Yánshān Báduì Héshàng yǔlù 鹽山抜隊和尚語録
Recorded Sayings of Reverend Bassui of Enzan by 得勝 Bassui Tokushō (語)
About the work
A six-fascicle Recorded Sayings collection of 得勝 Bassui Tokushō (1327–1387), Late-Nanbokuchō Japanese Rinzai-Zen master, posthumous title Ekō Daien Zenji 慧光大圓禪師 (“Wisdom-Light Great-Perfect Zen Master”). The title-prefix Enzan 鹽山 (“Salt-Mountain”) refers to Bassui’s hermitage in Kai Province (modern Yamanashi) where he spent his last years.
Abstract
Bassui was the dharma-heir of Kōzan Mongo 孤峯覺明 (1271–1361) in the Daikaku-ha-derived Kōhō Kennichi / Musō-collateral line. Unlike his contemporary 周信 Gidō Shūshin and the Gozan establishment, Bassui famously refused to head a major Five-Mountain temple — preferring his hermitage at Enzan and a small community of dedicated practitioners. His distinctive teaching is the kōan of “who is hearing?” (kikō wa ta-ga naru — “the one hearing this, who is it?”), turning the practitioner’s attention to the cognitive subject rather than to perceived objects.
Opening (fascicle 1, Nenkō Butsuji 拈香佛事 — Incense-Holding Buddhist Ritual — for Seiki Zenmon 聖奇禪門 on the seven-day memorial): “On Tongxuan-daisan-ding’s crown, there is this wooden peg. Cold winds blow it but it does not wither; warm rains pour on it but it does not flourish. It can be called unchanging-and-permanent. This is the life-vein of the Buddhas and patriarchs, the original source of sentient beings, the spear-of-creation, the killing-and-vivifying sword. In each person’s hand, secret-secret in great-square outside, naked-naked. Gautama called it the morning-star of the snow-mountain at midnight; Lingyun called it the peach-blossom. Today I hold it out and offer it to the universally-abiding Three Treasures of the ten directions, adorning the hōji (retribution-land) of Lay-Disciple Seiki, jointly burning the karmic root of the sentient beings of the dharma-realm. Just at such a time, ordinary and holy both shed off; yet there is just this single piece of incense, solitary-bright distinct-distinct, lively-lively. Pah! This too has already gone…”
Content: six fascicles preserving Bassui’s nenkō incense-rites for memorial-services, hōgo dharma-talks (especially the famous Mizu ya doro 水也泥 / “Mud and Water” sermon), kōan-discussions, and jōdō sermons. The work is one of the more substantial Japanese Zen yulu in the Taishō.
Death: between 1387 January 28 and 1388 February 15 (per Giyū-ji-roku 疑年錄 p. 341).
Significance: a major Nanbokuchō Rinzai-Zen yulu representing the non-Gozan / hermitage alternative to the dominant Five-Mountain establishment. Bassui’s introspective “who-is-hearing?” practice and his ascetic-hermitage model became influential for the later non-Gozan (rinka 林下) Rinzai-Zen reform movement of the late-Muromachi and Edo periods, and through this for modern Rinzai-Zen practice generally.
Translations and research
- Braverman, Arthur (trans.), Mud and Water: A Collection of Talks by the Zen Master Bassui, Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2002 — substantial English translation.
- Kapleau, Philip (ed.), The Three Pillars of Zen (1965/1989) — includes Bassui’s “Dharma Talk on One-Mind.”
- Dumoulin, Zen Buddhism, vol. 2: Japan, pp. 196–199.
Links
- CBETA: T80n2558
- Wikipedia: Bassui Tokushō