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Introduction<\/h3>\n
When I was translating The Record of Empty Hall<\/em> and working on the commentary, a respectable scholar sent me a copy of Xutang\u2019s preface for Dogen\u2019s Eihei Goroku<\/em>, that is, the abridged record of Dogen. The text was mostly the mix of Chinese characters and Japanese syllabaries and quite over my head. Fortunately, I persisted.<\/p>\n For many reasons, Xutang (1185-1269; English, Empty Hall) is an enormously important teacher in the 13th Century Linji lineage Chan, not the least of which is that he had several Japanese successors, one of whom, Nanpo Shomyo (1235-1309), is a key link in the ongoing succession of the Linji lineage (Japanese, Rinzai) in Japan and now into the global dharma<\/a> world.<\/p>\n The brilliant Hakuin (1686-1769) was enormously fond of Xutang and it was due to his strong recommendations for students of Zen to become deeply familiar with Xutang\u2019s teaching that I took up the project of translating and commenting on The Record of Empty Hall <\/em>(Japanese, Kido Roku). I\u2019d found a story of the meeting of Xutang and Rujing, Dogen\u2019s teacher in\u00a0Complete Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn: The Zen Records of Hakuin Ekaku\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/a>(see below for that) and found it inspiring that these two seminal figures actually met. I wondered if in Xutang\u2019s preface for Dogen\u2019s Record<\/em>\u00a0there were any clues that the two of them might have met as well.<\/p>\n Spoiler Alert:<\/strong> ah, well, a little.<\/p>\n Then recently, I became acquainted with a wonderful Bukkokuji monk,\u00a0Kogen\u00a0Czarnik Osho, who is fluent in Japanese. Eventually, a little light went on and I began pestering him and pestering him until he relented and translated Xutang\u2019s preface, which I refer to in the title of this post as \u201cXutang\u2019s blurb\u201d due to it\u2019s brevity, as you\u2019ll see below. And then I hammered him with objections to petty details and minor quibbles until he double, triple relented.<\/p>\n So here it is:<\/p>\n Venerable Giin* brought Japanese Dogen Osho\u2019s Eihei compilation. Looking at this composition, it is profound, and not corrupted by words. His sayings capture Tiantong Rujing Osho\u2019s doctrine of no transmission.** Moreover, this old monk\u2019s daily expressions are all sounds of jewels, standing out and exceptional. Taking this and looking at it, old Dogen\u2019s function surpassed his teacher. Those who will take up these records will follow the change of Lu.***<\/span><\/p>\n Great Song, 1265, Spring, March<\/span><\/p>\n By decree, written by performing abbot of\u00a0Jingguo Jingcisi, Xutang Zhiyu<\/span><\/p>\n * Kangan Giin (1217-1300) seems to have begun his Zen training with the Dharumashu and moved to Dogen\u2019s Koshoji, near Kyoto, and then followed Dogen into the mountains and Eiheiji. He appears to have received transmission from Dogen\u2019s primary successor, Koun Ejo, and then more than a decade after Dogen\u2019s death, took the Eihei koroku<\/em> to China so that it could be abridged and sanctioned by another successor of Rujing,\u00a0Wuwai Yiyuan. Upon his return from China, Giin established himself on Kyushu and is regarded as the founder of the Higo Branch of Soto Zen. Click here<\/a> for more. See Did Dogen Drop and When<\/a>\u00a0for more about Giin\u2019s trip to China, including the definitive confirmation of Dogen\u2019s awakening experience.<\/p>\n ** According to the notes, the phrase \u201cno transmission\u201d is shorthand for \u201cnot depending on words or letters, special transmission outside scriptures\u201d from the verse attributed to Bodhidharma, because the first and last characters are the same. <\/span><\/p>\n *** Also according to notes, the phrase \u201cfollow the change of Lu\u201d is a reference to a saying, probably by Confucius, referring to old kingdoms during the Spring and Autumn Period in China: \u201cIf kingdom Qi would change, it would become like kingdom Lu. If kingdom Lu would change, it would become the Way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Xutang holds nothing back in his praise for Dogen. He equates the transmission from Rujing to Dogen with Bodhidharma\u2019s transmission of no transmission, clearly going beyond lineage affiliation. It seems that for Xutang, like Dogen, the point wasn\u2019t about lineage, but about the buddhadharma. Period. Full stop.<\/p>\n Xutang says that Dogen\u2019s activities of body, speech, and mind are like the jingling of jewels. Now how would Xutang have heard those jewels jingling unless he and Dogen had met? But that\u2019s pretty speculative, so I\u2019ll leave that for you to access.<\/p>\n Xutang also says that the Japanese Dogen went beyond the Chinese Rujing. How\u2019s that for going beyond ethnicity? And also that if a person takes up Dogen\u2019s Record<\/em> that they will change into the Way, like a dragon that changes at the skeletal level.<\/p>\n That\u2019s one helluva blurb and one helluva promise for a book.<\/p>\n What Xutang doesn\u2019t include is any note about how this guy Dogen was inventing some new Zen school that involved a hostility to zazen-samadhi-koan as well as awakening and instead emphasized a new practice, never heard of before from any of the greatest teachers in Great Song China \u2013 shikantaza.<\/p>\n Xutang recognizes Dogen as a peer, as a Zen master, as an awakening being.<\/p>\n Below you\u2019ll find the excerpt from The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans<\/em><\/a>, p. 6-8, that connects the dots between Xutang and Rujing, Dogen\u2019s teacher:<\/p>\n After his enlightenment and acknowledgment as a dharma heir of Yun\u2019an, a twenty-seventh generation successor in China, Xutang went traveling to further refine his awakening. One stop along the way was at Tiantong Rujing\u2019s place. Rujing (1162\u20131228), the teacher of Eihei Dogen (1200\u20131253), became the last ancestor in the Caodong lineage, which became the Japanese Soto lineage that continues to this day in Japan and in other countries. In the same way, Xutang, teacher of the Japanese monk Daio Kokushi, turned out to be the last Chinese ancestor in what became the Japanese Rinzai lineage. Little did either know what a generative intersection their relationship would turn out to be.<\/p>\n The connections between Xutang and Dogen went beyond their mutual participation in parallel processes of international transmission between China and Japan. Toward the end of Xutang\u2019s life, he wrote a preface to the collected works of Dogen. Not only that, but a student of Dogen, Tetsu Gikai, may have been the person who introduced Daio to Xutang.<\/p>\n But back to Rujing. Twenty-three years Xutang\u2019s senior, the old buddha did not go easy on the youngster. Hakuin told the story like this:<\/p>\n When Zen master Xutang met Head Priest of Ch\u2019ing-tz\u2019u temple, Rujing said, \u201cYour parents\u2019 bodies are rotting away in a thicket of razor-sharp thorns. Did you know that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is wonderful,\u201d Xutang replied, \u201cbut it\u2019s not something to act rashly about.\u201d<\/p>\n Rujing gave Xutang a slap. Xutang extended his arms, saying, \u201cLet\u2019s take it slow and easy.\u201d<\/p>\n Rujing\u2019s challenge to the young Xutang was about his dharma ancestors\u2019 bodies, those hard-to-pass-through koans, that according to Rujing were lying rotting, unvivified by Xutang\u2019s ongoing practice. It was no small rebuke. Xutang\u2019s response reverberated with the saying of Yun\u2019an\u2019s that had previously so annoyed him: \u201cTake it easy, just remain mindless and unfettered by words.\u201d<\/p>\n Even Rujing\u2019s slap didn\u2019t cause him to turn his head. Hakuin commented on this encounter, saying,<\/p>\n The means employed by these two old veterans are exceedingly subtle and mysterious. Scrutinize them carefully and you will find that Rujing\u2019s question is as awesome as the great serpent that devours elephants whole and excretes their dry bones three years later. Xutang\u2019s reply has the vehement purpose of the evil P\u2019o-ching bird, which seeks to devour its mother as soon as it is born.<\/em><\/p>\n Setting aside snakes pooping out the remains of their thoroughly digested noble practice, and an unfilial student that eats its own teacher immediately after awakening, the question for us today is this: How can we get to the rotting bodies of our dharma ancestors so that we might thoroughly embody the truth of Zen before our parents were born?<\/p>\n And then give the corpses a decent burial.<\/p>\n \n<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Introduction When I was translating The Record of Empty Hall and working on the commentary, a respectable scholar sent me a copy of Xutang\u2019s preface for Dogen\u2019s Eihei Goroku, that is, the abridged record of Dogen. The text was mostly the mix of Chinese characters and Japanese syllabaries and quite over my head. Fortunately, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11,338,335,191,26,332],"class_list":["post-7597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dogen","tag-eihei-goroku","tag-eihei-koroku","tag-rinzai-zen","tag-soto-zen","tag-xutang"],"yoast_head":"\nXutang\u2019s Preface for Dogen\u2019s Eihei Goroku<\/em><\/h3>\n
A Few Explanations<\/h3>\n
A General Comment on Xutang\u2019s Preface<\/h3>\n
The Record of Empty Hall Excerpt<\/h3>\n
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D\u014dsh\u014d Port began practicing Zen in 1977 and now co-teaches with his wife, Tetsugan Zummach \u014csh\u014d, with the\u00a0Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for Zen Training<\/a>, an internet-based Zen community.\u00a0D\u014dsh\u014d received dharma transmission from Dainin Katagiri R\u014dshi and inka sh\u014dmei from James My\u014dun Ford R\u014dshi in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. D\u014dsh\u014d\u2019s translation and commentary on\u00a0The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans,<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is now available (Shambhala). He is also the author\u00a0of\u00a0Keep Me In Your Heart a While: The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri<\/i>.<\/p>\n