圓悟佛果禪師語錄 10.18

10.18

At an informal gathering requested by Mr. Zeng, the Master said: "When the complete dynamic does not move, it gathers all images before the eyes; when meeting face-to-face, it cuts off a thousand distinctions beyond the conventional. If moved, shadows appear; if perceived, ice forms; if neither moved nor perceived, it is directly rubbing one's eyes. Within it there is a path: covering heaven and earth, covering color and sound, dense and continuous, smooth and steady. If you are a traveler of the gate of Caoxi, arriving directly at the place of liberation, you do not fall into second or third. Even before it is brought up, one has already fallen into second and third, let alone bringing it up in verbal explanations, which are entirely collapses and failures. Therefore it is said: 'The twenty-eight Indian Patriarchs were like this, the six Chinese Patriarchs were like this, all the old monks under heaven were like this, and this mountain monk is also like this.' Arriving here, try looking without using your eyes, try listening without using your ears. If right here you can cut it off, hold it fast, and be the master all at once, you will join hands with the thousand sages, sharing the same right cause and the same liberation. Although it is like this, right at such a time, how do you utter the phrase of establishing no steps? Do you understand? / Before sound, cut off the paths of a thousand distinctions; / Going beyond the conventional relies solely on the knower." / He added in verse: / "A single move meeting the dynamic cuts off all streams; / Choosing an official or choosing a Buddha are both supreme. / Meeting and seeing each other with hearty laughter, / In heaven and among humans, one attains complete freedom."