Appreciating Chan Verse — Who Says Living in the World Hinders the Way? The Golden Grain Tathāgata Once Took the Form of an Elder
By Chan Master Zhizhen of Guishan, Tang Dynasty
Selected Verse for the Assembly, No. 1
By Chan Master Zhizhen of Guishan, Tang Dynasty
The bright moon divides its form, fresh everywhere,
Could white robes ever bring down those who know emptiness?
Who says that life in the world hinders cultivating the Way?
The Golden Grain once took the form of an elder.
In the fifth year of Huichang (845 CE), under Emperor Wuzong of the Tang, an edict ordered monks and nuns to return to lay life and commanded the destruction of thousands of monasteries. Buddhism suffered an unprecedented blow. Before being compelled to return to lay life, Chan Master Zhizhen composed this verse to share with the assembly.
"The bright moon divides its form, fresh everywhere" — the bright moon here stands for the pure, luminous Buddha-nature. The moon is reflected in every river's waters, as the saying goes: "A thousand rivers with water, a thousand moons; ten thousand miles without clouds, ten thousand miles of sky." The pure Dharma-body pervades all places; everywhere is real.
"Could white robes ever bring down those who know emptiness?" — "white robes" refers to householders. For those who truly cultivate the Dharma and "understand emptiness," what obstacle could there be between lay and monastic life? Moreover, there are two kinds of "leaving home" — of the mind, and of the body. Vimalakīrti said: "Yet if you simply give rise to the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, that itself is leaving home." The Sutra of the Great Adornment of the Dharma Gate states: "When a bodhisattva leaves home, it is not shaving one's own head and taking on a renunciate's appearance that is called leaving home... (omitted portion)... nor is it guarding the precepts oneself that is called leaving home. If one can broadly give rise to the four immeasurable hearts and establish sentient beings in them, that is called leaving home."
"Who says that life in the world hinders cultivating the Way? The Golden Grain once took the form of an elder" — if householders can broadly give rise to the bodhicitta, seeking Buddhahood above and guiding sentient beings below, this in no way hinders true cultivation. The Golden Grain Tathāgata manifested in this Sahā world as the elder Vimalakīrti, liberating sentient beings far and wide — a perfect example.