Ten Thousand Houses: Two Views of the Blue Cliff Record

by Robert Reese

Boundless wind and moon--the eye within eyes,
Inexhaustible heaven and earth--the light beyond light,
The willow dark, the flower bright--ten thousand houses;
Knock at any door-there's one who will respond.

--Preface, The Blue Cliff Record

For more than seven centuries, The Blue Cliff Record (J. Hekiganroku) has been used as a training tool of the Zen school.  Revered as a model koan collection, the center of this text is a compilation of one hundred traditional stories and citations accompanied by commentaries and appreciatory verses from Chinese Chan masters. Compiled by Hsuueh Tou Ch’ung Hsien (980-1052), with added elucidating remarks by Yuan Wu K’e ‘Chh’in (1063-1135), The Blue Cliff Record is considered one of the seminal treasures of Chan literature and essential study manual for students of Zen.

By bringing together scriptural teaching, Buddhist philosophy and practices in the form of stories, poems and commentary, koans were a way Chan teachers could embrace and assimilate traditional Indian teachings and create their own. Chan teachers employed traditional koans, or “recollections of the Buddha,” as a type of lens aimed at short-circuiting our map-making habits and arrive at a fuller experience of reality.

The early Chan teachers knew, however, than the inherent danger posed in koan study was that any explanation regarding koans and their contents could be misunderstood—even hinder—students from seeing on their own.  Soon after the compilation of the Blue Cliff Record around 1128, Master Tahui, who was an eminent teacher in the Yun-men school of Zen and avid proponent of strict koan training, burned all available copies of the Blue Cliff Record, including the plates and woodblocks used to print the books. He saw his students clinging to the content of the text, rather than inhabiting the spirit of the koan.

Despite the pitfalls of using koans as conceptual playthings, a 1991 book by Thomas Cleary extends our access to this classic Chan text: Thomas Cleary’s Secrets of the Blue Cliff Record broadens our perspective by introducing different approaches in encountering this demanding text. The Blue Cliff Record is dotted with koans and recorded sayings that return us relentlessly to the blurred, challenging, ordinary human world as the sole ground of freedom.

The Secrets of the Blue Cliff Record invites our examination into the ways in which we make meaning from the text and from our experience, asking the question: How do we experience the world? How do we confront the “Blue Cliff” of our own life? One of the activities of koans is to reveal our life as Buddha nature. Koans do this by asking over and over questions we cannot answer except with our whole being.  Though the title is taken from the slate-colored rock formations near Mt. Chia in Huan where Yuan We delivered his dharma talks, all our life is actually nothing but the Blue Cliff.  Dogen Zenji calls it the Genjo Koan, that which is manifesting right before one’s eyes is absolute reality. Koans encourages the examination and welcoming of everything that makes an appearance, including the restless, painful mind which is resisting the koans themselves. Joy, despair, love, grief and the fact of death are all part of the imaginative embrace of koans.

One of the many services of Cleary’s Secrets of the Blue Cliff Record, is to remind us that our understanding can be provisional and open to interpretation. In Secrets of the Blue Cliff Record, Cleary introduces commentaries from two of  the most eminent Zen  teachers of early Japanese Zen, Hakuin Ekaku (1685-1768) of the Rinzai sect and Tenkei Denson (1648-1735) of the Soto lineage. Comparing Hakuin’s and Tenkei’s commentaries often provides a fuller sense of Tou Ch’ung Hsien’s meaning than any single commentary can. Tenkei and Hakuin provide commentaries that are notable not only for their distinction and historical significance, but also because of their divergent approaches to the text.

At more than 900 pages in the complete English translation, The Blue Cliff Record would be virtually inaccessible if translated in-full; Hakuin’s and Tenkei’s commentaries, which taken together, run nearly 1900 pages by themselves.  Cleary trimmed the text and focused on translating the commentaries of the introductions, koans and verses. He then added the commentaries of Tenkei and Hakuin, which provides valuable access to much of the inner dialectic of The Blue Cliff Record. The tone of Cleary’s translation are straight-forward, lucid and retain a weightless quality that conveys the richness of the original text.

Although the Rinzai and Soto orders are particular and distinct, there is little intrinsic philosophical disagreement between Hakuin and Tenkei in Secrets of the Blue Cliff Record. Rather, the differences seem to be more a matter of emphasis, tone and art. Still, it is engaging to contrast the two approaches to the text and teaching style. Poet, painter and calligraphers, Hakuin delivered his vivid talks on the entire Blue Cliff Record fourteen times over a period of more than thirty years.  Best known for his koan, “The Sound of One Hand Clapping,” he is sometimes abrupt, coarse and eccentric in his commentaries, more mystical and aesthetic than logical and philosophical. Hakuin, who revived the koan tradition in the 1700’s, stressed the importance of zazen and meditation in the midst of activities. His concerns included the dynamics of the psychological struggle, Great Doubt, as well as the joy found along the spiritual path.

Tenkei, on the other hand, meticulously probes and questions, challenges and evokes. His methodology is pull the rug out from under our assumptions of the text, and conversely, the world. At the same time, his profound philosophical sensibility appears to be always in the service of fostering greater aliveness and insight among his students.

In commenting on Case 27, Ummon’s famous koan “When the tree withers and the leaves fall, then what?”

“What season is this? When the flowers blossom in the spring sun, what time is this? When the trees whither, what time is this? When eating and drinking, what time is this? What time is this very day? Take a look! If we have to label the time in question, let’s say it is when the tree of complications, including institutional Zen and Buddhism, withers, the time when ‘the vine withers and the tree falls.’” (Tenkei).

“Ummon said, “The body is exposed in the golden wind.” The whole thing is right here at hand, flowers and foliage and all. When the dragon howls, clouds rise; when the tiger roars, wind picks up. In the contest where the outcome could not be predicted, he came through in the clutch.  Even in the light you cannot see his trail, yet it has never been concealed anywhere in the world.” (Hakuin).

Both Hakuin’s and Tenkei’s commentaries derive from particular teachings given to particular students in particular instances. The commentaries were not always given as lectures, but as teishos, which are closer to an expression of the teacher’s realization, rather than a speech. Teishos are intimate, subtle communication from teacher to student. Consequently, Hakuin and Tenkei do not adjust their teaching to students of our time and place, which sometimes renders the commentaries as abstruse as the original Chinese. Accordingly, we are require to come up to meet them, to answer them with our lives. To knock on any door and see who will respond.  Cleary’s lively, insightful translations of these two eminent teachers make his contribution as a translator uniquely valuable.