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CITATION from Dogen Zenji's
GYOJI I (Continuous Practice, I) 行持 (上)
from How to Raise an Ox, tr. by Francis Dojun Cook
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THE GREAT MASTER Chen-chi Ts'ung-shen [called Chao-chou] [Jp., Joshu] of
Kuan-yin temple in Chao-chou, was sixty-one years old when he first aroused
the thought of enlightenment and resolved to seek the Way. He went on a pilgrimage carrying a priest's staff and a bowl for cleaning
himself, and walking everywhere, said to himself, "If I meet someone who
is superior to me, even if she is a seven-year-old girl, I will ask her for
the Way, and even if he a hundred-year-old man, if he is my inferior, I
will teach him." He studied Nan-chuan's Dharma and practiced for
twenty years. When he was eighty, he became chief priest of
the Kuan-yin Temple, where he was the guide for the world
for forty years. During that time, he didn't send a single
letter to any of the families who supported the monastery in
order to get donations. The meditation hall was not large, nor
were there even any stands in front of and behind the hall where
the monks could wash their faces and so on. One time, a leg of his
seat broke off. So Chao-chou bound a piece of partially burned wood
to the seat and kept it like this for a long time. The monk in charge
of these matters wanted to replace the leg of the seat, but Chao-chou
refused. You should make the traditions of these excellent Buddhas
and ancestors models for your own lives.
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