one who meets daito face to face

your old home town

 

As with the classical

Chinese teachers of the Tang dynasty,

Shuho maintained that awakening was central to

Buddhist practice. In a document called Daito’s Testament, he

reminded his students, “You have come here not for food or clothing

but for religion. As long as you have a mouth, you will have food;

as long as you have a body, you will have clothes. Don’t concern

yourself with these. Be mindful throughout your waking

hours; time flies like an arrow, don’t waste it with

concern over worldly matters.”

 

He went on to tell his disciples

that even if they were to become the abbots

of wealthy monasteries and received the respect of

the laity and nobility, even if they were rigorous in their practice

of meditation and ritual activities, but they lacked awakening, they were

no more than members of the “tribe of evil spirits.” Conversely, if they

were poverty stricken, lived in a ramshackle hermitage, and ate

only what wild food they gathered in the forests and

yet they were awakened, then they would be

“one who meets me face to face

and repays my kindness.”

 

Daito Kokushi

years of hunger beneath gojo bridge

 

years of hunger beneath gojo bridge

master’s

handiwork cannot

be measured but still priests wag

their tongues explaining the “Way” and

babbling about “Zen.” This old monk has

never cared for false piety and my

nose wrinkles at the dark smell

of incense before the

Buddha.

 

Crazy Cloud

speaks of Daito’s unsurpassed

brilliance but the clatter of royal carriages

about the temple gates drowns him out and no

one listens to tales of the Patriarch’s long

years of hunger and homelessness

beneath Gojo Bridge.

 

Ikkyu

wikkyu

 

In order to deepen his Zen understanding, Daito Kokushi (also known as Shuho Myocho, 1281-1338), the founder of Daitoku-ji, passed a number of years hiding out among the beggars clustered about Kyoto’s Gojo Bridge.

this very mind is buddha

aigana gali, “meditator”

 

If you wish

to bring the two matters

of birth and death to conclusion,

and pass directly beyond the triple-world,

you must penetrate the koan “This

very mind is Buddha.”

 

Tell me:

What is its principle?

How is it that this very mind

is Buddha? And “this very

mind” — just what is

it like?

 

Investigate it coming. Investigate it going.

Investigate it thoroughly and exhaustively.

All you have to do is keep this koan

constantly in your thoughts.

 

Daito Kokushi