Shobogenzo: A Lump of Soft Butter

Xuansha, Great Master Zongyi, of Mt. Xuansha, Fu Region, China, of the Saha World, used to be called Shibei. His family name was Xie. When he was a householder, he loved fishing and boating on the Nantai River, doing as fishermen do. Some years after attaining the way, Xuansha instructed his students, saying, The entire world of the ten directions is just a lump of soft butter. Once a monk asked him, I heard that you said, The entire world of the ten directions is just a lump of soft butter. How should I understand this? Xuansha said, The entire world of the ten directions is just a lump of soft butter. What do you do with your understanding? The next day Xuansha asked the monk, The entire world of the ten directions is just a lump of soft butter. How do you understand this? The monk said, The entire world of the ten directions is just a lump of soft butter. What do you do with your understanding? Xuansha said, I see that you have worked out a way to get through the demons cave on the black mountain.

Xuansha is the first one to say, The entire world in the ten directions is just a lump of soft butter. It means the entire world in the ten directions is neither vast nor minute, neither square nor round. It is not neutral, not active, and not obvious. Because it is beyond the coming or going of birth and death, it is the coming and going of birth and death. Thus, past days have already left here and the present moment starts from here. When we investigate the entire world in the ten directions, who can see it as bits and pieces, who can talk about it as something solid? The entire world in the ten directions means that you ceaselessly chase

things and make them into the self, and you chase the self and make it into things. When emotions arise, wisdom is pushed aside. By seeing this as separation, teacher and student turn their heads and exchange their faces, unroll the great matter and harmonize their understanding. Because you chase the self and make it into things, the entire world of the ten directions is ceaseless. Because you take initiative, you do more than distantly see the essential matter. A lump of soft butter is not merely the name [of an object] but an expression of understanding. Although there have been people who thought that it was only a name, a lump of soft butter directly experiences ten thousand years. While the entire past has not yet departed, the entire present is just now arriving. Here is the now of the body and here is the now of the mind. This is the lump of soft butter; it is not limited to grass and trees here and there, or even to mountains and rivers in the universe. How should I understand this? These words appear to be the monks expression of ignorance, but the great function emerges right here, actualizing the great principle. Step forward and penetrate one foot of water, one foot of wave, ten feet of soft butter, ten feet of illumination. In expressing his understanding, Xuansha said, The entire world in the ten directions is a lump of soft butter. What do you do with your understanding? These words are an expression that buddhas inherit from buddhas, ancestors inherit from ancestors, and Xuansha inherits from Xuansha. If you do not want to inherit this expression, there may be a way not to do so. But even if you totally avoid it for a while, this expression arises all-inclusively right now. The next day Xuansha asked the monk, The entire world of the ten directions is just a lump of soft butter. How do you understand this? This is an expression that takes up yesterdays statement and adding another layer, blows it back today. His question today pushes down yesterdays nodding laugh. The monk said, The entire world of the ten directions is just a lump of soft butter. What do you do with your understanding? Speak! This is the horse of a robber on horseback chasing the robber. An authentic buddha speaking to you walks in the midst of various beings. Now, turn the light inward and

illuminate yourself. How many ways do you understand this? You may say, seven pieces of milk cake or five pieces of herb cake. Yet, there is teaching and practice south of Xiang, north of Tan [both in Hunan Province]. Xuansha said, Now I see that you have worked out a way to get through the demons cave on the black mountain. Know that the sun face and moon face have not switched over since ancient times. The sun face emerges with the sun face, and the moon face emerges with the moon face. So, even in the sixth month [height of summer], do not say your nature is hot. The timeless thusness of this a lump of soft butter is boundless. It is just that the entire world of the ten directions is a lump of soft butter, not two or three. The entire body is one true dharma eye, the true body, a single phrase. The entire body is illumination; the entire body is the entire mind. When the entire body is the entire body, there is no hindrance. A gentle curving turns round and round. With the power of a lump of soft butter manifesting in this way, Avalokiteshvara and Maitreya see form and hear sound; old buddhas and new buddhas reveal their bodies and expound dharma. At this very moment a lump of soft butter hangs in space or is sewn inside the robe; it is hidden under the chin [of a dragon] or in the hair. This is a lump of soft butter, the entire world in the ten directions. Although it is sewn inside the robe, do not try to hang it outside the robe. Although it is hidden under the chin or in the hair, do not try to take it out. A man sewed a lump of soft butter inside the clothes of a dear friend who was drunk [as told in the Lotus Sutra]. A dear friend always gives a lump of soft butter. When a lump of soft butter is sewn inside ones clothes, one is always drunk. This is a lump of soft butter, the entire world in the ten directions. All things, turning or not turning, while drunk are a lump of soft butter. Knowing the lump of soft butter is a lump of soft butter. This is how it is with a lump of soft butter. This being so, although you may say, I am not a lump of soft butter, you should not doubt. Whether you doubt it or not, such doubt comes from a limited view. Limited views are merely limited. How lovely is a lump of soft butters infinite colors and shades! Bits and pieces of its colors and shades are the function of the entire world in the ten

directions. No one can take it away, or throw a tile at it in the marketplace. Do not be concerned about falling or not falling into cause and effect in the six paths. Not ignoring cause and effect, from beginning to end, is the face of the lump of soft butter, is the eye of the lump of soft butter. To think or not to think one hundred times about what the lump of soft butter is or is not, is like gathering and binding weeds [to trap yourself]. But when you clarify the body and mind as the lump of soft butter through the dharma words of Xuansha, you understand that mind is not the self. Who is concerned whether or not appearing and disappearing are the lump of soft butter? Even if you are concerned, that does not mean you are not the lump of soft butter. It is not something outside of the lump of soft butter that causes practice and thought. Therefore, forward or back, your every step in the demons cave in the black mountain is just a lump of soft butter.

Presented to the assembly of the Kannondori Kosho Horin Monastery, Uji County, Yamashina Province, on the eighteenth day, the fourth month, the fourth year of the Katei Era [1238].