Blue Cliff Record, Case 3
Great Master Ma was unwell. The temple superintendent asked him, “Teacher, how has your venerable health been in recent days?”
The Great Master said, “Sun Face Buddha, Moon Face Buddha.”
Background
Master Ma is the great seminal Zen Master Mazu. Here is how he is introduced in the Dentoroku (186).
Master Tao I (Ma Tsu) of the south of the River was a man from Shih Fang Province of Han State. His surname was Ma, and his appearance was strange. When he spread out his tongue it covered his nose, and he had two wheel-shaped marks on his feet. He walked like and ox and looked at things like a tiger. When young, he had his head shaved by Venerable T’ang Ho of Tzu State, and he received the Complete Precepts from Vinaya Master Yuan. During the era of K’ai Yuan (713-741 A.D.) of the T’ang dynasty he practiced Ch’an samadhi at Ch’uan Fa Temple of Heng Mountain, where he met with master Huai Jang. He became one of the nine monks under this master, but was the only one of them who received the secret spiritual seal.
From Buddha Trace Cliff at Chien Yang, the Master first moved to Lin Ch’uan; then later he went to Kung Mountain in Nan K’ang, and during the Ta Li era (766-799 A.D.) he joined K’ai Yuan Temple. On hearing of his reputation, Lien Shuai and Lu Szu Kung came in person to accept the religion, and because of this, students from the four directions assembled like clouds under his seat.
I use the word “seminal” because Ma was the Father of many of the great Tang Zen masters. He had 139 dharma heirs, among whom were Baizhang, Nanquan, and Layman Pang. He was also close to Shitou. Mazu and Shitou often sent students back and forth between them like ping-pong balls. Mazu’s heirs composed what was called the Hungchou School of Ch’an. It was Mazu’s lineage which produced the Linchi/Rinzai School of Zen. Shitou’s lineage produced the Soto School.
The terms “Sun Faced Buddha” and “Moon Face Buddha” and this koan do not appear in the Dentoroku. But the koan does appear in Cheng Chien Bhikshu’s translation of the Mazuroku, or The Record of Mazu. (p.61).
The Master had one hundred and thirty-nine close disciples, all of whom became teachers in different areas, thus continuing his teaching.
During the first month of the fourth year of the Chen-yuan period (788), the Master climbed Shih-men Mountain in Chien-ch’ang. As he was walking through the forest, he saw a cave which was very flat. He told his attendant, “Next month my old and useless body should return to this place.” Having said that, they returned to the monastery.
Not long afterwards the Master became ill. The head monk asked him, “How is the Venerable feeling these days?”
The Master replied, “Sun-Face Buddha, Moon-Face Buddha.”
On the first day of the second month, after having taken a bath, he sat cross-legged and passed away. During the Yuan-ho period (806-820) he received the posthumous title Ch’an Master Tai-chi (Great Quiescence). The stupa built in his memory was called “Great Adornment.”
A similar account is found in Andy Ferguson’s Zen Chinese Heritage (71).
Dogen writes a poem in the Eihei Koroku (9.80).
When Mazu was not well, a monk asked,
“Teacher, these days how is your venerable health?”
Mazu said, “Sun-face Buddha; Moon Face Buddha.”
Dogen then adds a poem.
There used to be a buddha in Kiangsi
Who made the sun and moon his face.
With what was he not endowed?
Surrounded in Go, he met a foe.
The koan also appears as Case 36 in The Book of Serenity (160-162). Tiantong, who contributed the verses to the koans of the book has two startling lines.
Sun Face Buddha, Moon Face Buddha—
Stars fall, thunder rolls,
And Wansong, in his commentary, says, “The left and right eyes are sun face buddha, moon face buddha!”
Finally, there is a sutra, called the Butsumyokyo, or Buddha Name Scripture which lists 1, 193 names of Buddhas and bodhisattvas. Among them are Sun-faced Buddha who is said to live for 1,800 years, and Moon-faced Buddha who lives for one day and one night.
Reflections
This koan resonates within me. I have mentally chanted it as a mantra during zazen. On the inbreath, sunfacebudda, on the outbreath, moonfacebuddha. Waiting for something. And when I open my eyes I see Wansong’s eyes. One eye the sunface the other eye the moonface. But which eye is which? I think my left eye is worse than my right eye. So can that be the sunface? For it seems as if vision works from left to right. Or is it right to left? Now, as I write these words and remove my glasses and place a hand over my left eye and look at the screen, then over my right eye and look at the screen I can’t see which eye is better or worse. Both eyes together at the same time are sunfacemoonface.
There is a short life of 1,800 years and a long life of a day and a night together at the same time. I see that one day and a night is 1,800 years long and that 1,800 years long is one day and one night. That each moment contains the most infinitesimal fraction of 1,800 years as well as one day and one night. Each sunfaceinbreath contains each of the 1,800 breaths. Each moonfaceoutbreath contains one day and one night. And the pause between the sun and moon breaths is empty and is both the sun and the moon and the universe and the stars and the planets and the grasses and the trees and the mountains and the oceans and all of humanity and the sorrows and pains and outbreaks of war and starvation and tsunamis and floods and hurricanes and violence and presidential elections and everything. And it also is my sometimes spasmodic breathing. My sunbreath and moonbreath. It is the intruding staples in my lungs and the movement of sputtering oxygen into my lungs.
How are you?
Sunface. Moonface.
Another, way to put it could be,
Hey! How are you?
Enh! Sometimes up, sometimes down.
Or,
Hey! How are you?
Enh! OK, now let’s do something else.
And Mazu entered the zendo, sat cross-legged and died.
And that’s what happens. Even to giants like Mazu whose tongue covered his nose, who had wheel-shaped marks on his feet, who walked like an ox and had the deep eyes of a tiger. It happens even to kings and emperors and elephants and dinosaurs and mountains and the grasses. Up and down. It happens to you and it happens to me.
Sunfacemoonface.
Great Master Ma was unwell. The temple superintendent asked him, “Teacher, how has your venerable health been in recent days?”
The Great Master said, “Sun Face Buddha, Moon Face Buddha.”
