Chasing Buddhas and Ancestors

Dharma Discourse by John Daido Loori, Roshi
Koans of the Way of Reality
Master Yunmen’s Zen Warnings

Featured in Mountain Record 25.3, Spring 2007

The Main Case

Master Yunmen entered the dharma hall, ascended the high seat and said, “It is well known that silence is a virtue and that clarity is common in these times, and that this generation is living at the end of the imitation period of Buddhism. So nowadays, when monks go north they call this worshipping Manjushri. And when they go south they journey to Nanyang. People who go on such pilgrimages, though they are called mendicant monks, just squander the alms of the faithful. What a shame! What a shame! When questioned, they turn out to be as ignorant as lacquer is black. They just pass their days following their fancy. Some, who manage to absorb a meager bit of the teachings, then frantically search for someone to approve them. If they manage to get approved as venerable, they immediately see themselves as superior to others, thus creating a karma of separation and misfortune.

“Don’t say, when some day the king of hell, Yama, pins you down, that nobody warned you. Whether you are an innocent beginner or a seasoned adept, you must show some spirit. Don’t vainly memorize other people’s sayings. A little bit of reality is better than a lot of illusion. Otherwise, you’ll just go on deceiving yourself. What’s the matter with you? Come forward and say a word!”

The Commentary

Many of the ancient masters maintained a wary and vigilant eye on self-styled and decadent Buddhism. Yunmen was teaching during the imitation period of Buddhism. The problem he addresses is even further complicated in this century since we are in the degenerate period of Buddhism. Master Linji warned, “Don’t have your face stamped casually with the seal of sanction and then run around saying ‘I’ve got it.’ Documents of transmission or seals of sanction are just that, documents and seals, not the dharma. They don’t liberate people, nor do they relieve suffering. The truth does. The dharma does. And this is not something that can be given to you. It can only be realized.

We should understand that degenerate Buddhism is not something that happens in the world, but rather, it’s a product of our own consciousness. We create it. We make it the living reality it becomes. It is a product of our collective and individual conditioning. It is our self-centeredness, corruption and deceit. It is our institutional mentality which manifests as corrupt government, greedy corporations, war, repression and discrimination. It is the three poisons, which reveal themselves as self-absorption, attachment, anxiety, depression, malevolence and fear.

Within heaven and earth, and through space and time, there is a jewel hidden within each one of us. How can it be found? We must learn the backward step and meet the wisdom that has no teacher. We must discover our own inherent and unconditioned compassion and give it life. Let the three poisons manifest as the three virtues. Each one of us must sweep ourselves clean of all beliefs and dogmas in order to be free and at ease.

But tell me, how will you do it? When will you do it? You are a fully equipped buddha. How will you give it life?

The Capping Verse

Buddhas and ancestors have not
appeared in the world,
nor is there any truth
to be given to the people.
They were just able to observe the hearts of beings
and dispense medicine according to the ills.

Daido Roshi

John Daido Loori, Roshi

Master Yunmen was one of the great masters who lived during the Tang dynasty in China, and he was the founder of the Yunmen school of Zen. He was noted for his very short, cryptic sayings. A monastic asked him, “What is buddha?” and Yunmen replied, “Sesame cake.” His style was to not elaborate; he didn’t give long-winded explanations. It is said that in each of his teachings were contained three aspects: one, the cutting off of myriad streams of consciousness—it can’t be figured out intellectually; two, following the waves—that is, responding in accord with circumstances; and three, covering heaven and earth—taking everything away.

A long commentary like the one in this case was extremely unusual for Yunmen, so obviously he had something to say. I think it’s very relevant to our time and condition, as well as the direction that the dharma is taking in America. He says, “It is well known that silence is a virtue and that clarity is common in these times, and that this generation is living at the end of the imitation period of Buddhism.” The imitation period of Buddhism is one of three periods mentioned in the sutras. The Buddha predicted that the first 500 years of the dharma would be known as the “Age of the True Law.” The next thousand years—which include Yunmen’s lifetime—was called the “Period of Imitation or Counterfeit Law.” During this time, the Buddha said that practitioners would not attend to the dharma seriously, but would simply imitate each other. They would quote the sutras and mouth the teachings, but would not really embody them. The third period, which would last for three thousand years—the period we find ourselves in now—is called the “Decline of the Law” or the “Degenerate period.” According to the traditional definition, this is the period in which people are no longer capable of achieving enlightenment. It is interesting to understand these three periods as a kind of existential commentary within Buddhist philosophy, but we can also see them as a reflection of our inner spiritual condition, which is then reflected in the world by the way we lead our lives. This is another way of saying that religion becomes corrupt because the people within it cease to maintain high spiritual standards. Just look at the state of religion in the world today. War, racism, and sexism are promoted by governments, by institutions, by individuals, as being morally right. Politicians call for peace, equality, and justice, but fail to cultivate the means and methods to achieve it. And so here we are—the degenerate age of Buddhism completely manifest.

Yunmen continues, “So nowadays, when monks go north they call this worshipping Manjushri.” Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, is said to live on Wutai Mountain and during Yunmen’s time, doing a pilgrimage to Wutai was considered a very important and valuable thing to do. “And when they go south they journey to Nanyang.” Nanyang was the place where the National Teacher Nanyang Huizhong came from, and supposedly those who traveled there became enlightened. “People who go on such pilgrimages, though they are called mendicant monks, just squander the alms of the faithful. What a shame! What a shame!” The modern equivalent of these pilgrimages are the twenty-thousand-dollar trips in which a guide—sometimes even a Buddhist teacher—takes a group to Bodhidharma’s cave in China or to visit temples in Japan, India, or Tibet. But what does this mean in terms of the dharma? How does going to Bodhidharma’s cave—if it is indeed his cave—help you to transform the way you live your life and treat other people? How does it empower you?

“When questioned, they turn out to be as ignorant as lacquer is black. They just pass their days following their fancy. Some, who manage to absorb a meager bit of the teachings, then frantically search for someone to approve them.” That’s another practice that is beginning to grow in our country: transmissions between teachers and students who don’t really know each other. It’s like getting a degree from a college you never attended—worse, in fact. “If they manage to get approved as venerable, they immediately see themselves as superior to others, thus creating a karma of separation and misfortune.” Of course, if you haven’t realized yourself, you’re just going to magnify the separation, thinking that somehow you are special, and everybody else is just ordinary.


Don't say, when some day the king of hell, Yama, pins you down, that nobody warned you.” Keep in mind that Yama, the king of hell, is really the karma of our lives, the consequences of our actions.Our actions continually affect our lives. They affect how we see things, how we respond to other people, and they create more karma. Each action becomes a cause which has an effect, and that effect becomes the next cause and that produces an effect and so it goes. “Whether you are an innocent beginner or a seasoned adept, you must show some spirit. Don’t vainly memorize other people’s sayings. A little bit of reality is better than a lot of illusion. Otherwise, you’ll just go on deceiving yourself. What’s the matter with you? Come forward and say a word!” Here Yunmen is challenging us to get real, to practice. Not to talk about it, not to imitate it, not to believe it, not to understand it, but to realize it. Because it is only with realization that transformation occurs.The commentary reads, “Many of the ancient masters maintained a wary and vigilant eye on self-styled and decadent Buddhism.” The teachers in our own lineage were very concerned about what they called buji or self-styled Zen. “Yunmen was teaching during the imitation period of Buddhism. The problem he addresses is even further complicated in this century since we are in the degenerate period of Buddhism. Master Linji warned, “Don’t have your face stamped casually with the seal of sanction and then run around saying ‘I’ve got it.’” Linji is talking about inka, the seal of sanction to teach in the Linji school.

Students often say to me things like, “There are 750 koans, right? I’ve been practicing for five years, and I’ve done thirty of them, which means it will take me another hundred and fifty years to finish my training.” It doesn’t work that way.

The first koan usually takes a long time, but slowly, as you get into the swing of things, you begin to move faster. Then you start a different set of koans and you get stuck again. And this happens over and over in practice, so that there is no way to predict how long it’s going to take. But, after all, what does it matter? We all understand that there is no goal, right? We just practice. We just do. Practice and enlightenment are one. How many of us actually realize that truth?

Regardless of how long formal training takes, there is after that a period of maturation called “the nurturing of the sacred fetus.” This is a period of time in which the teachings are allowed to penetrate one’s flesh and bones and blood so that they become a manifestation of our being. It’s only then that a person is really ready for the seal of approval.

In the literature of Zen there are many examples where after the transmission, the teacher asked the disciple to disappear and let his or her understanding mature. The Sixth Ancestor, Huineng, spent sixteen years in hiding before he emerged and began to teach. The process of training takes a long period of time. There are no quickies in Zen.

Nowadays we see teachers running around with seals of approval who’ve been practicing a year, two years, four years. Some even deny their teachers. This is not new, however. It’s not just a by-product of American greediness. It happened in China, and it happened in Japan. Monastics were buying documents of transmission all over the place. The same is happening now. Self-appointed charlatans are springing up like mushrooms. They have some basic skills—charisma is especially important—a good story line, so people gather around and support them. But mostly, they don’t last very long.

Then there is another trend of the stamping of the face variety that imitates what is happening in Japan—basically, the sausage factory. There are now about 25,000 temples in Japan which need at least 25,000 priests to manage them. There are also two major Soto monasteries, Eiheiji and Sojiji, whose purpose is to train the monastics who will take over those temples. And obviously, the need is continuous, since when one generation dies, another generation is needed to replace it. Unfortunately, the result is that thousands of temple priests get trained, but very few of them become real spiritual teachers. This is not true of all Japanese temples, of course. There are some extraordinary teachers and monasteries, but they are few and far between, maybe fifteen or twenty out of that 25,000.

The commentary continues, “Documents of transmission or seals of sanction are just that, documents and seals, not the dharma.” Having a trophy doesn’t make you a hunter. What does the trophy tell us about the owner? What do the documents of transmission tell us about the teacher? “They don’t liberate people, nor do they relieve suffering. The truth does. The dharma does.” The dharma relieves suffering by transforming our consciousness. “And this is not something that can be given to you. It can only be realized.” The Buddha couldn’t give it to you. My teacher didn’t give anything to me. His teacher didn’t give anything to him. They facilitated the realization of that which was already there, but they didn’t give us anything.

“We should understand that degenerate Buddhism is not something that happens in the world, but rather, it’s a product of our own consciousness. We create it.” There’s a teaching in the Yogacara school of Zen which says that the three worlds are nothing but mind. In other words, we create everything. We create reality. “We make it the living reality it becomes.” What we do and what happens to us is the same thing. And that “doing” includes our actions, our words, and our thoughts. All three produce karma or action, and that action can promote good, harmony, and compassion, or it can produce greed, anger, and hatred.


“It is a product of our collective and individual conditioning.” Our parents, our society, our culture, and education condition each and every one of us, as individuals, and as a society. “It is our self-centeredness, corruption and deceit. It is our institutional mentality which manifests as corrupt government, greedy corporations, war, repression and discrimination.” When we begin with a premise of self-centeredness, corruption, deceit, and the like, necessarily follow. We think that who we are is this bag of skin, and whether that translates as an individual bag of skin or a country, we think we need to defend it. But we don’t do it through skill, understanding, or compassion, but with bayonets drawn. And so, “It is the three poisons, which reveal themselves as excessive self-absorption, attachment, anxiety, depression, malevolence and fear.” But keep in mind that the three poisons are only one side of the equation—the side with a self. When the self is forgotten, greed becomes compassion, anger becomes wisdom, and ignorance becomes enlightenment.

The next line says, “Within heaven and earth, and through space and time, there is a jewel hidden within each one of us.” That jewel is our original perfection. It’s the buddha nature. Upon attaining enlightenment the Buddha said, “All beings, the great earth and I have at once entered the Way.” His realization included all beings, sentient and insentient. But when we don’t understand this truth, we run around thinking that what we do does not affect the rest of the universe.

How can that jewel be found? Where will you search for it? Since you already have it, it follows that the only way to get to it is to discover it. That’s what the Buddha did. That’s what an endless array of Buddhists have done for 2,500 years. Now it’s our turn. “We must learn the backward step and meet the wisdom that has no teacher. We must discover our own inherent and unconditioned compassion and give it life.” To be born human is to be born with wisdom and compassion. They may get covered over with greed, anger, ignorance, and discrimination, but they’re there, buried beneath layers and layers of conditioning.

The Buddhist teachings offer a process. It’s not salvation coming from above, or salvation by some priest or teacher, but realization springing out of our own power to transform ourselves and our lives. That’s how we “Let the three poisons manifest as the three virtues. Each one of us must sweep ourselves clean of all beliefs and dogmas in order to be free and at ease.” How do we do that? We must be aware and awake. We have to acknowledge them, throw them away, and come to the ground of being. And having arrived there, we learn to trust it. We learn to live our life out of that trust.

"But tell me, how will you do it? When will you do it? You are a fully equipped buddha. How will you give it life?" How important is it to you to give it life? That's what matters.

The capping verse says, Buddhas and ancestors have not appeared in the world, nor is there any truth to be given to the people. We shouldn't waste time chasing buddhas and ancestors, whether it's here or abroad, through books or the internet, lectures or discussions. Simply trust yourself. Really be yourself. Give yourself permission to be yourself. They were just able to observe the hearts of beings, and dispense medicine according to the ills. The medicine they dispense is the process. But it doesn't happen by itself, and no one can do it for you. You have to engage it. There are no shortcuts. Ultimately, the question is, will you do it?

Koans of the Way of Reality is a collection of koans complied at Zen Mountain Monasery over the last twenty-five years. It includes both koans that appear in the traditional collections as well as pieces taken from other sources and treated as koans because of their relevance for modern Western practitioners.

John Daido Loori, Roshi is the abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery. A successor to Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi, Roshi, Daido Roshi trained in rigorous koan Zen and in the subtle teachings of Master Dogen, and is a lineage holder in the Soto and Rinzai schools of Zen.