A Word of Zen?

Joshu asked a monk, “How many sutras do you read in one day?”
The monk said, “Sometimes seven or eight. Sometimes ten.”
Joshu said, “Oh, then you can’t read scriptures.”
The monk said, “Master, how many do your read in a day?”
Joshu said, “In one day I read one word.”¹

Let me ask you, what is this one word?

Now, let’s look at another Zen exchange that deals with a word, the final word.

A monk asked, “What is the final word?”
Touzi said, “The word you didn’t understand at the beginning.”²

I like this monk. He is honest. He certainly knows the phrase, There is no final word of Zen. But he doesn’t just repeat words and phrases. He wants to realize the final word. Perhaps he’s been sitting long and is getting tired, tired of all the Zen talk.

This monk is humble, he is teachable, and good fortune is with him. He meets Master Touzi and asks, “What is the final word?” Master Touzi points directly at this monk and says, “The word you didn’t understand at the beginning.” Master Touzi is also pointing at you and me. Pointing at the word we haven’t understood from the beginning.

This word has nothing to do with understanding. This is the reason it is said in the Zen tradition, “The World-honored One spoke with a hidden meaning, but it was not concealed to Kasyapa.”³ This word has nothing to do with beginning or ending, with the first word or the last word. It has nothing to do with coming or going, having or not having, with enlightenment or delusion. This word has to do with rain.

Master Touzi was asked by another monk, “One Dharma universally freshens all beings. What Dharma is this?” Touzi said, “The falling rain.”⁴ Zen speaks of the Rain of 10,000 blessings. What is this rain?

The Navajo speak of two kinds of rain. One is called She rain. This rain is gentle, steady, long lasting and deeply penetrating. It is life giving. Sitting zazen like this, one hears the voice of the raindrops. The other rain is called He rain. This rain is a flash flood. It is lightning and thunder. It is death dealing. Sitting zazen like this, one hears the lion roar and dragon howl.

Either way, it is “one dharma that refreshes all beings.”

Listen as Master Touzi once again points directly at you and me and the final word.

Master Touzi entered the hall and said, “This old monk’s energy is failing and my lips and tongue are blundering. I don’t have any idle talk to give you.” He then added, “There is no mystery that can be compared to you, yourself.”⁵

This you, yourself cannot be learned, taught, repeated, or passed on. You, yourself is not an experience. It is not an experience of oneness with the world or with cosmic energy or anything else. You, yourself is altogether beyond. The Heart Sutra culminates in the Prajnaparamita Mantra, which says,

Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond.
O what an awakening, all-hail!⁶

Zazen is to sit gone altogether beyond as you, yourself, right here and now.

1 Adapted from Ferguson, A. (2000). Zen’s Chinese Heritage. Somerville, MA: Wisdom, 141

2 Ferguson, A. (2000). Zen’s Chinese Heritage. Somerville, MA: Wisdom, 195.

3 Cook, F.H. (1991). The Record of Transmitting the Light. Los Angeles, CA: Center Publications, 219

4 Ibid., 294

5 Adapted from Ferguson, A. (2000). Zen’s Chinese Heritage. Somerville, MA: Wisdom, 193

6 Conze, E. (1972). Buddhist Wisdom Books: Containing the Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra. New York, Harper & Row, 101-2

This is part of the upcoming book, Digging in the Earth to Find the Blue Sky.

Roshi Charles Shinkai Birx received dharma transmission from Roshi Kennedy in 1998 and inka in 2014. He is co-founder of New River Zen Community in Blacksburg, VA and co-author of Waking Up Together (Wisdom, 2005). Charles is an ordained permanent deacon in the Catholic Church. He is retired from a career as a reading specialist.