6Mazu's White and Black馬祖白黑

Introduction 示眾

開口不得時，無舌人解語；擡脚不起處，無足人解行。若也落他彀中，死在句下，豈有自由分？四山相逼時，如何透脫？

When your mouth won't open, only a tongueless man can speak. When your foot won't lift, only a man with no legs can walk. Fall into someone's trap and you die under his words. What freedom is left to you? When the four mountains close in on every side, how do you slip free?

僧問馬大師：「離四句，絕百非，請師直指某甲西來意。」大師云：「我今日勞倦，不能為汝說，問取智藏去。」僧問藏，藏云：「何不問和尚？」僧云：「和尚教來問。」藏云：「我今日頭痛，不能為汝說，問取海兄去。」僧問海，海云：「我到這裏，却不會。」僧舉似大師，大師云：「藏頭白，海頭黑。」

A monk asked Master Ma, "Beyond the four propositions, past the hundred negations: point me straight at why Bodhidharma came from the West."

Mazu said, "I'm worn out today. I can't explain it to you. Go ask Zhizang."

The monk asked Zhizang. Zhizang said, "Why not ask the Master?"

The monk said, "The Master sent me to you."

Zhizang said, "My head aches today. I can't explain it. Go ask brother Hai."

The monk asked Huaihai. Huaihai said, "Here I am, and I still don't understand."

The monk reported all of it back to Mazu. Mazu said, "Zhizang's head is white. Huaihai's head is black."

Verse 頌

藥之作病，
鑒乎前聖。
病之作醫，
必也其誰。
白頭黑頭兮克家之子，
有句無句兮截流之機。
堂堂坐斷舌頭路，
應笑毘耶老古錐。

The cure turns into the disease:
the old sages saw it coming.
The disease turns into the doctor,
and who else could it be?
White head, black head: true sons of the house.
Has words, no words: the blade that cuts the current.
Sitting bolt upright, he severs the road of the tongue,
enough to make old Vimalakirti laugh.

Pointer

Mazu is one of the towering Tang masters; Zhizang and Huaihai are two of his leading students. The monk arrives swinging technical gear: "the four propositions" and "the hundred negations" are logic-chopping categories from Buddhist debate, and "why did Bodhidharma come from the West?" is the headline question, the meaning of Chan itself. He wants the answer handed over, gift-wrapped, with all the philosophy stripped off. So Mazu plays keep-away, passing him down a relay of dodges (I'm tired, I have a headache, I don't understand) that leave him nothing solid to seize. The verdict, "Zhizang's head is white, Huaihai's head is black," is not a grade or a riddle with a buried key; it is one last refusal to play the question's sorting game. The laugh at the end belongs to Vimalakirti, the famous layman whose ultimate reply to a question like this was pure silence. These three are noisier, doing the same thing.