圓悟佛果禪師語錄 11.19

11.19

At a winter night's informal gathering, a monk asked: "In former days, Deshan held informal gatherings and did not answer questions, while Zhaozhou held informal gatherings and answered questions. I wonder: was the one who answered right, or was the one who did not answer right?" The Master said: "Neither is right." The monk proceeded: "Good notes are in the ear; everyone is thrilled." The master said: "Divining with a ladle, listening to empty sounds." The monk proceeded: "What about when not answering questions within answering questions, and answering questions within not answering questions?" The Master said: "Sticking one's head out from the nest of vines." The monk proceeded: "What if a fellow comes out who doesn't care about answering or not answering, and just overturns the meditation couch?" The Master said: "A blow of the staff right across his back." The monk said: "Perilous!" The Master said: "Perilous!" The monk gave a shout; the Master also gave a shout. The monk bowed and returned to the assembly. The Master said: "A total exposure of flaws." The Master then said: "Great assembly! Cutting off all dynamic potentials before any sign appears, cutting off the tongues of everyone under heaven, concealing the dark workings in immediate transformation, the single yang is born in worldly conventions. And tell me: is it one or is it two? If you say it is one, why are there worldly truths within the ultimate truth? If you say it is two, why is there no ultimate truth within worldly truths? Arriving here, if you do not have the barrier-penetrating eye to see through the mechanism, you cannot avoid being muddled, heedless, blind, and clumsy. Do you know what is within this? It is just like a bright mirror on its stand, a luminous pearl in one's palm; when raised, nothing is left unillumined, the myriad forms are clear and distinct. Though the four seasons transition, within them is a substance that does not shift a single hairsbreadth; though the ten thousand dynamics arise together, within them is a source that remains serenely unmoved. By this, turn the road around and respond to the dynamic potential according to conditions. If you do not see it, even if a thousand sages appeared, they could not grasp it; even if an extraordinary patch-robed monk came out with eyes like bronze bells and a mouth like a torrent, he could not speak of it, nor could he catch sight of it. Tianning's intention is to untie your bonds, release your fetters, pull out your wedges, and extract your nails; yet arriving here, not a single bit of artifice can be used. And tell me: why is this so? His family inherently has a path reaching straight to heaven; beware of gesturing and pointing him out in broad daylight." The Master said: "Last night when the bell sounded, you all came here—this was already thrusting your heads into a basin of glue. Tonight when the bell sounded, you came again; what business is there? A second and a third time—you have already fallen into error. If you are one who knows what exists, upon merely hearing it mentioned, it penetrates your bones and enters your marrow; you kick it up and walk on, cut off the heads of the reward and transformation Buddhas, and do not fall into speech or silence, sound or form—then that is a little better. If, as before, you only guard your burrows, the mountain monk cannot avoid stirring up trouble where there is none, expressing words where there are none, speaking of entanglements where there are no entanglements, and setting up thorns where there are no briars. When a single speck of dust is raised, the great earth is completely gathered in; in all four quarters and eight directions, it is stripped bare and purely exposed. Flowers bloom, the world rises like floating banners, the king's lands are distinct and bright, so that insentient and sentient beings alike realize the Buddha path, and spoken and unspoken alike turn the dharmacakra. This is still just picking up things by the shore of the ocean of Dharma-nature. If you turn to the gate of patch-robed monks: even if you shatter empty space with a single staff-blow and scatter the white clouds with a single shout, Śākyamuni and Maitreya are still just errand boys, and Deshan and Linji will stare blankly with mouths agape—still not yet having the breath of the fundamental lot. Therefore it is said: 'Sit on your tongue and form a different view; they investigate living phrases, not dead phrases.' If you understand under a living phrase, you will never forget for eternal kalpas; if you understand under a dead phrase, you cannot even save yourself. Just as for you all right now, how do you understand his living phrases? Could 'mind itself is Buddha' be a living phrase? No connection. Could 'neither mind nor Buddha' be a living phrase? No connection. Could 'not mind, not Buddha, not a thing' be a living phrase? No connection. Could getting a blow of the staff upon entering the gate be a living phrase? No connection. Could getting a shout upon entering the gate be a living phrase? No connection. As long as there are any words, they are all dead phrases. What is a living phrase? Do you understand? Standing on one foot on a tenthousand-fathom peak, pitch black in all four quarters and eight directions." He further said: "In a single gulp swallowing the West River dry, / The chestnut burr choked old Pang to death. / If you can swallow it right in broad daylight, / You are guaranteed to be peerless in all the world."