Dasui Fazhen Shenzhao
Dasui Fazhen (878-963) was a disciple of Changqing Da'an. He came from ancient Zizhou (now the city of Santai in Sichuan Province). He is recorded to have experienced great enlightenment while still quite young. After becoming a monk at Huiyi Temple, he traveled extensively and studied with the teachers Daowu Yuanzhi, Yunyan Tansheng, and Dongshan Liangjie, among others. Some accounts describe him as a diligent student and heir of the Guiyang Zen lineage, although both the Transmission of the Lamp and the Book of Serenity describe him as a student of Changqing Da'an, making Guishan his Dharma
uncle. Eventually returning to his native Sichuan, he first lived at Mt. Shan kou's Longhuai Temple. Later he dwelled for more than ten years in a large hoi low tree at the site of an old temple behind Mt. Dasui.
Guishan asked Dasui Fazhen, "You've been practicing here with me for some time. Why haven't you asked any questions?" Dasui said, "What would you have me ask?" Guishan said, "Why don't you ask, 'What is Buddha?'" Dasui abruptly covered Guishan's mouth with his hand. Guishan exclaimed, "You've truly attained the marrow!"
Zen master Dasui entered the hall and addressed the monks, saying, "Self-nature is originally pure and replete with virtue, but due to purity and pollution there is differentiation. Thus, the enlightenment of the saints has been realized entirely through purity, while the delusions of common people are engendered by pollution, and are always pulling them down into the cycle of birth and death.
"But the essence of purity and pollution is undifferentiated. Thus the Maha-prajnaparamita Sutra says, 'Not two, thus no separation.'"
A monk asked Zen master Dasui, "When the aeonic fire engulfs everything, is this annihilated or not?"
Dasui said, "Annihilated."
The monk said, "Then it is annihilated along with everything else?"
Dasui said, "It is annihilated along with everything else."
The monk refused to accept this answer. He later went to Touzi Datong and relayed to him his conversation with Dasui.
Touzi lit incense and bowed to the figure of the Buddha, saying, "The ancient buddha of West River has appeared."103
Then Touzi said to the monk, "You should go back there quickly and atone for your mistake."
The monk went back to see Dasui, but Dasui had already died. The monk then went back to see Touzi, but Touzi had also passed away.
A monk asked Dasui, "What is the sign of a great man?" Dasui said, "He doesn't have a placard on his stomach."
Dasui asked a monk, "Where are you going?" The monk said, "I'm going to live alone on West Mountain." Dasui asked, "If I call out to the top of East Mountain for you, will you come or not?"
The monk said, "Of course not."
Dasui said, "You haven't attained 'living alone' yet."
A monk asked, "When the great matter of life and death arrives, then what?" Dasui said, "If there's tea, drink tea. If there's food, eat food." The monk said, "Who receives this support?" Dasui said, "Just pick up your bowl."
Next to Dasui's cottage there was a tortoise.
A monk asked, "Most beings grow bones inside their skin. Why does this being grow skin inside its bones?"
Dasui took off his grass sandal and put it on the tortoise's back. The monk didn't know what to say.
A monk asked, "What is the essential Dharma of all the buddhas?" Dasui held up his whisk and said, "Do you understand?" The mflfik said, "No." Dasui said, "A whisk."
Dasui held up his staff and said, "Where did it arise from?"
Someone said, "From causation."
Dasui said, "How wretched! How bitter!"
Dasui asked, "Where did that monk go?"
Someone said, "He went to Mt. Emei to venerate Samantabhadra." Dasui held up his whisk and said, "Manjushri and Samantabhadra are always right here."
A monk drew a circle in the air and then made the motion of throwing it behind him. He then bowed. Dasui called for his attendant to serve tea to the monk.
When a large number of people were assembled to hear Dasui, he contorted his mouth into a pained position and said, "Is there anyone here who can cure my mouth?"
The monks competed with one another to offer medicine, and when lay people heard about this matter, many of them also sent potions. But Dasui refused them all. Seven days later he slapped himself and caused his mouth to assume a normal appearance.
Dasui then said, "These two lips have been drumming against each other all this time—up until now no one has cured them!"
He then sat in an upright position and passed away.
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