明覺禪師語錄 6.314

6.314

禪師諱重顯，字隱之，大寂九世之孫，智門之法嗣也，俗姓李氏，母文氏，以太平興國五年四月八日，生大師於遂州。始生。瞑目若寐，三日既浴，乃豁然而寤，屏去葷血不習戲弄。七歲，有僧過其門，挽持袈裟，喜不自勝，聞梵唄之聲，輒泣下。父母問其故，懇請出家，父母執不可，師不食者累日。咸平中終父母喪，詣益州普安院仁銑師，落髮為弟子。大慈寺僧元瑩，講定慧圓覺疏，師執卷質問大義，至心本是佛，由念起而漂沈，伺夜入室請益，往復數四，瑩不能屈，乃拱手稱謝曰：「子非滯教者，吾聞南方有得諸佛清淨法眼者，子其從之，彼待子之求也久矣。」師於是東出襄陽，至石門聰禪師之席，居三歲，機緣不諧，聰諭之曰：「此事非思量分別所解。隨州智門祚禪師，子之師也。」師乃徙錫而詣之，一夕問祚曰：「古人不起一念，云何有過？」祚招師前席，師攝衣趨進，祚以拂子擊之，師未曉其旨，祚曰：「解麼？」師擬答次，祚又擊之，師由是頓悟。尋往廬山林禪師道場，問之曰：「法爾不爾，云何指南？」林曰：「只為法爾不爾。」師遂拂衣而退，眾皆股栗。有毀於林者，林諭眾曰：「此如來廣大三昧也，非汝等輩以取捨心可了別也。」

The Chan Master's taboo name was Chongxian, his style was Yinzhi; he was a ninth-generation descendant of Daji and a Dharma heir of Zhimen. His secular surname was Li, and his mother was of the Wen clan. On the eighth day of the fourth month in the fifth year of the Taiping Xingguo era, the Great Master was born in Suizhou. At his birth, his eyes were closed as if asleep; when washed after three days, he suddenly opened his eyes and awoke. He shunned pungent foods and blood, and did not engage in playful games. At age seven, a monk passed by his gate; clinging to the monk's kāṣāya, he was overcome with joy, and whenever he heard the sound of Buddhist chanting, tears would fall. His parents asked him the reason, and he earnestly requested to leave home; his parents adamantly refused, so the Master did not eat for several days. During the Xianping era, after concluding the mourning for his parents, he went to Master Renxian at the Pu'an Monastery in Yizhou and had his head shaved to become a disciple. The monk Yuanying of Daci Monastery was lecturing on the Dinghui Commentary on the Sutra of Complete Enlightenment; the Master held the scroll to question him on its great meaning: reaching the point where 'the mind is originally Buddha, but drifts and sinks due to the arising of thoughts,' he waited for night to enter his room to request further explanation. After several exchanges, Yuanying could not confound him; cupping his hands, he thanked him, saying, 'You are not one who is stuck in the teachings. I have heard that in the south there are those who have obtained the pure Dharma eye of all Buddhas; you should follow them. They have long been waiting for your search.' The Master thereupon went east out of Xiangyang and arrived at the assembly of Chan Master Cong of Shimen. He stayed there for three years, but conditions did not harmonize. Cong instructed him, saying, 'This matter is not understood through thinking and discrimination. Chan Master Zuo of Zhimen in Suizhou is your master.' The Master then moved his staff and went to him. One evening, he asked Zuo, 'When an ancient did not give rise to a single thought, why was there still a fault?' Zuo summoned the Master before his seat; as the Master gathered his robes and stepped forward, Zuo struck him with his fly-whisk. The Master did not understand his intention, so Zuo said, 'Do you understand?' As the Master prepared to answer, Zuo struck him again; from this, the Master was suddenly awakened. Soon he went to the bodhimaṇḍa of Chan Master Lin on Mount Lu and asked him, 'Things are inherently so, yet not so; how does one point the direction?' Lin said, 'Only because things are inherently so, yet not so.' The Master thereupon shook his sleeves and withdrew, leaving the assembly trembling in their boots. Someone spoke ill of him to Lin, but Lin instructed the assembly, saying, 'This is the vast and great samādhi of the Tathāgata; it is not something you people can distinguish with a mind of grasping and discarding.'