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長沙景岑 Changsha Jingcen (788-868), aka 虎和尚 Hu heshang
(Rōmaji:) Chōsha Keijin, aka Ku oshō
(English:) "Tiger Cen"
Changsha Jingcen, "Tiger Cen"
by Andy Ferguson
In: Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings, Wisdom Publications, pp.
149-153.
CHANGSHA JINGCEN (d. 868) was a disciple of Nanquan Puyuan. He had the nickname “Tiger Cen.” Although he is known to have lived in the city of Changsha at Lushan Temple, Jingcen roamed China expounding the Dharma according to the situations he encountered. He possessed an extremely pointed and aggressive style of instruction. Thus, after Jingcen literally climbed on top of Yangshan, he was widely likened to a tiger. The lamp records offer evidence of Jingcen’s incisive lectures.
Zen master Changsha Jingcen entered the hall and addressed the monks, saying, “If I give you some religious teaching, then there will be grass growing in the hall ten feet deep! But this is something that can’t be stopped. So I say to you that all worlds pervading the ten directions are the true monk’s eye. All worlds pervading the ten directions are the true monk’s complete body. Pervading all worlds in the ten directions is your own brilliant light. All worlds in the ten directions are within your own light. And throughout all worlds in the ten directions there is not a being that is not you. This is what I’ve taught you when I’ve said that all the buddhas, dharmas, and sentient beings of the three worlds are the great light of wisdom. But even before this light was propagated, what is the place where you existed? Before this light was propagated, before buddhas and before sentient beings, from where did the mountains, rivers, and the great earth come forth?”
A monk asked, “What is the true monk’s eye?”
Changsha said, “So vast and wide that you can’t leave it.”
Changsha also said, “Those who become buddhas or ancestors can’t leave it. The six realms of transmigration can’t leave it.”
The monk said, “I don’t undertand what it is that they can’t leave.”
Changsha said, “In the day, see the sun. In the night, see the stars.”
The monk said, “I don’t understand.”
Changsha said, “The lofty mountains are colored green upon green.”
A monk asked, “Teachers of our order say to ‘abide’ by sitting in the bodhi seat. What is the seat?”
Changsha said, “Just now I’m sitting. Just now you’re standing.”
A monk asked, “What is the great way?”
Changsha said, “It doesn’t exclude you.”
The monk asked, “Who is the teacher of all buddhas?”
Changsha said, “For the incalculable eon, who has ever concealed this?”
A monk asked, “What was there before the buddhas?”
Changsha said, “Luzu entered the hall and spoke incoherently to the masters and disciples.”
Changsha sent a monk to ask a question of Zen master Hui, who was a fellow student with Changsha under Nanquan.
The monk asked Zen master Hui, “What was it like after you saw Nanquan?”
Hui was silent.
The monk asked, “What was it like before you saw Nanquan?”
Hui said, “There couldn’t be anything more.”
The monk returned and told Changsha about this conversation.
Changsha then showed the monk a verse that said:
Atop a hundred-foot pole, an unmoving person,
Although he’s gained entry, he hasn’t reached the truth.
He must step forth from the top of the pole,
Then the world in ten directions is the complete body.
The monk then asked, “If one is at the very top of a hundred-foot pole, how does one step forward?”
Changsha said, “The Lang Province mountains. The Li Province rivers.”
The monk said, “I don’t understand.”
Changsha said, “The four seas and five lakes are splendid within it.”
Changsha and Yangshan were enjoying the moon.
Yangshan said, “Everyone is completely endowed with this, but they are unable to make use of it.”
Changsha said, “I invite you to use it now.”
Yangshan asked, “How would you use it?”
Changsha knocked Yangshan down with a shove to the chest, then stepped on him.
Yangshan said, “Whoa, just like a tiger!” (Changqing Huileng said, “Before they were one family. Afterward they were not of one family.” He also said, “Heresy is difficult to support.”)
From this time forward Changsha was known to all as “The Tiger.”
A monk asked, “Fundamentally, can people become buddhas or not?”
Changsha said, “Do you think that the emperor of the Great Tang still plows a field and harvests the rice?”
The monk said, “I still don’t understand who it is who becomes a buddha.”
Changsha said, “It’s you that becomes a buddha.”
The monk was silent.
Changsha said, “Do you understand?”
The monk said, “No.”
Changsha said, “If someone trips on the ground and falls down, and then they use the ground to get up again—does the ground say anything?”
A monk asked, “‘Form is emptiness; emptiness is form.’ What does this mean?”
Changsha said, “Listen to this verse of mine:
An obstruction is not a barrier,
A passage is not empty.
If people understand in this manner,
Mind and form are fundamentally the same.
Changsha also said:
“Buddha nature grandly manifests,
But passions obscure abiding nature.
When the selfless nature of beings is realized,
How does my face differ from Buddha’s?”
A monk asked, “What is my mind?”
Changsha said, “All worlds in the ten directions are your mind.”
The monk said, “If so, then there’s no particular place where my body is manifested.”
Changsha said, “It is the place where your body is manifested.”
The monk said, “What is the place where it manifests?”
Changsha said, “The great ocean, vast and deep.”
The monk said, “I don’t understand.”
Changsha said, “Dragons and fish frolic freely, leaping and diving.”
Changsha eulogized his teacher Nanquan, saying, “Great and august Nanquan! His teaching shows the origin of the three worlds—an eternal diamond—radiating limitlessly. He manifested numberless buddhas. Now he’s gone back.”
Long before, upon his enlightenment under Nanquan, Changsha had composed the following verse:
Today I’ve returned to my old home’s gate,
And Nanquan speaks intimately of the entire universe.
All things reveal the ancients’ meaning.
The prodigal regrets unfilial acts.
To this verse Nanquan responded with another that said:
Today’s great function is not discussed,
For Nanquan speaks not of the entire universe.
Returning home is the affair of descendants,
The ancients never left the gate.
Biyan lu / Hekiganroku (Blue Cliff Record)
Case
36
Chôsa Goes Picnicking
By Yamada Kôun
http://www.sanbo-zen.org/hek036.pdf
One day, Chôsa went for a walk in the mountains. When he returned to the gate, the head monk asked, "Where have you been, Master?" Chôsa said, "I was out walking about in the mountains." The head monk said, "Where did you go?" Chôsa said, "First I went following the scented grass; then I came back through the falling flowers." The head monk said, "It sounds very much like a spring mood." Chôsa said, "It's better than the autumn dew dropping on the lotus flower." Setchô commented, "I am grateful for that answer."
MASTER CHANGSHA JINGCEN
Master Changsha Jingcen was ordained as a monastic at an early age, and was a student of Master Nanquan Puyuan. There is record of Changsha Jingcen teaching at Luyuan Temple in Hunan Province.
Those Who Study the Way Do Not Recognize the Truth
Those who study the Way do not recognize the truth;
Like those of old, they only recognize the spirit.
Infinite kalpas ago it was the origin of birth and death;
Ignorant people are called inherently human.Translated by John Balcom
