One night Tokusan went to Ryutan to ask for his teaching. After Tokusan’s many questions, Ryutan said to Tokusan at last, “It is late. Why don’t you retire?” So Tokusan bowed, lifted the screen and was ready to go out, observing, “It is very dark outside.” Ryutan lit a candle and offered it to Tokusan. Just as Tokusan received it, Ryutan blew it out. At that moment the mind of Tokusan was opened. “What have you realized?” asked Ryutan to Tokusan, who replied, “From now on I will not doubt what you have said.”
The next day Ryutan ascended the rostrum and declared to the monks, “Among you there is one monk whose teeth are like the sword tree, his mouth is like the blood bowl. Strike him with a stick, he won’t turn his head to look at you. Some day he will climb the highest peaks and carry out my teaching there.”
On that day, in front of the lecture hall, Tokusan burned to ashes his commentaries on the sutras and declared, “In comparison to this awareness, all the most profound teachings are like a single hair in vast space. However deep the complicated knowledge of the world, compared to this enlightenment it is like one drop of water in the ocean.” Then he left the monastery.
Mumon’s Comment:
Before Tokusan passed through the barrier, his mind was eager, his mouth was anxious, with a purpose in his mind, he went south, to refute the doctrine of “A special transmission outside the sutras.” When he got on the road to Reishu (near Ryutan’s monastery) he asked an old woman to let him have something to “point his mind” (literally a snack, then something to put the mind at ease at the same time).The old woman asked Tokusan, “What is all that writing you are carrying?” Tokusan replied, “That’s the manuscript of my notes and commentary on the Diamond Sutra.” Then the old woman said, “That Sutra says, the past mind cannot be held, the present mind cannot be held, the future mind cannot be held. All of them are but unreal and illusory. You wish to have some refreshments. Well then, with which of your minds do you want to have the refreshments?” Tokusan found himself quite dumb. Finally he asked the woman, “Do you know of any Zen master around here?” “About five li away lives Ryutan,” said she. Tokusan arrived at Ryutan’s monastery with all humility, quite different from when he had started his journey. Ryutan in turn was so kind he forgot his own dignity. It was like pouring muddy water over a drunken man to sober him. After all, it was an unnecessary comedy.
Rather than hearing the name, seeing the face is better,
Rather than seeing the face, hearing the name is better.
But how much you help the nostrils,
Look what you have done to the eyes!
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