, Dìzàng asked him, “How is the buddhadharma doing in the south these days?”
At that time, Xiūshān should have said, “Concerning the Way, in every direction, it’s always the same day.”
Instead, Xiūshān said, “Discussed extensively.”
He doesn’t even know how to collect himself and get out of a predicament.
Dìzàng said, “How does that compare to us farming and eating plenty of rice?”
At that time, it would have been fitting for Xiūshān to say, “In this way, then, it’s not just the south [where it’s discussed extensively]!”
But Xiūshān said, “How can one help the three worlds?”
Dragging Zen guests from the south into his trouble, clearly, his worldliness has not been cleared. Because of Dìzàng’s compassion, he fell into the grass for a talk, saying “What do you call the three worlds?”
It’d be better just to say, “I’m really busy all the time with farming.”
Here’s how Tiāntóng avoids being listed on the same indictment:
Verse
Mediocre common knowledge is forcefully exhausted.
Today there is no need for skillful means.
Transmission from mouth to ear dissipates skillful means.
No one in the sangha is strange.
Planting fields, cooking rice - the matter of everyday life.
It doesn’t exist apart.
Not eating until full, you don’t know.
It’s important to do what?
Only if you’ve eaten until full do you fully know that there’s nothing to seek.
Still you must ask Tiantong one more time.
In the end, Zǐfáng was indifferent to being made a marquis.
Exactly a sacred tortoise dragging its tail.
Free from worldly concerns, he returned the same as fish and birds.
Following the flow, realizing wonder.
Washing his feet in the misty Cānglàng autumn.
The enjoyment is inexhaustible.
The teacher [Wànsōng] said,
Qīngliáng said, “Realization itself comes naturally through cultivating conduct (J. shugyō).3 Expounding thoroughly reveals it for those who haven’t attained satori.”
Originally, this comes from the Laṅkâvatāra Sūtra where the Buddha says to Mahāmati,
There are two ways of characterizing realization.4 When one attains realization itself, it is due to cutting off the delusive conceptualizations of verbal and written expression. One is destined for the untainted realm, revealed by luminous, radiant light (J. kōmyō). This is called attaining realization itself.
What characterizes expounding thoroughly? It is expressed through the nine divisions of the various doctrines.5 One must part ways from the characteristics of nondifference, existence and nonexistence, and use clever expedient means, expounding the dharma in accord [with the capacity of the listener]. This is called expounding thoroughly.”
Those who follow after explanations say,
The teaching of expounding thoroughly shines like the sun on a cloudy day. Explanations of realization itself obstruct like a snake entering a bamboo tube. Realization itself together with expounding thoroughly is like the sun in the vast, clear sky. When neither realization nor explanation is thorough, it is like a dog barking in a thicket of reeds.
Since realization and explanation have been distinguished, there is already a fork in the road. How can Zen be divided into five lineages and the teachings arranged in three vehicles? Although not a single one is established, yet they each have integrity. Besides passing through someone else’s mouth and into your ear, ask for more instruction by raising a verse yourself.
The entangling vine’s creepers extend all the way to Korea. Gǒngxiàn’s tea pots provide an unending supply of hot water. It’s not only the south that has extensive discussion. There are those here who can say “fire” without burning their mouths, and who can argue in debates like a waterfall, but don’t say a single word.
Even though you farm and eat lots of rice, unless you eat until you’re thoroughly satisfied, you won’t know the true meaning. The ancients lived on the edge, deep in the mountains and cooked millet and rice in broken-down frying pans. Their only wealth was their contentment. For their whole lives, they did not seek from others. Their only nobility was quiet leisure. They had no need to struggle for symbols.
Therefore the verse says, “Only if you’ve eaten until full, do you fully know that there’s nothing to seek/In the end, Zǐfáng was indifferent to being made a marquis.”
In the Records of the Grand Historian, it says that in the sixth year of the Hàn Dynasty, Minister Zǐfáng was recognized as for outstanding service.6 Although there were some who said that Zǐfáng didn’t really do much in the fighting, Emperor Gāo said, “Zǐfáng was in his tent devising battle plans and was able to achieve victories a thousand miles away. That was his achievement!”
The Emperor then told Zǐfáng to select 30,000 households from Qí. Zǐfáng said, “I started out as a court official in Pī and was promoted to a position in Liú, according to the wishes of Heaven conferred by Your Majesty. I can’t count the many blessings I’ve received and wish just to be granted Liú. I dare not receive 30,000 households.”
This verse does not open a lecture hall and offer instruction for the practice of dharma as in the South. In the classic song, “Encountering Sorrow,” the old fisherman says, “The waters of Cānglàng are clear and quiet, so I can wash my tassel. The waters of Cānglàng are murky and roiled, so I wash my feet.”
This is the monk and the crane getting along fine; the fish and birds swimming together. Yet say, who is this board-carrying person of original color?
Dizang (867-928, aka, Luohan Guichen), a fourteenth-generation successor in the Xuansha branch of the Xuefeng lineage.
Xuishan Zhu (d. 954, aka, Longji Shaoxiu), Fayan Wenyi (885-958), Wukong (d. 943), and Jinshan Zhu (d, 954) became fifteenth-generation successors in China in the Xuansha branch of the Xuefeng lineage through Dizang.
Qingliang is another name for Fayan Wenyi who is referenced above.
Lankavatara Sutra, DDB, “According to the Laṅkâvatāra Sūtra there are two ways of characterizing the realization attained by all śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas: the realization itself and the teaching about it.” This extensive discussion contrasts Dizang’s one-doing (realization in action) with the extensive discussion in the south and as such, is much more koan commentary than verse commentary.
nine divisions of the various doctrines, The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism: “[...] discourses (SŪTRA), aphorisms in mixed prose and verse (GEYA), prophetic teachings or expositions (VYĀKARAṆA), verses (GĀTHĀ), utterance or meaningful expressions (UDĀNA), fables (ITIVṚTTAKA), tales of previous lives (JĀTAKA), marvelous events (ADBHUTADHARMA), and catechisms or works of great extent (VAIPULYA).”
Zifeng, CKJV: “Zhang Liang (?–187 BCE), familiar name Zifang. The master strategist for Liu Bang. Came from a family that served the Warring States kingdom Han as chief ministers. Allegedly received the strategies of Taigong from a mysterious old man who said Liang would see him 13 years later as a yellow stone. Joined Liu Bangʼs staff in 206 BCE. Made numerous strategic advice for Bang in defeating Xiang Yu including the use of general Han Xin. After unification of China by Bang, he was enfeoffed as Marquis of Liu. Became one of the most revered strategists in Chinese history along with Zhuge Liang.”