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天衣義懷 Tianyi Yihuai (993-1064)

(Rōmaji:) Tenne Gikai

TIANYI YIHUAI
by Andy Ferguson
In: Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings, Wisdom Publications, pp. 394-396.

TIANYI YIHUAI (993–1064) was a student of Xuedou Chongxian in the Yunmen school. He came from the coastal city of Leqing in what is now Zhejiang Province. The son of a fisherman, Tianyi infuriated his father when he jumped out of the fishing boat rather than kill fish. As a youngster he entered Tiantong Monastery as a novice monk.179 Around the year 1027, after passing scriptural examinations, Tianyi set off to live and practice at various temples.180 During this period he developed doubts about his faith and practice. An old monk named Fahua admonished him, “Go to Yunmen and Linji!”

Thus, Tianyi traveled on to Cuifeng Temple in Suzhou, where he met the great Zen teacher, Xuedou Chongxian.

At their first encounter, Xuedou said, “What is your name?”

Tianyi said, “Yihuai.”

Chongxian said, “Why isn’t it Huaiyi?” [Reversing the order of the two characters of this name creates the Chinese word “doubt.”]

Tianyi said, “The name was given to me.”

Chongxian said, “Who gave you this name?”

Tianyi said, “I received it at my ordination nearly ten years ago.”

Chongxian said, “How many pairs of sandals have you worn out since you set out traveling?”

Tianyi said, “The master shouldn’t deceive people!”

Chongxian said, “I haven’t said anything improper. What do you mean?”

Tianyi remained silent.

Chongxian then hit him and said, “Strip off the silence and there’s a fraud! Get out!”

Later, when Tianyi was in Chongxian’s room for an interview, Chongxian said, “Practicing like this you won’t attain it. Not practicing like this you won’t attain it. This way or not this way, neither way will attain it.”

天衣義懷禪師（一） 蘭葉描 - Sketch by 黃澤 Huangze

Tianyi began to speak but Chongxian drove him out of the room with blows. This unpleasant scene repeated itself four times. Some time later, while Tianyi fetched water from the well and carried it with a shoulder pole back to the temple, the pole suddenly broke. As the bucket crashed to the ground Tianyi was suddenly enlightened. He then composed the following verse that Xuedou greatly praised:

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
Alone atop the eighty-thousand-foot peak,
Snatching the pearl from the jaws of the black dragon,
A single word exposes Vimalakirti.

天衣義懷禪師（二） 竹葉描 - Sketch by 黃澤 Huangze

Zen master Tianyi Yihuai entered the hall to address the monks. When everyone was settled he said, “If I just get up here and say, ‘Hello everyone,’ it’s like spending a thousand taels of gold. If I just get down from here and say, ‘Take care,’ it’s like enjoying the support of all the world. But if I talk about the Buddhadharma, then even a single drop of water can’t be consumed. And if I have some idle, pointless discussion, then it’s like putting cinders in your eyes. So what shall I do?”

After a long pause he said, “Do you understand? Take care!”

 

Tianyi addressed the monks, saying, “A distinguished teacher of our sect said, ‘You must drive away the ox from the plowman, grab away the starving man’s food, regard the mean as noble, and regard the noble as mean. If you drive the ox away, then the plowman’s crop will be abundant. If you snatch away the food, then you will forever end the starving man’s hunger and thirst. Taking the mean as noble, a handful of dirt becomes gold. Taking the noble as mean, you change gold into dirt.’

“But as for me, I don’t drive away the plowman’s ox. Nor do I steal the starving man’s food. Why is that? Because what use do I have for the plowman’s ox? How could I eat that food? Moreover, I don’t turn a handful of dirt into gold, or gold into dirt. And why is this? Because gold is gold; dirt is dirt; jade is jade; stone is stone; a monk is a monk; and a layperson is a layperson.

“Since antiquity there have existed heaven and earth, sun and moon, mountains and rivers, people and their relationships. This being so, how many of the deluded can break through the San Mountain Pass and meet Bodhidharma?”181

 

A monk said, “I have just arrived here. I ask the master to expound the Dharma.”

Tianyi said, “The birds call in the forest. The fish swim in the deep water.”

 

Tianyi addressed the monks, saying, “Patch-robed monks who prattle on about this don’t realize the highest wisdom-eye Dharma gate.”

A monk once asked, “What is the highest wisdom-eye Dharma gate?”

Tianyi said, “When the clothes are tattered, skin and bones show through. When the house collapses, then sleep looking at the stars.”

 

Tianyi addressed the monks. “‘The green creeper spreads and reaches up to the top of the pine tree. The white clouds appear in the midst of empty space.’ How does speaking in this manner compare to saying, ‘The clouds rise up at South Mountain; the rain falls on North Mountain’? If you understand this, it’s a sweet melon that is sweet to the bottom. If you don’t understand, it’s a bitter gourd that is bitter to the root.”

Once, Zen master Tianyi said to a monk, “A handless man can use his fist. A tongueless man can speak. If suddenly a handless man strikes a tongueless man, what does the tongueless man say?”

 
李蕭錕 Li Xiaokun (1949-) illusztrációja

Among Xuedou’s 78 Dharma successors, only Tianyi Yihuai’s 天衣義懷 (989–1060)
enlightenment experience is depicted. It is said that after Yihuai finished drawing water with a
bucket, the shoulder pole suddenly dropped on the ground and he achieved enlightenment.
See Jianzhong jingguo xudeng lu (X 1556, 666a16-17).