撫州曹山元證禪師語錄 1.82

1.82

In a discrimination made on another occasion, it was said: “Now, what the late master clarified regarding the biased and the correct, together with integration, all employed the late master’s original intent. It was not to clarify ranks of meritorious practice and advancement, nor did it involve the phrases of doctrinal teachings. It is simply profound discourse beyond the patterns, the essential, consummate, and wonderful meaning, merely clarifying that from the very beginning, the substance of things is manifest before us, silently tallying with the Way of the ancient sages. Seeing nowadays that various scholars, in interpreting and discriminating the intentions of our predecessor, seem to have mistakenly obscured them, I cannot avoid briefly laying out their appropriateness. What is precious is not confounding their functions. Therein, there is sometimes using the rank to clarify merit, or using merit to clarify the rank. The threads of conditions are manifold, and the function lies in the immediate moment: looking at the momentum of the incoming words so as not to betray the incoming capacity; the subtlety lies purely in the fine consummation.”