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長慶大安 Changqing Da'an, aka 溈山大安 Guishan Da'an (793-883)
懶安 Lan'an, or "Lazy An"
(Rōmaji:) Chōkei Daian, aka Isan Daian; Ranan
GUISHAN DA’AN, “CHANGQING DA’AN,” “LAZY AN”
by Andy Ferguson
In: Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings, Wisdom Publications, pp. 140-142.
GUISHAN DA’AN (793–883) was a disciple of Baizhang. He grew up and taught in ancient Fuzhou (in modern Fujian Province). At the age of twenty, he went to Mt. Huangbo in Jiangxi and studied the Vinaya. Later he declared, “Despite my hard efforts I still haven’t encountered the principle of the great mystery.” He thereafter set off in search of the truth. On the advice of an old man he met on the road, he traveled to Nanchang City in Jiangxi and began study under Baizhang Huaihai.
When Da’an met Baizhang, he bowed and asked, “This student seeks to know Buddha. How can I do so?”
Baizhang said, “It’s like riding the ox looking for the ox.”
Da’an said, “After finding it, then what?”
Baizhang said, “It’s like riding the ox and arriving home.”
Da’an then asked, “How does one ultimately uphold and sustain this?”
Baizhang said, “It’s like an oxherd who, grasping his staff, watches the ox so that he doesn’t transgress by eating other people’s sprouts and grain.”
Upon receiving this instruction Changqing sought nothing further.
Da’an was a Dharma brother of Guishan Lingyou, who had established a temple on Mt. Gui. When Guishan died, Da’an was invited to assume the abbacy there.
Guishan Da’an addressed the monks, saying, “What are you all seeking from me by coming here? If you want to become a buddha, then you should know that you yourself are Buddha. Why are you running around from place to place, like a thirsty deer chasing a mirage? When will you ever succeed?
“You want to be a buddha, but you won’t recognize that your topsy-turvy contradictory ideas; your deluded understandings; your mind [which believes in] innumerable beings, purity and pollution; that it is just this mind that is the authentic original awakened mind of Buddha. Where else will you go to find it?
“I’ve spent the last thirty years here on Mt. Gui, eating Guishan’s rice, shitting Guishan’s shit, but not practicing Guishan’s Zen! I just mind an old water buffalo. If he wanders off the road into the grass then I pull him back by his nose ring. If he eats someone else’s rice shoots then I use the whip to move him away. After such a long training period he’s become very lovable, and he obeys my words. Now he pulls the Great Vehicle, always staying where I can see him the whole day through, and he can’t be driven away.
“Each one of you has a priceless treasure. There is light emanating from your eyes which illuminates mountains, rivers, and the great earth. There is light radiating from your ears which apprehends all good and evil sounds. The six senses—day and night they emanate light and this is called the ‘light emanating samadhi.’ You yourself can’t comprehend it, but it is reflected in the four great bodies.89 It is completely supported within and without, and never unbalanced. It’s like someone with a heavy load on his back, crossing a bridge made from a single tree trunk, but never losing his step. And now if you ask what is it that provides this support and where it is revealed, then I just say that not a single hair of it can be seen. No wonder the monk Zhigong90 said, ‘Searching inside and out you’ll find nothing. Actions in the causational realm are a big muddle.’
“Take care!”
A monk asked, “All actions are the function of the dharmakaya. What is the dharmakaya?”
Da’an said, “All actions are the function of the dharmakaya.”
A monk asked, “Apart from the five skandhas, what is the original body?”
Da’an said, “Earth, water, fire, wind [the four elements of form], sensation, perception, mental action, and consciousness.”
The monk said, “Aren’t these the five skandhas?”
Da’an said, “They are not the five skandhas.”
Xuefeng came to Mt. Gui. While living there he found an unusual stick shaped like a snake. On the back of it he wrote, “This is natural and was not carved.”
Xuefeng gave the stick to Da’an, who said, “Inhabitants of this mountain have no ax with which to carve it.”
A monk asked Da’an, “Where is Buddha?”
Da’an said, “Not apart from mind.”
The monk said, “Then what were the attainments of the ancestors on Twin Peaks?”
Da’an said, “In the Dharma there is nothing attained. If there is anything to be attained, it is that nothing is attained.”
A monk asked, “Where will you flee to if Huang Chao’s troops come?”91
Da’an said, “Inside Skandhas Mountain.”
The monk said, “When they suddenly grab you, then what?”
Da’an said, “Commander Distress.”
Da’an taught in Fuzhou. He later returned to Mt. Huangbo and died there. His stupa was constructed on Mt. Lanka and he received the posthumous title “Zen Master Perfect Wisdom.”
