撫州曹山本寂禪師語錄 2.47

2.47

A monk asked, "What is the different species of coming and going?" I said, "Not yet knowing the existence of oneself." I also said, "All words, sounds, forms, right and wrong are entirely the different species of coming and going." The monk said, "What is the different species within identity?" I said, "Not choosing one's body." The monk said, "What is wearing fur and bearing horns?" I said, "Not establishing defilement and purity; also, in responding to defilement out of season, touching is just touching, and meeting purity is just purity." The monk said, "What is the different species within the ancestral school?" I said, "If a head is wanted, chop it off and take it away." (Because a monk asked the former master Dongshan about the śramaṇa practice, the former master answered, "The head is three feet long, the neck is two inches long." The monk also asked me, "What is the meaning of this?" I said, "Superior phrases and wondrous phrases." The monk said, "What do you call superior phrases and wondrous phrases?" I said, "Superior phrases and wondrous phrases are of three kinds. First: the various buddhas appearing in the world, the expedient means set forth over forty-nine years, the twelve-part teachings, the hundreds of thousands of samādhis, every wondrous gate probed to the end—all are superior phrases and wondrous phrases. This is spoken on the side of leaving the world. Second: passing from ordinary to holy, penetrating oneself as no different from the buddhas, leaving nothing out, one only then attains the entire body; only then is it called 'every dust and every thought, the Bhagavāns of the ten directions, the single path of the gate to nirvāṇa.' When one arrives at such a juncture, not abiding in the correct rank and not choosing one's body, one instead enters into different species, wearing fur and bearing horns without different thoughts. Therefore it is said, 'None of the species of things can compare to it; the buddhas and patriarchs cannot measure it.' Therefore an ancient said, 'As for the śramaṇa's words, one cannot give people words of measurement.' Hence they are called superior phrases and wondrous phrases; this is speech on the side of the species of form. Third: nothing that exists can compare to it; only then is it called superior phrases and wondrous phrases. Therefore an ancient said, 'A thousand kinds cannot compare to it; ten thousand things cannot match it. The wise cannot know it; those of highest faculties do not recognise it.' It is also said, 'Originally there is no resemblance.' Hence they are superior phrases and wondrous phrases. As for superior phrases and wondrous phrases, they are matters that cannot be fathomed in heaven or among humans; therefore an ancient said, 'They are called phrases that transcend beginning and end.' Borrowing this, it is spoken as practice on the side of the species of words.")