圓悟佛果禪師語錄 10.7

10.7

The Master said: 'Sitting upright in the hall, face-to-face without selfishness, free of characteristics and cutting off names, hitting the mark when meeting the dynamic; revealing a form and opening a thread of a path, raising a face to show a little bridge—like seeing smoke beyond the mountain and already knowing it is fire, or seeing horns beyond the wall and already knowing it is an ox. If one insists solely on following numbers and chasing names, seeking the mysterious and searching for the subtle, then one loses the great matter under one's own feet and buries the family style of the buddhas and patriarchs from of old. Just now, without relying on a single thing and without manifesting a trace of news, is there anyone who can corroborate this together? If you can corroborate it, blocking off the vital ford so neither ordinary person nor sage can pass, you will not each beat your own breast where old Śākyamuni modeled and drew patterns two thousand years ago. Why? A great fellow does not stay where others stay, and does not use what others use. The steps of the patriarchs are the second head; surpassing buddhas and leaping over patriarchs is the third chief; being stark naked and clean and unencumbered, standing alone and exposed in broad daylight, is the eighth understanding. Therefore it is said: "Only the final phrase reaches the barrier fortress, blocking off the vital ford so neither ordinary person nor sage can pass." If one is a person of the superior stream, one does not take the patriarchs' verbal teachings as an exemplar for others. It would be like a turtle bearing a diagram, bringing on itself the omen of losing its life; or a phoenix entangled in a golden net, when could it ever hope to reach the high heavens? Tonight, I take them all away at once for you all. Dare I ask the great assembly: how do you speak a phrase that does not fall into the verbal teachings of the patriarchs? When myriad conditions do not reach the place of no-mind, / In the end it is entirely like gazing at a donkey in a well.' He stepped down from the seat.