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Mumonkan #47, “Tosotsu’s Three Barriers” | Otter.ai

Mumonkan #47, “Tosotsu’s Three Barriers”

John Pulleyn49min

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This is the sixth day of this, September, 2025, seven day sesshin. And today we'll look at a koan from the Mumonkan case, 47

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tou so Tsu three barriers.

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The Mumonkan is a collection of koans that was assembled by the 13th century Chinese Master Wumen Hui Kai. And in English, the collection is often translated as

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the gateless barrier, or the gateless gate, or

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we can think of a gate as a variation of a wall or a fence, something that we got into yesterday when reading from Tangen-roshi teisho.

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But what kind of gate

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is gateless? What kind of wall is wall less?

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How could that be? It's

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there. But it's not there.

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What is is not,

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what is not is

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I'm going to start off reading through the case commentary in verse, and then we'll get into some background material. So first the case tou SOTU sets up three barriers to test his monks

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to inquire after the truth. This is the first barrier to inquire after the truth groping your way through the underbrush is for the purpose of seeing into your self nature at this moment, Where is your nature,

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and now the second barrier,

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also a question.

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When you realize your nature, you are free from life, free from death, when the light of your eyes is falling, excuse me, when the light of your eyes is failing. How can you be free from life and death?

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And then the third, when you are free from life and death, you know where you will go when the four elements separate, where are you off to?

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And then Mumon commentary, if you can rightly give the three turning words here you will be master wherever you may be, and live up to the Dharma in all situations. If, however, you have not resolved the matter yet, I warn you, the food you bolt down won't sustain you. Chew it well and you won't be hungry.

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And then the verse, this one instant, as it is. This is the whole of eternity. The whole of eternity is at the same time, this one instant, if you see into this fact, the one who is seeing has been seen into you.

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Now not a lot is known about tou sotsu, but let me say from the start that the name tou sotsu is the Japanese translation of his Chinese name, do Shuai kan Gu. So let's just shift to using the actual name. Hui went by Kong Gu for short. And in looking at our go to source on the Chinese masters, which is Andy Ferguson's book Zen Chinese heritage, there are a few brief stories and exchanges involving Kong Gu the first One takes place prior to him becoming a master. You

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Kang you was the head monk at Dao Wumen Tou, and on one occasion, he led a group of monks on a journey to visit Zen Master Yun Gai Ji, after only a few sentences of conversation, Master Ji knew that koans Yu possessed special ability.

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Ji laughed and said to koan yuw, I observe that your breath is unusual. Why is it that when you speak, your breath is like that of a drunkard? Koans use face became flushed, and he broke out in a sweat,

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and he said,

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I hope the master won't spare your compassion. I hope the master won't spare your compassion in a indirect way. Kong you is telling master Ji,

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please be kind to me. I hope you'll treat me with compassion.

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By the way, although G told him that his breath reeks of alcohol, we can't take that to mean that he was actually drinking and intoxicated. Ji saw potential in kan Yu, so more than likely, what he was up to is testing koans Yu to see how he responds to such an allegation.

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Getting intoxicated certainly would not have been appropriate behavior for a monk heir. Let alone the head monk. And we know that the monastic rules included abstaining from alcohol,

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but it seems that Kong Gu didn't even get defensive. He didn't challenge Ji's assertion. He just said, Please Master, I ask for your compassion. He.

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Of course, then again, we don't really know how he said it. We don't know the backstory. Can't really read into the lines too much. We can only speculate that he was being genuinely humble and deferential to Ji,

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and yet Ji continued to talk to Kang you by goading him, and kan Yu was flustered by this and didn't understand. So he asked to have a private interview with Ji in the abbot's room. Master Ji asked Cong Gu, have you ever seen Zen Master Fa Hanh di Yuanwu

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said, I've read the record of his talks. I understood it all. So I don't want to see him Zen Now that sounds kind of brazen. I already understand everything that he said. So why should I bother I

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so Kung Gu in this one on one interview in the abbots room is now showing confidence. It's really sticking his neck out. It's a different side of him from the earlier exchange. Ji then said, have you seen Zen master Deng Shan Wen Hua? In other words, okay, is that so how about this other master? Have you seen him? To which koans you said, Guan Chi's disciples don't have any brains. If you put on a cotton garment that smells like piss,

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what good is it?

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This Master Dong Shan Wen Hui, that Ji asks koans you about is a disciple of master Guan chi. And Master Guan Shi was the disciple of Lin-chi, the very founder of the Lin-chi school, Rinzai, as it's called in Japan, yen. And here we have Kang you proclaiming that Wen Hui, along with all the other disciples of Guan chi. They don't have any brains. They stink like a cotton t shirt soaked in urine.

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Sounds like a total insult,

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but it's hard to say. We can't take it at face value. Could have been a compliment. Using paradoxical language and indirection was a common way of communicating in these dialogs at the Time, along with physical gestures,

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slaps and strikes, blows and

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and this kind of language, when used by the master, was a way of challenging the student to go beyond logic, also to go beyond norms and conventions. Hua, but in this case, it's koansu, the student and the head monk, who's making these irreverent remarks.

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The exchange goes on in response to koan Yuanwu retort. She said you should go and practice at that place that smells like piss. You

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so if that's what you think, if that's what you say, that's where you belong. Go see it for yourself.

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For koans, you going to the place he says smells like piss might be just the medicine he needs for what appears to be stubborn pride. He

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and following Ji's instructions, koan, you did go and practice with Zen master Wen Hui, which says a lot, because once again, he apparently didn't get defensive or show resistance. So he goes to train with this master, and while there, he came to deeply realize his teaching,

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and later on, Kang you returns to go see Master Ji. And she said, now that you've seen Guan Sheng disciples,

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what about the great matter to which Kang you said,

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had it not been for your instruction, it would have slipped past me My entire life. And kan Yu then bowed in gratitude.

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So seeing things more clearly now, he was filled with immense gratitude, not a hint of pride. He

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I'm not going to cover all of the dialogs in Andy Ferguson's book. But there's one more that I want to share, and that is from after koans Yu became a master. I

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a master Kung Gu addressed the monks saying, first comes the new spring, and then it's the beginning of summer. The four seasons pass like an arrow. The Sun and Moon move like a shuttle. Before you know it, a red faced babe has turned into an old white heir.

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You must truly exert yourself and use extraordinary effort cultivate your own field. Out and don't steal someone else's seedlings. Applying yourself in this way, your cultivation will certainly result in finally seeing the white ox on snow mountain you

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mountain spring transitions into summer, summer into fall, fall into winter, and then back to spring. The sun rises, and then it sets, and then it rises again.

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Trees start out as tiny little shoots, even before they become a little shoot,

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they're a seed,

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and with the right nourishment and the right conditions,

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the tree grows,

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and eventually it dies and dies, and when it dies, it enriches the very soil That will bring forth new life,

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a new tree.

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Because can say that all of life is just transition, one transition after another.

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Some take the form of milestones in our life, like when you're a kid and you turn 10, you're your first double digit. Turning 18 is another big occasion, becoming an independent adult, getting a driver's license, getting married,

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getting divorced, and

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having a baby, starting a new job, moving to a new place,

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losing a parent, the death of a parent or another loved one,

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it's all transitions, and It happens on a micro level as well,

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just in turning a doorknob, moving from one room into another, walking through a doorway.

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Swiveling around on your seat at the end of the round and standing up

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cliff. Clicking on the breakout room icon on Zoom.

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Of course there's falling asleep and then waking up taking an inhalation. And there's that little gap, that little transition in between

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that leads to the exhalation you.

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This is, this is all part of the cycle of birth and death.

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Beginnings and endings are constant. They're not singular events and they're not finalities. You

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the wheel turns

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constantly,

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but through our ordinary way of being in the world where we see ourselves as kind of a fixed entity, a fixed self, and the people around us as fixed others. We can't really perceive this turning that is happening moment by moment.

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Every single moment is actually a birth and a death. So

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so in these past six days of sesshin moving into we are already into the seventh day. Tonight will be the seventh night, the last night. Over the course of that time, incredible transformation has taken place for each and every one of us. There's no question about that. And just because you're not aware of it, or just because there are thoughts that give you the impression that

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you're stuck,

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that you're not in motion. That doesn't mean it's not so

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the greatest thing about being a Zen teacher is you get to see that transformation. You get to witness it.

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Cultivate your own field for

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forget about thoughts, forget about time, forget about other people.

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Forget about good and bad, right and wrong.

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Forget all of that,

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keep returning to the source. This one mu,

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huatou,

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so let's look

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at the case now in which master Kang you tests his monks with three barriers that take the form of three questions, sort of like three koans in one, but not, not exactly at the same time, because there does appear to be a progression to them with each barrier building on the other. I. So again, the first to inquire after the truth groping your way through the underbrush is for the purpose of seeing into your self nature. At this moment, where is your nature? You

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groping through the underbrush, fumbling around in the dark, trying to make your way through

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a tangle of thoughts and emotional states, All the ideas and narratives that we cling to. And most of all the the idea that there's a me that's a separate from you. You

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and at times, it can feel like you're bushwhacking, like you've got to knock down the underbrush, not just wend your way through it, but knock it down all these bushes and thick vegetation taking a machete to it feels like you're trying to create a path for yourself to get to some destination.

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But where are you trying to get to

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that there's a place, some other place that you need to get to, is a thought

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that the underbrush is in your way,

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also a thought that

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the thoughts are only a barrier when we cling to them,

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they have no substance. There's no physicality to them. You can't see touch or grab them. You

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How can they be a barrier?

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The good news, though, is even if you do get lost in the underbrush, lost in the weeds,

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there's always a direct way out. There's always a direct way out. You

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at this moment, where is your nature?

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Onto the second barrier, when you realize your nature you are free from life, free from death, when the light of your eyes is failing, how can you be free from life and death?

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In doing this practice, we are confronting our own impermanence,

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sickness, aging, disability, and ultimately, the death of Our body,

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physical death,

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that's one sense of it. You

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the body that we're in right now, sooner or later, will cease to be it will stop working.

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The heart will stop. The lungs.

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Won't take in air anymore.

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This is the one thing that is certain as Roshi likes to say, the only thing that is uncertain is the timing of our death.

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Great is the matter of birth and death.

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But again, there's also the moment by moment living and dying that's happening non stop.

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The brain's prefrontal cortex wants us to believe that death is a singular event, something far off in the future and birth is also a singular event, something that had happened on a certain date decades ago. I

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really birth and death are concepts, ideas about there being a beginning and an end.

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Roshi Kapleau used to say, All there is is life.

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When we get into comparing life and death. We're seeing it as a duality,

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compartmentalizing, a process that cannot be separated, cannot be teased apart and

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when the light of Your eyes is failing, how can you Be free? You

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and now the third barrier, when you are free from life and death, you know where you will go when the four elements separate, where are you off to the four elements are Earth, Earth water fire and air, earth water fire and air. We can understand them as the building blocks of life

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and the building blocks of this moment right now.

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What happens to them when we die,

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when we die, where do we Go?

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Who is this person?

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That lives and dies you

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when the four elements separate, where are you off? Tou.

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And then the commentary, if you can rightly give the three turning words here, you will be master wherever you may be, and live up to the Dharma in all situations. If, however, you have not resolved the matter yet, I warn you, the food you bolt down won't sustain you. Chew it well and you won't be hungry. You

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don't bolt it down if you're in a hurry to get somewhere or get something You'll never be satisfied

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that's grasping,

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kind of like Pac Man constantly trying to gobble up dots.

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We can spend much of our life gobbling up stuff, can't we

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gobbling up Knowledge ideas, information, news, the 24/7 news cycle. Media, material possessions, clothes, cars, shiny objects.

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We also gobble up experiences,

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so we can say I did that, or I was there,

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and post about it on Instagram.

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We also can gobble up status markers like degrees and titles and

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constantly trying to get ahead and elevate

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your rank and.

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Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom,

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there's also gobbling up time. We do that by tracking, calculating it. In sesshin, we might be counting the rounds of sitting, counting the days, the hours in a day, how much time is left, trying to spend our time wisely, making the most of it in hope that There will be a payoff later on.

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Forget about later on,

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forget about time.

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Forget about after sesshin.

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What about right now?

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What about now this, if you don't look

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you'll miss it.

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Don't practice as if you're on your way to getting somewhere You

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Chew it well,

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and you won't go hungry. You

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and then the verse, this one instant, as it is, is the whole of eternity. The whole of eternity is at the same time, this one instant, if you see into this fact, the one who is seeing has been seen into you.

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This one instant

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that's all there is. The whole of life is here. Here. And now here.

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There's no place you need to go.

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There's nothing you need to get.

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It's here.

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The gate is wide open.

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I'll stop here and recite the four vows.

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