Zen Poetry Appreciation — Cold Ice Congeals Within the Flame

Hymn on the Unity of Lord and Vassal

[Tang] Chan Master Caoshan Benji

In flames, cold ice congeals; Willow catkins fly in the ninth month. A mud ox bellows on the water's face, A wooden horse whinnies, chasing the wind.

This poem fully reveals the realm of the suchness-principle-body. It cuts off deliberation, dissolves discrimination, and lies beyond the reach of ordinary reasoning. Judged by the Caodong school's Five Ranks of Lord and Vassal, the poem corresponds to "Coming from the Center" among the Five Ranks of the Correct and the Biased — that is, the seeing of the dharma-body of suchness: neither defiled nor pure, neither correct nor biased. What could never exist in the phenomenal world comes vividly to life here. This is the wondrous "inconceivable" realm of seeing the Way.

The Compendium of the Essential Points of the Five Houses offers this passage on seeing the Way: "Arriving here, the whole body is released; letting go, one forgets every attachment. One can then shoulder the whole with one's entire being, thoroughly taking it on; inner and outer are one, without any separate body — this is 'Coming from the Center.'" The practitioner has now fully realized the dharma-body. He lets go of everything in the phenomenal world without looking back, sits upright, at ease in uncontrived leisure. Having dissolved the phenomenal world entirely:

"The withered tree puts forth blossoms beyond kalpas, radiating an air of vibrant spring; Riding backward on jade elephants and qilin, coming and going free and at ease."

This is a world where "the wind is still, yet flowers keep falling; birds call, and the mountain grows more secluded." It is a world in which everyone is already whole. It is a world in which not a single word is spoken. At this moment, wondrous function unfolds of itself — what is there to stop the mud ox from bellowing at the moon, the wooden horse from whinnying in the wind? Within this suchness-dharmadhātu, which utterly transcends the phenomenal world, the moon shines bright and the wind blows clean, a single expanse of light. As the saying goes:

"Master Cloud-Cover seals the secret word — Any attempt to deliberate splits the skull. Clapping hands, one soars into empty space; The clouds part, revealing the moon over the Western River."