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CHAPTER 19.
the child lay down to sleep, the Mirror would cover his bed like
a heavenly canopy of light. In short, this Mirror accompanied
him everywhere, whether he was walking, standing, sitting or
lying down.
Now at this time Ságyanandai was on a preaching tour.
Upon reaching Magadha a cool breeze suddenly arose and swept
over him and his entourage bringing great pleasure
to their bodies and spirits. Since his followers did not know
why this should be so, Ságyanandai said, “This is the wind,
or breath, of religious virtue. There must be some saintly
person who, having renounced the world, continues on as
heir to the Lamp of the Ancestors.” Having spoken thus, he led
his great assembly of followers through the mountains and
valleys by means of his divine powers. By mealtime they had
reached the base of a mountain peak and he addressed them,
saying, “Over the summit of this peak is a purple cloud that
hangs like a canopy; a saintly person must surely reside there-
abouts.” So, for some time, he travelled on with his great assem-
bly until he caught sight of a mountain dwelling and the child
in possession of the Perfect Mirror. The boy walked directly
up to Ságyanandai who asked him, “How old are you?” The
boy replied, “A hundred years old.” Ságyanandai then said,
“But you are still a child. Why do you say that you are a
hundred years old?” Kayashata answered, “I do not know
the reason why: it is just that I am a hundred years old.” Ságya-
nandai asked, “Are you skilled in the liberating activities of
a Buddha?” Kayashata answered, “The Buddha says that if
a man were to live a hundred years without having compre-
hended the liberating activities of the Buddhas, it would still
not equal living a single day and being able to settle the one
great issue for good.” Ságyanandai asked, “And That which
is in your hand, what does It show?” The child replied, “The
Great Perfect Mirror of the Buddhas has no flaw or blemish
inside or out: all people will be able to see IT alike because the
The Sainted Kayashata 101
eyes of the TRUE NATURE all resemble each other.” When his
parents heard their child speaking in this manner, they allowed
him to leave home and become a monk. Ságyanandai led him
back to his own homeland where he gave him the Precepts and
named him Kayashata (S. Sanghaya±as, ‘The Renowned of the
Sangha’). Then came the time that he heard the sound made
when the wind blew the temple bell; he was given the Treasury
of the Law and ultimately became the Eighteenth Ancestor.
After the child became a monk his Perfect Mirror was sud-
denly no longer visible for this is, in fact, a part of everyone’s
LIGHT. Like a perfect mirror, IT is right now, without blemish or
flaw inside or out: such is the TRUE NATURE of all of us without
exception.
Right from his birth Kayashata continually extolled the
doings of Buddhas and did not mix in worldly matters. In his
Bright Mirror he could see what Buddhas did in past and
present. He truly understood that the eyes, hearts and minds of
all resemble each other but, even so, he felt that he had not yet
met with the liberating activities of Buddhas which is why he
had said that he was a hundred years old. To meet the Buddhas,
be it for just one day, surpasses not only a mere hundred years
but also countless lifetimes. This is why he ultimately relin-
quished the Perfect Mirror.
You should understand through what has been related here
that the Buddhas do not neglect, or treat lightly, accounts of the
Great Undertaking. When you really comprehend the meaning
of the Great Perfect Mirror of the Buddhas, what is left to be
understood? Yet this is not the very bottom of TRUTH. After
all, why should there be a Great Perfect Mirror of the Buddhas
and why should any two people be able to see IT alike? What
is there that has no flaw or blemish inside or out? What com-
prises a blemish or a flaw? How can the eyes possibly resemble
each other? Faced with such questions he forgot about his
Perfect Mirror but how could this be different from the child’s
102 Denkároku
‘forgetting about his skin and flesh’? Even if you share this
viewpoint by realizing that there is no distinction amongst eyes,
and that all persons see IT alike, this viewpoint is actually dual-
istic and hardly the basis for clarifying what the TRUE SELF is.
Do not hold to an opinion of what ‘perfect’ is or what
‘body’ is. It is imperative that you look into your mind and
probe deeply into yourself so that you can quickly break
through your outer karmic conditions and your inner karmic
tendencies to realize that your TRUE NATURE is beyond intellec-
tual knowing: unless you reach this stage you will simply be
a karmically conditioned sentient being who has not yet com-
prehended the liberating activities of Buddhas. In this manner,
Kayashata repented his past wrong-doings and bowed in grati-
tude, whereupon he became a monk and received all the Pre-
cepts. After this he spent his years in training and in serving
Ságyanandai as a jisha.
Once, when he heard a sound as the wind blew the bell
in the temple hall, Ságyanandai asked Kayashata, “Is that
the sound of the bell or of the wind?” What is happening here
must indeed be studied carefully. Although Ságyanandai never
actually saw either bell or wind, still he put the question as
‘Is THAT the sound of the bell or the sound of the wind’?
because he wanted to get Kayashata to know this ‘THAT’.
This ‘THAT’ cannot be grasped in terms of wind or bell; they are
not the everyday ‘wind’ and ‘bell’ for this would amount to
saying, “There was a bell that hung in the corner of the hall
which was called the Great Bell and such a bell now hangs in a
temple tower in the Southern Capital of Nara,” since this is the
way in which people discriminate among such things as humans
and buildings. Originally, in the Northern Capital of Peking
they used to hang a Great Bell in a temple building, but in our
time this custom has fallen into disuse and lost its meaning.
Nevertheless, in India, whenever the wind blew the Great Bell
in this manner, this káan was signified.
The Sainted Kayashata 103
five skandhas and every single one of all the ten thousand things
are the ORIGINAL NATURE resounding; there is no time when
ORIGINAL NATURE does not resound throughout everything;
ultimately there is not a tinge of a reverberation. IT cannot
be heard by the ears because the ears themselves are the
resounding which is why Kayashata said, “All is silent and
still.”
When IT appears like this, all the ten thousand elements are
nowhere to be seen; there is no mountain form or ocean form
and no taking on the appearance of a single element. It is just
as if, in a dream, one is sailing the ocean deep in a magnolia
blossom for a boat. Whether you are raising your pole to part
the waves or stopping the boat to take note of the current’s flow,
there is no sky to float in or ocean bottom to sink to.
What mountains and oceans can we make rise on the outside
and what self can we set afloat within the boat? Though we have
eyes, they never listen, though we have ears, they never see,
therefore it cannot be said that the six organs of perception
merge into each other; the six organs need not be tinged with
one another, all is silent and still.
When you try to grasp the six sense organs there are none to
grasp; when you try to abandon the six fields of perception there
are none to abandon. Ridding oneself of all sense objects, we
forget both mind and fields. When we look closely, there are
no sensory objects to abandon or any mind or fields to put an
end to, this is true tranquillity, no discussion of sameness or
difference, no feeling of inside or outside. When you really
arrive at such a stage you will truly be in charge of the Buddhas’
Treasure House of the Law and rightly take your place among
the ranks of the Buddhas and Ancestors.
If you do not develop in this way, even though you under-
stand that the ten thousand elements are fine just as they are, this
still preserves an idea of self; you will speak of there being
‘others’ and then discriminate and organize those ‘elements’.
The Sainted Kayashata 105
CHAPTER 20.