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Notes Chapter 1 • Putting the Fox Back in the Fox Kòan 1. The main locations of the fox kòan text are: WMK no. 2, in T 48:293a–b; TJL no. 8, in T 48:231c–232b; and MS 102, in DZZ 5:178–180. (See also Mana Shòbògenzò goi sakuin, ed. Sòtòshû shûgaku kenkyûjò (Tokyo: Sòtòshû shûgaku kenkyûjò, 1993), pp. 26–27.) The kòan is also included in many other texts; see Appendix I. 2. There is a discrepancy in traditional sources regarding the date of Pai-chang’s birth. According to Ch’en Hsü’s Panegyrical Inscription, which is followed by most modern scholars, Pai-chang died at the age of sixty-six. But the CCL and other hagiographies indicate that he died at the age of ninety-five, which would give him a birthdate of 720, although this is not supported by any other historiographical evidence. See Yi T’ao-tien, trans., “Records of the Life of Ch’an Master Pai-chang Huai-hai,” Eastern Buddhist 8 (1975):42–73, especially p. 45, n. 4. Traditional sources for Pai-chang’s biography include: TTC, chüan 14; CCL, chüan 6; WTH, chüan 3; SKSC, chüan 10. 3. For a discussion of Zen lineage systems encompassing the seven primordial buddhas see Yanagida Seizan, Shoki Zenshû shisho no kenkyû (Kyoto: Hòzòkan, 1967). 4. “Four houses” refers to the lineage of Ma-tsu, Pai-chang, Huang-po, and Lin-chi, whose texts of recorded sayings were collected in a single volume in the twelfth century. Ma-tsu’s twisting of Pai-chang’s nose and shouting in his ear are among the earliest instances of the use of physical abuse or intimidation in encounter dialogues. Pai-chang later gave and received the same treatment from Huang-po, who did the same with Lin-chi. 5. For the use of the twin phrases “the barbarian has a red beard, red-bearded barbarian”—which is a mouthful in Japanese pronunciation (koshushaku shakushuko)—in various kòan commentaries, especially Dògen’s, 223 see Suzuki Tetsuo, “Koshushaku to Shakushuko,” IBK 44(3) (1996):720–727. It is interesting to note that Bodhidharma, known for his foreignness ethnically as well as culturally, was sometimes referred to as the “blue-eyed barbarian,” though this was probably not one of his physical attributes. Moreover, in WMK case 4 Huo-an asks an inversion of the standard query, “Why has the barbarian from the west no beard?” 6. According to the basic Buddhist analysis of conditioned reality there are two types of causes for each and every phenomenon: the direct (Skt. hetu; C. yin; J. in) and the contributory (Skt. pratîtya; C. yüan; J. en). The main point is that according to the doctrine of pratîtya-samutpâda nothing exists independently —either without a prior cause and subsequent effect or with only a single cause minus the multiplicity of causal and conditioning factors. This raises the question of whether nirvana as the prime example of asaºsk∑ta-dharma (unconditioned phenomena) can be considered either free from cause or the product of cause (the realm of saºsk∑ta-dharma or conditioned phenomena, which is also analyzed in terms of the five aggregates and the doctrines of nonself and impermanence ). Theoretically nirvana is both a product and transcendent of causality. Which is the correct view? Or is the doctrine of causality contradictory with regard to the status of noncausality? 7. But supernatural elements, such as revelatory dreams, bilocation, and magical practices, are prevalent in numerous cases (see Chapter 5). 8. This attitude may derive from a Confucian influence—as expressed in a famous passage in the Analects (11:11)—which negates the value of speculating on the afterlife. The absence of the motif in Zen may be considered an argument from silence in favor of such a view. 9. Originally the term apparently referred to a walking stick in Indian Buddhism for use by the old and sick. In China it came to refer to a stick carried by an itinerant monk who has traveled in the vast wilderness. See Robert Aitken, The Gateless Barrier: The Wu-men Kuan (Mumonkan) (San Francisco: North Point, 1990), p. 266. Aitken gives this a demythological interpretation in that cutting a stick in wild mountains is like shaping one’s true nature or original Buddha nature . The staff is cited...

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