黃龍慧南禪師語錄 1.3

1.3

The Master then said: "Before ascending this seat, there was not a single matter. No sooner had I ascended this seat than there were so many questions and answers. I venture to ask the assembly: just as with this questioning and answering, does it correspond to the ancestral vehicle or not? If you say it corresponds, does the entire canon of teachings lack questions and answers? Why is it said: 'A separate transmission outside the teachings, transmitted to those of superior faculties'? If you say it does not correspond, then what were all those questions and answers just now aimed at? Itinerant practitioners must open their eyes for themselves, lest they have regrets later. If we speak of this matter, it is not something that supernormal powers or cultivation and realization can attain, nor is it something spoken of by extensive learning and wisdom. The buddhas of the three times only say they know it themselves; the entire canon of teachings cannot fully explain or comment upon it. Therefore, amidst the hundreds of thousands of assembly members on Gṛdhrakūṭa, only Kāśyapa was permitted to hear it intimately; the robe and bowl among the seven hundred eminent monks of Huangmei were bestowed upon the lay practitioner. How could this be something your greed, lust, foolish attachments, and competitiveness are capable of? Now, one who leaves household life must possess the resolute, fierce will of a great man, sever both extremes, sit firmly at home, and only then open wide the gates, bring forth his own family wealth, receive visitors, and relieve the destitute and exposed. Only then will there be a small portion of repaying the Buddha's profound grace. If it is not so, it is completely out of the question!" Striking the Chan seat with his fly-whisk, he descended from the seat and expressed thanks.