Deshan Xuanjian

Master Deshan Xuanjian was a native of Sichuan, surnamed Zhou in lay life. He left home as a boy and threw himself into the study of Buddhist teachings, becoming especially skilled at expounding the Diamond Sutra—hence his nickname, "Zhou the Diamond." When he heard that the Chan school was flourishing in the south, he fumed: "The Buddha Dharma is so vast and profound that even a lifetime of practice can scarcely lead to buddhahood. Yet those southern demons have the audacity to spout nonsense about 'directly pointing to the mind' and 'seeing one's nature to become Buddha.' I'll smash their nest and wipe out this wicked breed, to repay my debt to the Buddha." With that, he shouldered a load of the Qinglong Commentary and left Sichuan.

On the road at Liyang in Hunan, he came upon a woman selling refreshments. Feeling hungry, he set down his load to buy something to eat. The woman pointed at his bundles and asked, "What books are in there?" Deshan replied, "The Diamond Sutra." The woman said, "I have a question for you. If you can answer it, I'll give you something to eat. If you can't, please be on your way. The Diamond Sutra says: the past mind cannot be grasped, the present mind cannot be grasped, the future mind cannot be grasped. So—which mind does the worthy monk wish to point?" Zhou the Diamond was struck dumb.

He then went to see Chan Master Longtan Chongxin. The moment he entered the Dharma hall, he bellowed: "I've long heard the great name of Longtan—'Dragon Pool'—but now that I've arrived, I see neither pool nor dragon!" Chongxin bowed and said, "You have arrived at Longtan in person." Deshan had no reply and stayed on.

One night, Deshan was standing in attendance beside Longtan. The master said, "It's late. Why don't you go back?" Deshan stepped outside, then immediately returned and said, "It's dark out there." The master lit a candle and handed it to him. Just as he reached out to take it, the master blew it out. In that instant, Deshan had a great awakening.

The next day, Longtan addressed the assembly: "There is a fellow here with teeth like a forest of swords and a mouth like a blood-red basin. One blow of the staff won't turn his head. In times to come, atop a lonely peak, he will uphold my Dharma." After his awakening, Deshan took his Diamond Sutra Commentary and other writings into the Dharma hall and burned them all. He sighed:

To exhaust all mystical disputation is like placing a single hair in the vast void. To drain the world of all stratagem is like casting a single drop into a great chasm.

(Meaning: to exhaust every subtlety of philosophy and Buddhist theory amounts to no more than a single hair placed in infinite space; to expend every artifice in the world amounts to no more than a single drop flung into an immense gorge.)

After his awakening, Deshan ascended the hall and said: "If you can say something, thirty blows. If you can't say something, thirty blows." Deshan's staff and Linji's shout together gave rise to the characteristic Chan fusion of blows and shouts.

Someone asked, "What is a bodhisattva?" Deshan struck him with his staff: "Get out! Don't come here to take a shit!"

"What is the Buddha?" Deshan replied: "The Buddha is an old foreign fox from the Western Heaven."

One day in the hall, Deshan said: "Here there is no Buddha, no patriarch. Bodhidharma was an old foreign barbarian. Shakyamuni is a dried shit-stick. Manjushri and Samantabhadra are dung-carriers. Every so-called Supreme Enlightenment and Wondrous Enlightenment is just the stuff of ordinary mortals. Bodhi-wisdom and nirvana are merely hitching posts for donkeys. The twelve divisions of scripture are the record books of Yama, the King of Hell—waste paper for wiping sores. The four fruits, the three sages, the initial mind, the ten bhumis—they are all ghosts guarding graves, unable to save even themselves."

At the end of his life, Deshan admonished his disciples: "Grasping at empty space, chasing echoes—it only exhausts your mind and spirit. Waking from a dream, you realize it was all false—and in the end, what is there to do?"

(Meaning: pursuing phantoms and hollow echoes only pointlessly drains your mind and spirit. Only upon waking from the dream do you realize its illusory nature, and understand that fundamentally, nothing is the matter.)