圓悟佛果禪師語錄 10.23

10.23

At an informal gathering for tonsure, a monk asked: "When the correct command is in force, the ten directions are cut off; when the lineage style is established, there is not a hair's breadth of error. We wish to hear you raise and expound the causal conditions of this time." The Master said: "It is simply the old face." The monk asked further: "I beg the Master to give instruction again on what is brand-new." The Master said: "Swap out the one just now." The monk asked further: "The wheel of the Dharma turns again in Jambudvīpa; the light of the Way shines anew across a thousand ages." The Master said: "Who is not like this?" The monk asked further: "As for Bodhisattva Boundless Body, why did he not see the Tathāgata's uṣṇīṣa?" The Master said: "Sometimes like this, sometimes not like this." The monk asked further: "What is the Venerable's uṣṇīṣa?" The Master said: "Wrong." The monk bowed, and the Master said: "Indeed, indeed." The Master then said: "Completing anew the monk's appearance and donning once more the square robe, the udumbara flower is not easy to encounter. The debt of gratitude is as heavy as hills and mountains—how can it be requited? I abruptly hold up the essential principle of a single autumn hair. The worlds of the ten directions, whether long or short, whether vertical or horizontal, up to the fragrant water seas and the ineffable, ineffable boundless ocean of realms, are completely within this single autumn hair. Sometimes manifesting a boundless body, welling up in the east and sinking in the west, welling up in the south and sinking in the north, welling up in the center and sinking at the edge, performing immeasurable and boundless supernatural transformations, yet it does not go beyond this single autumn hair. Sometimes chilly and silent, like withered wood and rotten stumps, cold ashes and dead fire, one thought for ten thousand years and ten thousand years in one thought, yet it also does not go beyond this single autumn hair. Even to performing immeasurable, boundless, exceptionally wondrous, and difficult austerities, transforming everything to become Buddhas and become patriarchs, it also does not go beyond this single autumn hair. Do you all still know this single autumn hair? If you know it, then before opening the mouth, before giving rise to intention, before Buddhas and sentient beings have manifested their signs, before the kalpa of emptiness—it would be good to comprehend it! Having comprehended it, then roll it up and hold it in your bosom; acting freely and naturally, as if dull and foolish, you will not fail to be a decisive great person. But if not yet so, you must reverse the light to illumine inward; whether in motion or stillness, whether dwelling or walking, whether sitting or lying down, you must investigate its root source before you can succeed. Before parents gave birth, after parents have given birth, the six sense organs, four great elements, and three hundred and sixty joints are fully complete; when cold, knowing cold; when hot, knowing hot; when hungry, knowing hunger; when full, knowing fullness; up to bearing the sky on the head and treading the earth with the feet, having teeth and wearing hair—all receive the power of this grace! Tell me: how do you orient toward this power of grace? Do you still know? The single breath speaks not, yet contains all phenomena; where can the myriad spirits offer thanks for what is unselfish?"