Before three and three
Behind three and three

This poem is from the 35th case of the Blue Cliff Record, "Manjusri's Before Three and Three, Behind three and Three." Issan no Reiyu and Kyozan Ejaku began the Igyo sect, and Master Kyozan was followed by Bunki Zenji. One day Mujaku Bunki Zenji had a dream while playing on Mount Godai.

In this dream he met Manjusri Bodhisattva and went to stay at his temple on the mountain. The mondo of this case took place there, and Mujaku Bunki later used it as a guide for training his students. Manjusri is famous for his wisdom of the undifferentiated. This isn't the wisdom of dualism, relative view, or mental understanding, but what's prior to everything. Thus, Manjusri represents the wisdom that precedes any dualism.

Mujaku had been told that he could find a living Manjusri on Mount Godai. Because he wanted to have a Dharma encounter with Manjusri, he climbed the mountain. As nightfall approached, he hadn't met anyone like Manjusri. It was almost dark when an old man came along leading a cow. Mujaku explained very meticulously why he had come there to meet Manjusri Bodhisattva. The old man took him to a temple.

There the old man showed him a cup, a very precious and rare cup used for drinks that were so fragrant and indescribable, his eyes and his tongue would melt if he tasted them. At that time this mondo took place.

The old man asked, "From where have you come?"

Mujaku answered, "I have come from the south."

"Oh. How is the Buddhism in the south these days?"

"There are a few people who are obeying the precepts, but it is only about that."

"How many monks are there?"

"There are 300 or 500 monks. And how is the Buddha Dharma here?"

The old man answered, "Dragons and snakes are all mixed up together, the gold and the sand are all mixed up, and those who are enlightened and ignorant are all mixed up together too."

"How many are there?"

"Before three and three, behind three and three." This is how he answered.

Mujaku asked to stay for one night, but he wasn't allowed to do so. He thanked the old man warmly. As the old man saw Mujaku to the gate, a younger man went along with them. Surreptitiously, Mujaku asked the young man, "That old man said, 'Before three and three, behind three and three.' How many are really here?"

The young man called out Mujaku's name, and he answered, "Yes?"

The young man responded, "How many is this?" This was not your usual young man.

Mujaku then asked, "What temple is this, anyway?"

As he asked, he looked up to point at the temple's gate, and suddenly there was no more old man, no more temple, no more young man—there was nothing at all.

Mujaku stayed on Mount Godai and trained there a long time, living in a place known as the Diamond Sutra Cave. He realized that the old man he had encountered there, was, in fact, the living Manjusri.

This koan is a mondo between the wisdom of the discriminative, represented by Mujaku, and the wisdom of equality or nondiscrimination, represented by Manjusri.

"There are a few people who are obeying the precepts" and "There are 300 or 500 monks" are answers from the world of discrimination. Then the walls of discrimination are torn down by Manjusri as he answers from the wisdom of the root source, "Dragons and snakes are all mixed up together, the gold and the sand are all mixed up, and those who are enlightened and ignorant are all mixed up together too." Because one was talking in the world of discriminative wisdom and the other was talking in the world of source root wisdom, there's no way they could understand one another. Their exchange could be seen as nothing more than weird conversation, but we have to know that there are different ways of approaching it.

In the world there are problems of good and bad, yes and no, right and wrong. Often we don't understand what someone is saying or what we need to do to make things clear. Sometimes we forget our differences and work together, shoulder-to-shoulder. We need to learn to speak as one humankind.

We shouldn't get angry at the mistakes of another. Instead, it's important to review our own behavior. Everything changes so quickly we can hardly bear to look. In our daily lives, where can we stop and rest? Because our lives are so busy we can't slow down. We just have to forge ahead. We can look at it like the flight of an airplane: the greater its speed, the more stable its seats need to be. In the same way, the more we use our mind to process discriminating information and address the circumstances of the world, the more we need to swallow it all down.

We have to forget ourselves, living big, as with our zazen. Letting it all go, we embrace everything that comes our way. Whether we're hated or hating, resentful or being resented, acting for profit or loss, we have to put it all behind us and cut away everything in our mind.

Before three and three
Behind three and three

Drinking down all of humankind in one gulp, we can savor that sublime piquancy of each and every person's individual absolute value.