瑞州洞山良价禪師語錄 1.7

1.7

The Master took leave of Yunyan. Yunyan said, "Where are you going?" The Master said, "Although I am leaving the upādhyāya, I have not yet determined where I will dwell." Yunyan said, "Are you going to Hunan?" The Master said, "No." He asked, "Are you going back to your home village?" The Master said, "No." He asked, "Sooner or later, will you come back?" The Master said, "I will come as soon as the upādhyāya has a dwelling place." Yunyan said, "Once parted from this, it will be hard to meet again." The Master said, "It will be hard not to meet." As he was about to leave, he asked further, "A hundred years from now, if someone suddenly asks, 'Can you still depict the Master's true [likeness]?', how should I reply?" Yunyan remained silent for a good while, then said, "Just this is it." The Master sank into contemplation. Yunyan said, "Ācārya Jie, when taking up this matter, you must be extremely meticulous." The Master was still beset by doubt. Later, when crossing a stream and catching sight of his reflection, he was greatly awakened to the former meaning. He had a gāthā: "Avoid seeking from another by all means; / It is distantly estranged from me. / Now I go alone, / Everywhere I encounter him. / He is right now me, / I am not now him. / One must understand in this way / To then accord with tathatā." On another day, while making offerings before the portrait of Yunyan, a monk asked, "The late master said 'Just this is it'—isn't that simply it?" The Master said, "It is." The monk asked, "What was the meaning?" The Master said, "At that time I nearly misunderstood the late master's meaning." The monk asked, "I wonder, did the late master still know of that which is, or not?" The Master said, "If he did not know of that which is, how could he have spoken like that? If he did know of that which is, how could he be willing to speak like that?" (Changqing Leng said, "Since he knew of that which is, why did he speak like that?" He also said, "Only when raising a child does one know a father's kindness.")