圓悟佛果禪師語錄 11.17

11.17

The Grand Dowager Lady Zhang requested an informal gathering. The Master said: "The frosty wind is piercingly cold; the fine rain falls softly. The gate of liberation is thrown wide open; the eye of the true Dharma is revealed on the crown of the head. Is there anyone who transcends the lineage, surpasses standards, leaves behind views, and cuts off emotions? Come forward and bear witness! If you can bear witness, before the seven Buddhas it was not just so; after the seven Buddhas it was not just so; for the twenty-eight patriarchs of the Western Heavens it was also not just so; for the six patriarchs of the Tang land it was also not just so; down to the ancestral masters of successive generations and the old venerable teachers under heaven, it was also not just so. Why was it not just so? Only for fear of misleading people. Since it is not just so and also does not mislead people, how do you take it upon yourself? Arriving here, within a flat field a cliff stands ten thousand cubits high; where the cliff stands ten thousand cubits high, it is just like a flat field. It bars the strategic ford, not letting ordinary or sage pass through; there is no share for speech and words, nor any share for elaboration. In the end, from where are all people to enter? Sparing not my eyebrows, this old monk discloses a message for you." Thereupon he held up his whisk and said, "Do you see?" He also struck the meditation bed and said, "Do you hear? If you say you see, you have no connection to it; if you say you do not see, you have even less of a connection to it. In the end, how is it? If this old monk were only to speak to you, through unending eons you would never grope it out. If you do not follow verbal explanations, then stark naked and cleanly stripped, each of you cuts off the heads of the reward and transformation Buddhas, and each has an energy that storms through the cosmos; even if a thousand Buddhas appeared, they would be just like mosquitoes and gnats. Only when you can maintain such firmness and be the master like this are you an adept of the fundamental lot. Right at such a time, how do you fully understand? A single phrase far transcends the standards of the Buddhas, cutting off the heads of the patch-robed monks under heaven." He further added a verse: / "Although the lineages of the five houses have been spoken through, / How can that compare to the single thread of Caoxi opening through? / When the precious sword is facing the sun, who kills and who gives life? / Departing from names and forms, the lofty lineage style is roused."