Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘Master Seigen ordered Sekito to take a letter to Master Nangaku, and he said, “After you have delivered the letter, come back soon. I have a hatchet and hope to live with you on this mountain.” Sekito, on arriving at Nangaku’s temple, before he had presented the letter, asked at once, “What is it like when we do not idolize the saints and do not attach importance to our own spirit?” Nangaku said, “The disciple asks of life on a tremendously high level. Why do you not aim your question lower?” Sekito said, “How could I accept forever being sunk? I shall pursue liberation without following sacred ones.” Nangaku then desisted. Sekito went back to Jogo. Master Seigen said, “It is not long since the disciple left. Have you delivered the letter or not?”  Sekito said, “No information was communicated nor any letter delivered.” The master said, “What happened?” Sekito related the above story, and then said, “When I set out, I received the master’s permission and now I would like to receive that hatchet.” The master let a leg hang down. Sekito did prostrations to it. Then he departed for Nangaku.’ (Keitokudentōroku)

I had never heard this story before, but we came across it in our Dogen study group; Dogen quoted the two lines about the hatchet, without any context, and the story is told in a footnote of the Nishijima-Cross translation. These teachers were the immediate descendants of the Sixth Ancestor in China, as Zen began to flourish and different teachers started to develop their own styles and schools. In the end, Sekito came back to Seigen, which is why we chant their names in the sequence off ancestors that leads to Suzuki Roshi.