The Most Excellent Peace: Yunyan's Verse on the "Three Lingering Contaminations"
In all the mountains and rivers under heaven, this is the most excellent peace.
In this post, I take up where I left off with "'Dongshan's Three Lingering Contaminations' in Post-Awakening Training:"
Dosho Port
The lingering contaminations unpacked above are the proclivity to attach to old views, not feeling sensations completely, and being constipated in one's expression of the Way. They are presented by Zhizhao, in The Eye of Humans and Gods, as representative of the Caoshan (Japanese, Soto) lineage style.
For more on The Eye of Humans and Gods, see Jess Row's excellent Substack:
Jess Row
My last post included commentary by Caodong masters Caoshan and Ming'an. The passage in The Eye of Humans and Gods ends with a verse by Yunyan, but because this verse strikes me as so beautifully subtle, I wanted to highlight it with its own post. This is it.
Yunyan (780-841; Japanese, Ungan Donjo; aka, Cloud Cliff Cloudy Light) was been disparaged in the Chan circles of his time, given that he attended to one of the all-time great masters, Baizhang, and yet didn't awaken while training with him. So the effect this verse had on me was a sweet surprised. I must have fallen into the view of believing what I'd heard (and thought myself) about old master Yunyan, hadn't felt his teaching completely, and so was at a loss for words.
Now, struggling to my feet, brushing off the dust and dirt, I'll do what I can to offer the verse to you. First, I'll offer it in full. Second, I'll unpack it with the hope that the meaning behind the words will help you appreciate it more fully too.
From Yunyan's Inscription: Three Lingering Contaminations Verse
In all the mountains and rivers under heaven,
this is the most excellent peace.
Who wants to hold hands and share this one
journey?
Who will suddenly turn their head with me at the song of the whippoorwill?
Smiling and pointing at the white clouds,
we’ll then return to our hut to nap.
In former years, having undertaken training as the mysterious guest,
everywhere I knocked on the mysterious gate,
and exhausted the essential blood vein.
Now, deep in the night, an ink-stained black robe.
Rumors come through the narrow gate,
high in the mountains, the wooden man gently starts to speak.
On the bank of the creek, the stone woman secretly nods.
Smiling about those former times – many white plums.
When night comes, I return to the fishing boat and spend the night fishing.
The first six lines give a vivid description of living the jewel-mirror samadhi with the heart truly at peace, completely intimate with the song of the bird, reaching out for a friend's hand, or laying down together for a nap. Stale, old views and feelings have been sloughed off.
A life of deep peace isn't luck or based on a self-soothing dharma narrative. It arises from an earnest and thorough investigation of self-nature, not being satisfied with a little intimation of awakening, but going all the way through. And then continuing in the training, illumining the subtle stuck places of views, feeling, and verbal constipation. Doing this work is to be a mysterious guest.
The mysterious gate, is “[...] Entry into the profound way of the Buddha" (Digital Dictionary of Buddhism).
exhausted the essential blood vein refers to learning what the lineage of Buddhas and Ancestors has to offer, no part left out due to personal preferences. And Yunyan tells us that he did it, he succeeded, and so it's time to celebrate.
With deep in the night, Yunyan brings us back to the present where we find him rolling like a black ball through a moonless night. "Deep in the night" means to be without discrimination, like when it's too dark to see. And in the dark, he's wearing an ink-stained black robe. He's been up burning the midnight oil, you see, ink-stone close, brush in hand, writing this verse for us. And making a mess in the dark.
wooden man and stone woman refers to free, unfettered functioning devoid of lingering contaminations. Just gentle speech and quiet nodding along. The words flow freely. "Yes, honey, yes, indeed."
The last two lines are a love letter, as to say:
Oh, dear friend, after so many monastery meals of gruel and pickles, remember those delicious white plums? Ah, but I better get back to work. I'm meeting another old friend from far away this afternoon, and I need to get the tea going.
Coming soon: "Falling Through No-Wall and Profoundly Awakening: Muso Soseki and Nurturing the Sacred Embryo."
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