圓悟佛果禪師語錄 13

English (machine translation) 13

Language: English

13.1

Compiled by disciple Shaolong and others of Mount Huqiu, Pingjiang Prefecture, Song dynasty

Having received the imperial decree at Qianming in Gaoyou to reside at Longyou Monastery on Mount Jin, during the informal gathering that evening, a monk asked: "Vividly distinct and openly manifested—why can heaven and earth not contain it?" The Master said: "The octagonal staff in the hands of Vajrapāṇi." The monk continued: "If upon a single call it immediately responds, does that count as coming alive?" The Master said: "Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana are helpless." The monk continued: "Not falling into illumination, not falling into function—how should this be discussed?" The Master said: "Lower the tops of the clouds." The monk continued: "When suddenly encountering someone within it, how does one act?" The Master said: "Riding the Buddha shrine out of the triple gate." The monk continued: "The myriad phenomena do not approach, and he speaks alone; whom will you lead by the hand up to the high peak?" The Master said: "You have applied the name and words mistakenly." The Master then said: "The patriarchal mind-seal is like the dynamic of an iron ox; the secret words of all Buddhas are like beating the poisoned drum. Before one even begins to deliberate, one has already missed it; as soon as one thinks, one is separated by a thousand mountains. One must have eyes like shooting stars and a heart like iron and stone. Therefore, from the past down to the present, in upholding the transcendent essential lineage, there are only three phrases: sometimes biting off, sometimes biting hold; sometimes resolutely not going, sometimes resolutely not staying. A clear-eyed person has no fixed nest. If we speak of battle, each relies on their strength at the turning point: overcoming objects is superior, chasing objects is inferior. One must block the pathway of ordinary and sacred, without leaving a hair's breadth; thereafter, lifting a single hair encompasses the boundless ocean of fragrant water, opening thoroughly in all directions, and speaking a single phrase exhausts the dragon palace and fills the ocean treasury. Yet this is still talk of the ultimate principle, not yet the patch-robed monk's true grasp. If we speak of the patch-robed monk's enjoyment: even if sticks fall like rain and shouts rush like thunder, standing in the lower ranks of the thousand sages or standing on the crown of Vairocana's head, striking flint sparks and flashing lightning—swift hawks and falcons still cannot catch up with him. One must rectify all knowledge and views and reveal the great liberation, fully clear and unobstructed, thoroughly penetrating and free. Then in heaven one conforms to heaven, on earth one conforms to earth; things conform to things, self conforms to self. Realizing all wisdom and clarifying all paths, there is nowhere that does not accommodate, no dynamic that is not completely realized. Right at this moment, each of you, reflect back upon your own lot: has it ever shifted by even a hair's breadth? This is what is called the complete interpenetration of the ten periods and perfect fulfillment in ten parts. And tell me: how do you express the phrase that does not fall into dynamic circumstances? Face to face, one must rely on the genuine eye of the lineage; confronting the dynamic, cut off all traces of sacred and ordinary."

13.4

At the informal gathering upon entering the monastery: "The Vajra King jewel sword cuts off hidden workings; the genuine eye of Maheśvara swallows all the patriarchs with its radiance. Discerning the dynamic to a minute fraction, bringing up one and clarifying three, turning left and wheeling right, boring through in all directions—one must indeed be a man who is unfazed by the wind, untouched by water, impenetrable to a needle, joyful and free, before one can attain this. If one is superficial and unsteady, still clinging to sights and sounds, still involved in forms and voices, speaking of the wondrous and the mysterious, citing the present and the past, stepping forward and stepping back, striking the chair and raising the whisk, wielding the staff and administering shouts, it will have nothing to do with it. Only when stripped naked and laid bare—is there anyone who meets with this? If there is, it must be a fellow traveler along the Way who knows the affairs of fellow travelers; if not a fellow traveler, in the end it comes to nothing. Right at this moment, do you understand thoroughly? Gathering from the ten directions without any extraneous concern, together we walk along the road of Caoxi." Then he recited a verse: "The genuine eye lies across the crown of the head; / The divine talisman hangs behind the elbow. / Fortunately, being lion cubs, / Each roars the lion's roar."

13.5

At an informal gathering, a monk asked: "When the Arhat does not borrow, how is it?" The Master said: "That fellow attains freedom." The monk continued: "If pointed out, it is not reached; once reached, it is not pointed out." The Master said: "The same for that as for this." The monk continued: "This is still not the place where the student settles his body and establishes his life." The Master said: "Only the Ācārya is one step higher." The monk continued: "I already know that the Venerable wishes to use this dynamic." The Master said: "Seen through by the Ācārya as well." The monk continued: "Getting older and older, you increasingly show your foolishness." The Master said: "What did you say?" The monk continued: "It must not be let pass either." The Master said: "It is rather you who are acting foolishly." The Master then said: "A fine day brings much shared joy, and the ten directions all respond; a good root brings much concurrence, and thousands of divergences run on the same track. Even if dragons roar and mists rise, tigers howl and winds blow, all eight directions are fully lucid and clear, and a single region stands exceptionally steep and precipitous—this is still what everyone knows they have within their own lot. As for the rest who do not know they have it, they are as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. How can they be brought together? How can they investigate it? If anyone can make progress without contrivance, try bringing it forth for us to see; if anyone has attained verification without deliberation, try analyzing and discerning it for us to see. If you can analyze and discern it, it is just like the Dragon Maiden offering the jewel at the assembly on Vulture Peak and instantly attaining Buddhahood. The maiden said, 'I offered the precious jewel, and the World-Honoured One accepted it; was this swift or not?' Wisdom Accumulation said, 'This was extremely swift.' The Dragon Maiden said, 'With your supernatural power, watch me attain Buddhahood even swifter than this!' Even so, there are still tracks and paths. If it is the fundamental practice and fundamental realization, one must let it go three thousand miles further. Right at such a time, what is ultimately the solid ground? The Bhagavan of the ten directions—the single road to the gate of nirvāṇa."

13.6

At the request of Congyi Li, [the Master] held an informal gathering. A monk asked, "What is it like when one asks neither about the spoken nor about the unspoken?" The Master said, "Its sound is like thunder." The monk asked further, "Why is it like this?" The Master said, "Only because the deaf do not hear." The monk asked further, "What can be done about the five notes and six pitches being so very distinct?" The Master said, "What do you hear, Ācārya?" The monk said, "I have never had ears." The Master said, "You must also recognise what is on your lips." The Master then said: "'A single phrase cuts off all error; for thousands of miles there is no news. A single speck of dust contains the Dharma realm; a thousand layers and a hundred coils are overly enclosed.' If one is a person of clear eyes, in the end one does not seek before one's eyes. Why so? If one seeks before one's eyes, this person does not yet possess the eye; if one seeks further within phrases, one falls into the eighth mechanism. Since one neither seeks within phrases nor searches before one's eyes, tell me: how can one align with it? Just consider: across mountains, across peaks, across the Floating Banner King, across the Fragrant Water Ocean—is there still such a matter over on that side, or not? If you say there is, across so much distance, how do you know there is? If you say there is not, then the Buddha Dharma would have boundaries. If you say it is neither existent nor non-existent, that is precisely being half in front and falling behind. Even if you transcend both existence and non-existence, you cannot avoid taking the staff in Jinshan's hand. If suddenly a patch-robed monk stepped forward and said, 'It is not so: it is like a dragon gaining water, like a tiger leaning against a mountain.' Even if your whole body were eyes, you could not see him; even if your whole body were a tongue, you could not describe him. Tell me: where in the end does he land? If one did not shoot the stone tiger at Lantian, one would almost have brought about General Li's death in vain."

13.7

The Master said: "If you wish to attain intimacy, first of all do not bring anything forth. If you bring it forth, it will not resemble it. When I tell you, 'standing like a wall ten thousand cubits high,' you come back just as before, bumping into walls and striking barricades—how is there any approaching it? Even so, this is already falling into the weeds. I cannot help but follow error with error and speak entangled vines at the secondary level. Do you know? Directly below, it is just like drawing a single sword right in the doorway: with chilling awe and majesty, the moment one steps across the threshold, who dares approach? If you come near it, you lose your body and life; if you look at the precipice and retreat, you are no great hero. You must disregard life and death and snatch it from his hands before you can succeed. Therefore it is said: 'If you do not enter the tiger's den, you cannot get the tiger's cub.' Right before you, you must disregard life itself. If you snatch the sword into your own hands, even if a Buddha comes, you will not spare him. Even if it is like this, it is already the secondary level. Have you not seen Zifu say: 'If you see Zifu's flagpole from across the river and turn back, you deserve thirty blows under your heels'? Muzhou, as soon as he saw a monk coming, would say: 'A ready-made gong'an!' Immediately following, he would say: 'I release you from thirty blows.' With cases like these, how is there any approaching them? Yet when examined closely, they do not fail to cut clean through, sparing one from speaking of the mysterious and marvelous, of principle and phenomena, of the transcendent and descendant, which defile the mind-field. You must know that within each person's lot there is a matter that blazes across past and present, far transcending views and knowledge, stripped bare and stark naked, originally without so many varieties. It is only because you people, from time without beginning, have had thick delusions, turning your backs on yourselves and only seeking from others. If you can reverse the light to illumine inward, there is no second person, and in the end you will not follow another's rising and ceasing. If you attain liberation in one place, you instantly break through in thousands and hundreds of places. Do not merely listen to others' directions on the tips of their tongues; hearing a slight mention, you prick up your ears and walk away—already you are three thousand miles away, having no connection at all. If you attain the functioning within, then you will share the same plumage, becoming a person of his household. Even if there is such a person, he must still swallow his breath and hold his voice in this mountain monk's hands before he can succeed. You must bring down your cloud-head and take all that you have known and understood throughout your life, setting it down before a kalyāṇamitra. If it is right, he will verify it for you; if it is not, he will chop it away for you. Have you not seen: when Yaoshan visited Shitou, he posed a question, saying: 'I roughly know the three vehicles and twelve divisions of the teachings. I have truly heard that in the south they point directly to the human mind, seeing one's nature and becoming a Buddha. I have truly not clarified this; I beg the master for instruction.' Shitou said: 'Being so will not do; not being so will not do; both being so and not being so will not do at all.' Yaoshan did not connect with it, so he went straight to Great Master Ma in Jiangxi and asked as before. Master Ma said: 'Sometimes I have him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes; sometimes I do not have him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes. Sometimes having him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes is right; sometimes having him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes is not right.' Yaoshan thereupon had an awakening. Ma said: 'What principle did you see?' Yaoshan said: 'When I was at Shitou's, it was like a mosquito biting an iron ox.' Nowadays, the brothers in the assembly say: 'Shitou consistently stood like a wall ten thousand cubits high, which is why he did not understand; Mazu opened a line of leeway, so he attained awakening.' Little do they know that Shitou speaking like that was already letting things leak out; where Mazu spoke, this move was even more lethal. Why was it that Yaoshan attained awakening? Tell me: why was it so? To reach this point, one must be a fellow cast of pig iron before one can succeed. Therefore it is said: 'This matter is not in speech, not in writing.' Look at how he set up a question and asked Shitou, and when he reached Mazu, he asked in the same way—this person had a body and mind of iron and stone. Nowadays, if there were someone with such a mind, why worry that he would not penetrate through? If you only seek words, phrases, the mysterious, and the marvelous, when will there ever be an end? Thousands and myriads of people each speak differently; which phrase would you take to be right? If you have seen the Way, what further use do you have for words and phrases? If you do not use words and phrases, how do you see it? Arriving here, your inquiry must be true inquiry, your awakening must be true awakening, causing it to penetrate through top and bottom, extending through antiquity and modernity; open your own storehouse and transport out your own family treasure for relief—do not just search outside. If you can press through a single path, then you will be a fellow practitioner with me. If you merely cling to this luminous alertness, barking and shouting, raising eyebrows and blinking eyes—this is an even greater illness. Therefore it is said: 'This matter is hidden within the four elements and six sense faculties; the six sense faculties and four elements are merely idle fixtures.' Hence it is said: 'Birth is like putting on a robe; death is like taking off trousers. The six sense faculties and four elements are merely robes and trousers.' Tell me: what kind of person is the one wearing them? Tell me: who is wearing them?" He then gave a shout and said: "Could it be this?" He further said: "Mistaken! Therefore the ancients said: 'Body and mind are one suchness; outside the body there is nothing remaining. The entire cosmos and great earth are just the original mind; the entire mountain and river and great earth—not even a single pinch of dust is wanted.' Since nothing is wanted, tell me: where do you establish body and life? Arriving here, you must have a single path of vital function before you can succeed. If you are not like this, if you say Buddha, you cling to Buddha; if you say Patriarch, you cling to Patriarch. You must be like a single flake of snow on a red-hot stove before you can succeed. Just go beneath your robes and cushion, let it be like cold ashes and dead fire, with neither worldly dharmas nor Buddha Dharma needing any thought. Do not fear falling into emptiness; do not fear being like earth, wood, tile, or stone. If you fear falling into emptiness, just consider: the mind that worries about falling into emptiness—what is it? When did it ever fall into emptiness? If you truly cease to the place of genuine rest, neither Buddhas nor Patriarchs are established, and the Dharma gates of thousands and myriads of sages are all penetrated at once. How could this not be direct and swift?"

13.8

The Master said: 'If you take it up just like this and shoulder the burden, you can encompass past and present; the universe and great earth will be penetrated through top and bottom, stark naked and cleanly bare. And yet this is not your seeing, hearing, awareness, or knowing, nor form, sound, smell, taste, or touch; the entire universe and great earth is simply the body of the true person—why talk of seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing? The moment you step through the gate, it has already been handed over with both hands, without the slightest omission. You must know that the transcendent path does not establish words or speech; yet since it does not establish words or speech, how can it be made clear? Therefore it is said: "Meeting a person who has attained the Way on the road, do not face them with speech or silence." And it is also said: "Meeting together, do not bring it out; as soon as a thought arises, one already knows it is there." You must also penetrate to the bones and marrow, have utter faith and clear seeing, and only then will you make it clear in all the worlds of the ten directions upon the tip of a single hair. If you are obstructed by views and knowledge, there will be buddhas and patriarchs, which is why one enters the vines and entanglement of the gate of establishing conversion. When the Patriarch came from the West, he did not establish words, but pointed directly to the human mind to see one's nature and become a buddha; discussing direct pointing to the human mind requires someone of that caliber to begin with. If phrases and statements are established, even up to hundreds of thousands of billions of skillful means, their intention is solely to untie entanglements and release bonds for people, causing them to be stark naked and shine brilliantly throughout past and present, with truly none of these varied calculations. Do you not see: when Wuxie visited Shitou, he asked: "If in a single word we harmonize, I shall stay; if not, I shall leave." Shitou paid him no heed; Wuxie then shook his sleeves and walked off. When he reached the triple gate, Shitou called out to him: "Acārya!" Wuxie turned his head, and Shitou said: "From birth to old age it is just this; why turn your head and twist your brain again?" At this Wuxie had an awakening. Were it this mountain monk, I would not have called to him then; I would have let him bear his board and miss an entire lifetime. It was only out of compassion trailing in the weeds that [Shitou] acted thus. Just as all of you here, sitting and standing solemnly: from birth to old age it is just this; what more do you doubt? Therefore it is said: "To practice Chan one must be an iron fellow; when taking action, make the decision right in the heart; head straight for unsurpassed bodhi and pay no mind to any right or wrong." You must have no thoughts arising and have the front and back limits severed; as soon as struck, you immediately see—why wait for someone else to call out to you? Truly it is hammered into a single whole, like water poured into water, like gold traded for gold. Since the ancients were like this, when you listen from the mouths of the elders, tell me: is there a real Dharma? Is there no real Dharma? If there is a real Dharma, it binds people; if there is not, why have they established so many gates of skillful means from times past? It is only to make everyone see their nature. If you truly see your own nature, what does it have to do with seeing, hearing, awareness, knowing, thinking, and deliberation? When Chan Master Hui of Dongsi was teaching and transforming the Jing-Hu region, Chancellor Cui went out to govern Hunan. While the Master was afflicted with an eye ailment, Cui asked: "What is the matter of the lineage vehicle?" The Master said: "Seeing one's nature and becoming a buddha." Cui said: "What can be done about your afflicted eyes?" The Master said: "Seeing nature is not the eyes; what fault is there in red eyes?" Now tell me: since seeing nature is not the eyes, what do you see with? Hearing nature is also not the ears; tell me, what do you hear with? And so it is with the nose smelling scents, the tongue discerning tastes, the body feeling tangibles, and the mind grasping objects—every single one is like this. If you make it clear here, you will make it clear everywhere. Therefore Master Xuefeng said: "The entire great earth is a gate of liberation, but pulling you by the hand, you refuse to enter." He also said: "Gather up the entire great earth and it is the size of a millet grain. Hurled in front of your faces, you black lacquer buckets do not understand. Strike the drum and summon everyone for general labor to look; what other mysterious and wondrous seeing, hearing, awareness, or knowing is there?" Only in this way can mind and environment be as one, with neither subject nor object, only the one self-mind, with no other thing besides. A person who has attained it never says "I know" or "I understand"; meeting rice, they eat rice; meeting tea, they drink tea; all day long they just abide in leisurely rest, because in their chest there are none of these turbulent calculations. Therefore it is said: "If the mind has no concerns, the ten thousand dharmas are as one, without gain and without loss." All day long, simply tread this single plot of land; whenever anyone comes with questions, just sever this matter in a single instant. Therefore it is said: "Seeing must be true seeing; awakening must be true awakening." An ancient said: "Performing tricks atop a hundred-foot pole is not yet dangerous; failing to clarify the great matter beneath the monk's robes and losing the human body—that is what is truly dangerous." Since it is like this, how could one not clarify the mind and penetrate the origin, letting go of all ten thousand conditions at once, casting aside views, knowledge, understanding, and comprehension, making oneself like wood, stone, tiles, and rubble? When you reach the place of great peace and resting, then as soon as a single wave moves, ten thousand waves follow, yet originally there are no marks of motion or stillness. Those who have attained it, throughout the day, with a mind of non-attainment, cultivate practices of non-attainment; though their conduct is the same as other people, it is constantly different from other people. It is only because this single plot of land has been cleared and swept completely clean; all is harmoniously unified and the whole body is unhindered. How could this be a small matter? You must genuinely apply yourself to the task to attain it.'

13.9

The Master said: "Everyone is fully endowed; each and every one is complete and perfected. Only seek within yourself; do not search outside. Why? What is sought outside belongs to another's house; casting aside oneself to follow others takes one far from the Way. You must know that within your own lot there is an affair that radiates brilliantly through past and present, like ten suns shining together. Yet, because from beginningless kalpas your delusive thoughts have been thick and dense, screening and obscuring your own mind, the moment you look back, all is utter darkness; but when it comes to worldly knowledge and views, all kinds of sounds and forms, the moment they appear before you, you understand everything clearly. Is this not turning your back on awakening and uniting with dust, seeking from others, and being unable to reflect back the light? Moreover, what affair is made clear by the Buddhas and patriarchs from antiquity who used countless hundreds of thousands of verbal expressions and expedient means? It is simply because you give rise to views, give rise to thoughts, give rise to conceptual deliberations, display cleverness, and calculate, thereby confusing your original self, and bringing about the establishment of subject and object, manifestation and wisdom, right and wrong, in tangled confusion unable to attain liberation. Therefore, when the Buddhas and patriarchs appear in the world, they merely wish to have you bring knowledge and views to rest, sweeping them away until not a single speck of thread remains. And tell me: how are they to be brought to rest? Directly like letting go your hands over a sheer cliff, casting down your body and surrendering your life—cast aside seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing; cast aside bodhi, nirvāṇa, tathatā, and liberation; whether pure or defiled, cast them aside all at once, letting yourself be stark naked and unburdened. Naturally, upon hearing one thing you will awaken to a thousand, directly taking charge of it from this point onward. Then turning back to look at the functioning of the Buddhas and patriarchs, it is not two and not different from your own; even in the bustling marketplace, where the four classes of people are clamorously trading and doing business, right down to the wind whistling and the birds calling—all are not different from yourself. Only then are Buddha and sentient beings one, afflictions and bodhi one, mind and objects one, light and darkness one, right and wrong one, and even the thousands of differences and myriads of distinctions are all one. Only then can you churn the great river into ghee and transform the great earth into yellow gold, blending everything entirely into a single whole, and even 'one' is not established. Then, walking is walking, sitting is sitting, putting on robes is putting on robes, and eating food is eating food. Like a bright mirror set upon its stand, when a barbarian comes a barbarian appears, and when a Chinese comes a Chinese appears: originally making no calculations, yet ready-made everywhere. Therefore, though ten thousand dynamic opportunities suddenly arrive, they do not perturb one's spirit; though a thousand varied difficulties confront one, they do not disturb one's concerns. How could this be measured by the crude and shallow views of the worldly? This is the most wondrous cause and condition: students of the Way, who for ten or twenty years concentrate their minds with single-minded focus, still fail to penetrate it; yet some understand upon barely hearing it, while others awaken on their own without a master. Since you cannot awaken immediately on your own, you cannot hinder others either. Among them, it is especially difficult for literati officials, because they are engaged in worldly affairs and toil for family and state, so their awakening and entry are somewhat difficult. Yet those who attain it are originally no different in their own lot; if one has not yet resolved it, one must have sharp natural faculties, looking down at the base of one's own heels to resolve it upon hearing a single word. For example, Prince Consort Li paid attention to the ancestral Way, befriended Yang Wengong, and polished his understanding day and night. Later, he met Chan Master Shimen Cizhao, who brought up for him: 'Tang Prime Minister Fang Ru asked Chan Master Guoyi of Jingshan: "Ultimately, what is the intended meaning of the ancestral master's Great Way?" Jingshan said: "This is the affair of a great hero, not something generals and prime ministers can accomplish."' Li had a great awakening upon hearing this and then composed a verse: 'To study the Way one must be an iron fellow; / Taking action, the mind instantly decides. / Heading directly toward unsurpassed bodhi, / Pay no heed to all rights and wrongs.' What he said is indeed quite extraordinary. Moreover, going out as a general and entering as a prime minister, pacifying the state and establishing its dynastic enterprise, cutting down violence and chaos—is that not a great hero? Why then did Jingshan say instead: 'This is the affair of a great hero, not something generals and prime ministers can accomplish'? You must know that the transcendent path does not allow a single hair. Therefore Dongshan said: 'Only when you see the Buddhas and patriarchs as mortal enemies will you have a share in study and inquiry.' But the Buddhas and patriarchs are teachers of all people and the refuge for all people—why then say 'as mortal enemies'? Tell me, what is the affair of a great hero? One must directly refrain from taking instructions from others, avoid being caged by others, refuse to be bound by others, cast off all tracks and ruts, be solitary and companionless, towering and imposing, striding alone through the three realms, luminous and thoroughly penetrated, without desire and without dependence, attaining great autonomy, entirely free of the slightest emotional understanding of the Buddhadharma, like a fool or a dullard, like wood or stone, not distinguishing south from north, not discerning cold from warmth, murky and silent, resembling someone completely incompetent and entirely devoid of understanding. And yet inside, one is truly sharp and upright; the moment one is touched, the eyes gleam brightly, with nothing left unclear, right down to instantly penetrating the myriad distinctions of the ancient masters' verbal expressions. If one has not yet reached this stage, one must reach into the bag of curiosities to lower the high and raise the low for their sake. For instance, in the past Prime Minister Yu Di went out to garrison Xiangyang; his punishments were cruel and vicious, and all who crossed him were executed. Because he had a doubt while reading the Avalokiteśvara Sūtra, one day he visited Chan Master Daotong of Mount Ziyu and asked: 'What does it mean: "If a black wind blows its ship and vessel, causing it to drift and fall into the land of the rākṣasa demons"?' Ziyu raised his voice and said: 'Yu Di, you hired labourer! Why do you ask about such things?' Hearing this, Yu was enraged. Ziyu then said: 'Just this is the black wind blowing its ship and vessel, causing it to drift and fall into the land of the rākṣasa demons.' Yu Di had an awakening. Tell me, when he asked Ziyu like that, why did Ziyu answer him in that way? This was to trigger his fundamental ignorance to appear before him, directly pointing it out on the spot—truly the work of an expert hand! Yet, it would not have been as good as saying nothing afterward at that moment, letting him be hacked in two, which would have had some of the flavor of a patch-robed monk. As for breaking it down and clarifying it for him, that was merely stroking him down following his lead. In general, there are three modes of potential in guiding people: If one guides someone with the first mode of potential, one need only say to him: 'Yu Di, you hired labourer! Why do you ask about such things?' There are no further expedients; it is simply devoid of conceptual meaning and difficult to discuss. If one takes charge of it directly right here without entertaining any deliberations, then it is no different from the cypress tree, the three pounds of flax, or swallowing all the waters of the West River in a single gulp. Therefore it is said: 'When it is brought up, if you do not look directly, you go astray; if you calculate and deliberate, in what kalpa will you awaken?' It only wants you to grasp and understand it head-on. If one guides someone with the second mode of potential, that is easy: it is merely opening up the question, as in saying: 'Yu Di, you hired labourer! Why do you ask about such things?' This triggers his fundamental ignorance, causing his ignorance to manifest before him, and then points it out on the spot. If one guides someone with the third mode of potential, one cannot avoid entering the mud and water to append further commentary, as in saying: 'Calling Yu Di a hired labourer is letting loose the black wind blowing the ship. Yu Di's becoming angry is the rākṣasas appearing. Ziyu saying: "This is precisely the black wind blowing the ship"—is this not the manifestation of Avalokiteśvara?' This is commentary fallen into the grass, blinding people's eyes and destroying the seed of the Barbarian. If one is a true patch-robed monk, one must sweep it away completely. Have you not heard it said: 'He studies the living phrase, not the dead phrase. If you understand on the living phrase, you become the teacher of Buddhas and patriarchs.' For instance, when Li Wanjuan asked Venerable Guizong: 'Leaving aside Mount Sumeru containing a mustard seed, what is a mustard seed containing Mount Sumeru?' Guizong said: 'Your body is the size of a coconut; where are the ten thousand volumes of books placed?' That old fellow Guizong usually struck Buddhas and patriarchs with a plain staff, but when Li Wanjuan asked him, he could not help but accommodate human feelings and open up a crack. Yet his functioning was also merely to make you cut it off head-on. Later, those without understanding among the assembly said: 'The mustard seed is the mind, and Sumeru is the ten thousand volumes; what could be wrong with containing them within the mind?' If the Buddhadharma were merely like this, how could it have survived to this day? Furthermore, when Layman Pang asked Great Master Mazu: 'What kind of person is it who does not take the ten thousand dharmas as companion?' Great Master Mazu said: 'Wait until you swallow all the waters of the West River in a single gulp, then I will tell you.' The layman attained great awakening and composed a verse: 'From the ten directions we gather together, / Each and every one studying non-action. / This is the arena for selecting Buddhas; / The mind emptied, passing the examination, one returns.' Did this verse ever match the topic of swallowing all the waters of the West River in a single gulp? He mentioned neither mouth nor water, only saying 'the mind emptied, passing the examination, one returns.' And tell me: what is an emptied mind? It only wants you to integrate right and wrong, gain and loss, light and darkness, form and emptiness, and the myriad phenomena all at once into a single principle, and then empty out even that principle along with it; only then will there be some true direction. Tonight the mountain monk has not spared his eyebrows to vomit it all out for you at once. I shall speak another small gāthā for everyone: 'The Buddhas and patriarchs individually transmit the transcendent dynamic, / Which cannot be caught in a spark of flint or a flash of lightning. / It is granted only to those whose faculties are sharp and unbound: / With the diamond jewel sword, they cut it off head-on.'"

13.10

The Master said: "The Way is reached through awakening; the Dharma is separate from seeing and hearing. Taking charge of it directly, there is no second one. This is still an expedient lowering of hands to accommodate the present age. If it were the fundamental lot, it would not be like this at all; therefore it is said: 'Before you step over the gunwale of the boat, you deserve thirty blows of the staff.' In this way, thousands and tens of thousands of miles are cut off all at once. Why? You must know that within each person's lot, there is that which water cannot wet and wind cannot blow into, utterly clear and pure, pristine and spotless, which Buddhas and patriarchs cannot reach and māras and non-Buddhists cannot enter, cutting off the vital crossing and admitting neither ordinary nor sage. Even if all the grasses, trees, and forests of the great earth were transformed into patch-robed monks, each putting forth hundreds and thousands of difficult questions, it would not take a single prick to make them all swallow their voices, hold their breath, with eyes staring blankly and mouths agape. Now, having no alternative, giving rise to views where there are no views and giving rise to speech where there is no speech, I temporarily open a season for you all. Within the lot of ordinary people, coming up and going down is already completely ready-made; what is lacking, that you come to seek it from others? Therefore Xuansha said: 'Sitting inside a grain basket with hands outstretched, asking people for food to eat.' It is only because, having abandoned your home for so long over beginningless kalpas, you have run contrary to this fundamental lot, delusively transmigrating in the realms of the six dusts, unable to reverse the light to illumine inward, willingly abiding in the lower streams. If you can possess superior roots and sharp wisdom, return to the origin and trace back to the source, and know this matter—which radiates brilliantly through past and present, transcending knowledge and views, cutting off the ten directions without further transmigration—only then will you have a share in speaking. Now you must change your bones before you can see this patch of ground; if you have not yet recognized this patch of ground, even if you understand the affair of the Buddhas and patriarchs, answering ten questions when asked one, in the end there is no relevance. You must know that the Buddhas appearing in the world solely verify this patch of ground, and the ancestral master coming from the West also solely upholds this patch of ground. Therefore, when our late teacher saw Master Baiyun and saw through it in a single glance, he composed a verse saying: 'A patch of idle land before the mountain; / With hands folded, I carefully inquire of the ancestral grandfather. / How many times has it been sold and bought back again, / Only out of love for the pines and bamboos drawing a clear breeze!' Have you people ever been like this or not? You must go to this patch of ground, stark naked and unburdened, before you can enter into action."

13.11

General Discourse

13.12

At an announced incense general discourse, the Master instructed the assembly, saying: “If you can directly undertake just this, it is like heaven covering all and earth upholding all, lacking not a single hairsbreadth, nor is there any second view. Even if all the boundless oceans of fragrant water and every land in every dust mote were threaded through the nostrils at once, it would never fall elsewhere. But if you deliberate and hesitate, you have no connection to it at all. Therefore it is said: ‘When not a single thought arises and the limits of before and after are severed, that is named Buddha.’ If you involve yourself in deliberation and calculate, distinguishing subject and object and forming intellectual understanding, then you are thousands and tens of thousands of miles away. In the school of the ancestral masters, seeing must be real seeing, awakening must be real awakening, and realization must be real realization. Each of you possesses a luminous, wondrous nature. Speaking truly, the moment you are pressed you fall into a panic. How can you see it intimately, trust it thoroughly, and have the bottom of the tub fall out? It is only because your delusive thoughts have been heavy from beginningless eons, lingering only in the realms of the sense dusts, never once stepping upon your original home-ground scenery or clearly seeing your original face. If you are a genuine person, you directly undertake it, fully knowing that birth is fundamentally unarisen and that death is fundamentally without dying. Facing this place of no-birth and no-death, a thousand sages fix their eyes but cannot glimpse it, and a thousand-armed Great Compassionate One cannot lift it up. Now, if you brothers can reverse the light, there is no second person; then you need not wait for this mountain monk to enter the mud and water two or three times without sparing his eyebrows, much less toss sand and scatter dirt, speaking of mind and nature, which inevitably falls into confusion and deceives you to your face. Have you not seen the Venerable Master Pozhaoduo (‘Broken Stove Fallen’)? Hearing that an ancient shrine was causing mischief, he led eighteen disciples into the mountain to view it. There was no divine image at all, only a three-room vacant hut and an earthen stove. Striking it with his staff, he said: ‘You are compounded originally of mud and earth—from where does your numinous efficacy come? From where does your holiness arise?’ The stove then collapsed with a swoosh. Pozhaoduo said: ‘Broken, broken! Fallen, fallen! Without needing paper money.’ Later, a spirit came forth and said: ‘I was the stove god. Thanks to your preaching the Dharma of no-birth, I have already attained rebirth in heaven.’ He bowed in gratitude and departed. The eighteen disciples then addressed the master: ‘We have served and attended upon you for a long time, but have never received your instruction on the Dharma of no-birth. What good fortune had the stove god today that you preached it for him?’ Pozhaoduo said: ‘I only said to him: “You are compounded originally of bricks, tiles, mud, and earth—from where does your numinous efficacy come? From where does your holiness arise?”’ His disciples all bowed, and Pozhaoduo said: ‘Broken, broken! Fallen, fallen!’ The eighteen disciples all attained awakening. Now, as this mountain monk raises the whisk right here, tell me: is this the same as or different from Pozhaoduo?” He then said: “Broken, broken! Fallen, fallen! If you see it, you will not only not fail the Venerable Master Pozhaoduo, but also not fail the ancestral masters of the lineage. If you do not see it, you will not only fail the Venerable Master Pozhaoduo, but also fail yourself. Knowing that this matter exists, it is not obtained from another. Therefore it is said: ‘From where does your numinous efficacy come? From where does your holiness arise?’ Take all of you: your present bodies are formed from the blood and qi of your parents. If within them you recognize the luminous, wondrous nature, then whether ordinary or sage, your faculty of mind cannot be found at all. Within there is no seeing, hearing, perceiving, or knowing; outside there are no mountains, rivers, or great earth. In ordinary times you wear clothes and eat food, without anything extraordinary. Therefore it is said: ‘If I turn toward the mountain of knives, the mountain of knives collapses of itself; if I turn toward hell, hell is of itself annihilated.’ Only then do you know that there is such spiritual penetration and such sovereignty. Why do present-day Chan monks not reverse the light to illumine inward and clearly realize it through and through? If you have not yet realized it clearly, then under the three eaves and before the seven-foot mat, investigate it silently! Have you not seen Master Yunmen say: ‘You divine here and divine there; perhaps suddenly you will divine it right!’ If you open your own treasury, bring out your own family wealth to relieve all beings, and make beginningless delusive thoughts instantly empty and devoid of a trace, how delightful that would be! In the past, this old monk suffered from a burning fever and died for a whole day; looking ahead, the road was pitch black and I did not know where I was going. Gaining revival, I was terrified by the matter of birth and death, and so aroused the mind to travel on foot, seeking out teachers of the Way to investigate this matter thoroughly. First I arrived at Dagui to study with Venerable Zhenru. All day long I sat silently facing the wall, turning the ancient masters’ gong'ans over and over. After about a year, I suddenly had a place of awakening; however, it was only recognizing a clear and numinous functioning before the donkey and behind the horse, merely making an activity within the four-element body. When pressed by someone, it was just as if I had no insight at all, simply because I was buried in the pit of liberation, with a belly full of Chan teachings: when looking at it from the Buddha-Dharma it was there, but when looking at it from worldly phenomena it was not. Later I went to Old Master Baiyun, who told me: ‘You have no insight at all.’ From then on, I had nothing to chew on whatsoever; troubled and distressed, I took my leave, yet the doubt in my heart gave me no peace. Later I went back up Mount Baiyun to study once more with my late teacher, who had me serve as his attendant. One day, an official was asking about the Way, and my late teacher said: ‘Sir! Have you not seen the line in the love poem: “She calls repeatedly for Xiaoyu though there is nothing to do; she only wants her lover to recognize her voice”?’ The official had not yet understood, but when this old monk heard it, the lacquered bucket suddenly broke open. Under my feet I intimately realized it; it fundamentally did not depend on anyone else. Only then did I trust that within heaven and earth, in the midst of the cosmos, there is a treasure hidden in the mountain of the form body, and that all the Buddhas appearing in the world and the ancestral masters coming from the west were only to make people realize this one matter. If you do not yet know it, and merely keep formulating concepts and views, glaring with open eyes and raised brows, you fundamentally do not know that this is just pressing on the eyes to produce flowers or wearing a cangue and carrying a deposition. How could you ever attain sovereign ease and peace, like a flake of snow on a red-hot furnace? If you break through, then whether shouting or slapping, everything is acceptable; yet ultimately you do not hold to such an understanding. Only then can you lay down the burden of self and others, cease and desist thousands of times, and only then can birth and death do nothing to you. You must truly arrive at this ground for it to count. If you truly arrive here, you can then expound the great cause and condition, establish the Dharma banner, extract nails and pull out pegs for everyone, and untie bonds and dissolve attachments. Rescuing thousands and tens of thousands in this way, you are like the golden-winged bird plunging into the sea to snatch the dragon directly and swallow it, or like the bodhisattvas entering the ocean of birth and death to fish out sentient beings and place them on the shore of bodhi. Only then does one lift all things, and one resolve all things. Sometimes a single shout is like the Vajra King jewel sword; sometimes a single shout is like a crouching lion; sometimes a single shout is like the sounding pole and shadow grass; sometimes a single shout does not function as a shout. Only then can you kill or bring to life with freedom, deploying them as the occasion demands, which is called: ‘I am the Dharma King, sovereign over the Dharmas.’ Since you have carried your bags and shouldered your bowls to visit good teachers everywhere, you already possess an invaluable treasure in your bosom; only toward this should you direct your study. My late teacher used to say: ‘Do not practice glass-bottle Chan, which shatters into a hundred pieces the moment someone gently touches it. In your practice, you must practice leather-skin Chan: even if hurled down from the top of a high peak, it suffers no damage; when the kalpa fire blazes, this of mine is not destroyed.’ If you are an adept of the fundamental lot and encounter one who bites pigs and dogs, let your hands and feet drop, lean your pack against the wall, and in ten or twenty years you are guaranteed to become a seamless whole. But how do you attain independent liberation? You must be a person who enters the stream to know such a matter.”

13.13

Recorded Sayings of Chan Master Yuanwu Foguo, Fascicle 13

Linked texts (1)

圓悟佛果禪師語錄 — Classical Chinese