明覺禪師語錄 1.3

1.3

When the master was at Wanshou, after striking the gavel on the day of opening the hall, the master said: "As soon as the ancestral vehicle is sung, the tripiṭaka ceases all exposition. When the ancestral command is put into practice, the ten directions are cut off. If there are eminent people who do not evade life and death, let them twitch their eyebrows and step forward from the assembly to meet face-to-face." A monk asked: "Humans and devas gather everywhere, waiting to hear the sound of thunder. A student steps forward and begs the master to give instruction." The master said: "One hundred and eight thousand is not far." The monk continued: "In that case, the great assembly is moistened with grace." The master said: "Watch after five days." A monk asked: "Whose tune does the master sing? Whose ancestral style do you succeed?" The master said: "Remember it clearly." The monk continued: "In that case, formerly Zhimen, today the upādhyāya." The master said: "What connection is there?" A monk asked: "What is a phrase by which the upādhyāya guides people?" The master said: "Measure ability and assign office." The student said: "Thank you, master, for your upāya." The master said: "Take it yourself and get out." The master then said: "One question and one answer—still nothing of the matter has taken place yet. Even if the grasses, trees, and monastic groves throughout heaven, earth, and the great plains were all to become patch-robed monks, and with different mouths but the same voice each raise hundreds of thousands of difficult questions, it would not take more than a single snap of this elder's fingers, and high and low would be universally answered, before and after without discrepancy, making vast the wondrous spirit of the ancestral buddhas and widening the subtle traces of devas and humans. If it is like this, what need is there for the eastern border of the City of Enlightenment, or for the five assemblies to all dwell before the old buddha's shrine? At this moment, your interview is finished."